Actors Riz Ahmed and Stellan Skarsgard will both miss next month’s Locarno Film Festival as a result of the SAG-AFTRA strike, while negotiations are ongoing for the participation of Cate Blanchett.
Ahmed was due to receive the Davide Campari Excellence award, but will no longer attend the festival. Locarno will still play the world premiere of Yann Demange’s short Dammi starring Ahmed on its opening night, and Bassam Tariq’s 2020 title Mogul Mowgli, starring and co-written by Ahmed.
Skarsgard has chosen to forgo his honorary Leopard Club award in solidarity with the strike. The award ceremony on August 4 and in-conversation session the following day have both been cancelled. Skarsgard will still attend the festival for the screening of Ran Huang’s crime drama What Remains, in which he stars.
The festival is still in discussions with the team of Noora Niasari’s Shayda regarding the participation of executive producer Cate Blanchett, who had planned to attend the festival prior to the strike.
Molly Gordon, co-director and actor in Searchlight Pictures’ Theater Camp, and actors Ben Platt and Noah Galvin will no longer attend the August 11 screening. Co-director Nick Lieberman will still attend.
“The Locarno Film Festival sees the ongoing strike as a sign of the problems troubling the contemporary film industry,” read a statement from the festival. “We support a constructive discussion and resolution between the parties involved and respectfully accept the decisions of our guests.”
The 76th Locarno Film Festival runs from August 2-12, and is one of the first major festivals to feel the effect of the actors strike. Earlier this week, Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera confirmed that the filmmakers and actors from Netflix titles including Maestro and The Killer will not be present at the September festival; discussions with SAG-AFTRA for exemptions for independent productions including A24’s Priscilla are ongoing.
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