They had resisted the writers’ strike of 2007-2008, the covid pandemic. But not to the double strike of actors and screenwriters, which today paralyzes all of Hollywood. For the first time since the September 11 attacks, the Emmy awards will not take place in September and have been postponed. Nobody wants to throw a ghost party without a single star on the red carpet and on stage. The scriptwriters are also not authorized to write texts or jokes for the presenters of the ceremony. Suffice to say that the show, maintained under these conditions, would have been sadder than ever.
The American Television Oscars were originally scheduled for the weekend of September 9-10 for technical categories and Monday, September 18 for major sections. With no resolution in sight to get out of the crisis since the studios refuse to get back on the negotiating table with the guilds of actors and screenwriters, the organizers, producers and sellers of the ceremony have thrown in the towel.
A sign that no one expects a quick outcome – previous social movements have lasted on average three to five months – no replacement date has been announced. According to the specialized magazine Variety, the Fox channel which broadcasts the evening is studying a slot in January.
However, the voting procedures remain unchanged. The thousands of Academy voters will have to send in their ballots from August 17. The nominations, which drove the latest season of Succession, the zombie video game adaptation The Last Of Us and the Ted Lasso comedy, were revealed just hours before the cast joined the screenwriters on July 13. .
The unions’ demands focus on falling pay in the age of streaming and the threat artificial intelligence poses to their careers and future livelihoods.
The strike in Hollywood has shut down all US film and television productions, with a few exceptions for independent productions not covered by the collective bargaining agreement between major studios and broadcasters and the actors’ union. The independent studio A24, which accepted the guild’s conditions, was able to continue its productions. Notably David Lowery’s drama Mother Mary with Anne Hathaway. The Christian series The Chosen, which tells the life of Jesus, also obtained an exemption.
Fall festivals, such as the Venice Film Festival and the Deauville American Film Festival, hope to be able to benefit from such exceptions for feature film crews made outside of studios and platforms.
The double strike, if it continues, will not spare the race for the Oscars, all promotion and campaigning being prohibited. This could lead the studios to postpone certain feature films which were to be released in November-December. The behemoths of this summer, Barbie and Oppenheimer, were able to finish their promotional marathon, forced march just in time. But actors in those films won’t be able to take part in the ritual Q&A sessions and private screenings of an awards season.