The Cannes Film Festival opening night was reportedly interrupted by workers who protested near the red carpet over a labor dispute.
Tuesday’s opening night gala in Cannes, France, was protested by film festival staffers who “covertly stationed next to the red carpet, blew whistles, and held red Sous Les Écrans La Dèche placards” as the Cannes jury headed into the event, according to a report by Deadline.
Video footage of the protest was shared by the outlet, which added that French authorities briefly barred Deadline from filming the demonstration, telling a reporter, “Sometimes you’re allowed to film but sometimes not.”
Watch Below:
Festival workers protest during the #Cannes2025 opening ceremony.
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) May 13, 2025
Advocacy group Sous Les Écrans La Dèche are launching a fresh call to action over what they describe as precarious and unfair working conditions pic.twitter.com/PUscAmrIPO
The protest — which also managed to make its way to the roof of the convention center where the film festival was being held — was quickly shut down by “armed police,” Deadline reported.
The demonstrators were organized under an unofficial union called Sous Les Écrans La Dèche, which represents 300 film festival workers across France.
Cannes employees were reportedly protesting Tuesday’s launch of the film festival to raise awareness of their exclusion from a certain unemployment benefit due to being given flat short-term contracts.
Notably, staffers also protested last year’s Cannes Film Festival, and their main objectives this year remain the same: to be included in France’s unemployment insurance program for entertainment workers and technicians.
The program, called Intermittence de Spectacle, reportedly offers the industry’s workers — who have short-term contracts — taxpayer-funded unemployment benefits while they are between jobs.
But certain regulations have long excluded many French film festival employees from taking advance of the program’s offerings, given that their short term contracts are temporary, Deadline noted.
Cannes Film Festival kicked off on Tuesday, with Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry telling reporters she doesn’t know if James Bond “should be a woman,” adding that she doesn’t feel it is “the right thing to do.”
The festival is set to run until May 24.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
