It’s notable that these films did not have interim agreements in place, meaning that buyers are not bound by the terms SAG presented to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers that were rejected and are still major points of contention in the strike. Those terms include metrics for streaming residuals, something AMPTP members have so far shut down.
SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, speaking at an informal talk at TIFF on Sept. 8, did not give buyers hope of a quick resolution to the labor battling, saying the union had no indication that the AMPTP is “willing to come back to the table and talk with us.” Neon picked up two of Venice’s most talked-about titles, taking worldwide rights to Ava DuVernay’s critically acclaimed, a drama inspired by the life and work of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson and starring Aunjanue Ellis and Jon Bernthal, which Neon will bow across the U.S.