SAG-AFTRA Strike: British Acting Union Equity Provides Advice for Members Working in U.K. Under Different Contractshad its world premiere in Galway on July 14 and will next screen at Fantasia Festival in Canada before releasing on Sept. 1 in Ireland and the U.K. .The Grace Age – The Ballad of John MurrayMeanwhile, Galway’s industry arm, the Film Fair, boasted its biggest year ever, with an expanded program of events at the Galmont Hotel.
The Fair’s key business-focused Marketplace saw around 700 pre-scheduled speed dating-style meetings take place between filmmakers with either completed films or projects in development and financiers, distributors, sales agents, broadcasters, funds and producers from around the world. Attendees included the likes of Neon, BBC Film, Film4, StudioCanal, the BFI, Bankside, Altitude, HanWay, DogWoof, Magnolia Pictures, Protagonist, WestEnd and XYZ.
The Film Fleadh found itself briefly in the eye of the SAG-AFTRA strike storm last week after it became the first festival to be impacted by the industrial action.
The actor, who ran against SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher in the 2021 union leadership election in 2021, also posed with a banner expressing “solidarity” with the strike, and issued a lengthy statement — written while in Galway — in which he urged artists, filmmaker and industry professionals to “stand united” to create a “more just and inclusive landscape for generations to come.”