Hollywood strike not stopping any Windsor International Film Festival plans

Organizers of the Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF) are confident this year’s event will proceed despite ongoing Hollywood strikes.

A call for 200 volunteers was issued this week while other upcoming international film festivals brace for drastic changes.

“We are rolling,” said WIFF Executive Director, Vincent Georgie.

“It's something that realistically, just because of our timing and a couple of dynamics that I'm not overly concerned for us,” Georgie explained. “Specifically that our colleagues at TIFF, at the Venice Film Festival and a Telluride Film Festival all go up about six weeks prior to us. So a lot of this type of stuff is, in my view, likely going to be resolved by that period of time. So our timing is actually really good.”

WIFF takes place from Oct. 26 to Nov. 5, with most local planning and preparation already well underway.

The Writers Guild of America walked off the job May 2 and was joined on the picket line Friday by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA.

“It's obviously a very, very tense labour negotiation no question. A lot at stake. But I think it'll be a busy summer for a lot of colleagues,” said Georgie.

“For us, the summer is our busiest planning time. Fall is more about starting to roll out our work,” Georgie explained to CTV News Windsor. “So people ask us in early fall, are you starting to get ready for festival? We've been at it for months.”

The Screen Actors Guild has made it clear that its members cannot do any promotions of their projects, including at film festivals during the strike, however Georgie is hopeful the labour dispute will be over by Labour Day weekend.

According to Georgie, the strike isn’t expected to limit which films are presented at WIFF, noting this is the 19th year for the annual event.

“It's not impacting the distribution side, really at all on our end. There is some concern about some of the major summer releases on the types of red carpets they’re able to do, but right now you're not going to see significant change just yet. And again, this is something that hopefully I would expect to resolve by Labor Day,” he said.

“We’re Canada's largest volunteer run film festival,” Georgie continued. “So we're looking to add members to our team for box office, for ticket taking, for a tech team to help with our parties and special events to help us set up and tear down.”

Anyone interested in volunteering for the 2023 Windsor International Film Festival has until Aug. 11 to apply and must be at least 18 years of age.

“It's Windsor made. It’s Windsor built. It was built by your friends and neighbors and I think we can all take a lot of pride in that. And I think that's actually the driving force behind why we get so many volunteers who want to volunteer at the festival. Obviously, it's a success,” explained Georgie.

He added, “It's a lot of fun, but I think people feel very proud to be a part of it and the best feedback we get from all of our visiting guests and our industry guests coming in the festival is they feel like Windsor has given them a big warm hug when they arrive at the festival and that's what we like to do.”