In nationwide voting completed last week, members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) have overwhelmingly approved new three-year successor agreements to the 2006 SAG Television Commercials Contract and the ’06 AFTRA Television and Radio Commercials Contracts.
The memberships of AFTRA and SAG voted nearly 94 percent in favor of the new agreements. Approximately 132,000 members of the unions received ballots, with a 28 percent return rate.
The new agreements cover performers working in commercials made for and reused on television, radio, the Internet, and new media. Annual salary gains are estimated at a tick above five percent over the life of the contracts, a rate of increase that’s curtailed compared to Hollywood union contracts of just last year. The ad biz accords also establish a first-ever payment structure in commercials for the Internet and new media. The new payment structure goes into effect in the third year of the contract.
Additionally, the new contracts contain an agreement outlining terms for a pilot study to test the Gross Rating Points (GRP) model of restructuring compensation to principal performers, as proposed by Booz & Co. The two-year pilot study will be conducted by a jointly retained consultant engaged by the unions and the industry.
The new commercial pacts with the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies goes into effect retroactively to April 1, 2009, and will remain in force until March 31, 2012.
AFTRA and SAG members voted on the tentative agreement that had been reached with the advertising industry on March 31 and overwhelmingly recommended by the SAG-AFTRA Joint Board in a meeting on April 18. Ballots were mailed April 30 to all eligible members in good standing of either union.
Jane Schoenbrun Jolts Cannes With Queer Slasher Movie “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma”
"A good electric chair" is how Jane Schoenbrun describes their first Cannes Film Festival premiere.
"I really felt like my body was in a state of convulsion," says Schoenbrun.
The day after the premiere of "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma," a bold, bloody queer slasher film starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson, Schoenbrun and their co-stars were still buzzing from the ecstatic response. The movie, one of the most prominent American films in Cannes this year, gave the festival a gonzo jolt.
For Schoenbrun, the leading trans filmmaker of their generation, the film extends their intensely personal exploration of gender and the movies that defined their youth. But their first two films — 2024's "I Saw the TV Glow" and 2021's "We're All Going to the World's Fair" — were the raw, burning products of Schoenbrun's transition. "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma," drawn from Schoenbrun's happy, exploratory post-transition life, isn't that.
It's about desire and sex. It's a biting satire of reboot-mad Hollywood. It's a schlocky and subversive slasher movie homage. It's a lot of fun, and quite tender, even when bodies are blood-spurting geysers.
"This is the first movie that feels like it represents the fullness of who I am," Schoenbrun says.
But Wednesday's moment of triumph in Cannes was hard-won. Ten years ago, Schoenbrun, now 39, was working in the film industry in a job they hated.
"The first time I came here, I just felt like, 'Oh my, god. I can't believe I'm in Cannes.' I went to, like, 'The Lobster,' at the Palais in my boy tux. I was like: 'This is it. I've done it,'" says Schoenbrun. "Then the next year I came back and I was so depressed. I decided to quit my job. If I'm depressed at Cannes,... Read More