Thousands of French actors call for fair share of streaming profits

The day before the opening of the Cannes film festival, some 7,000 French actors called on streaming platforms for a more fair distribution of profits.

Echoing demands made by actors and screenwriters during the nearly four-month strike in Hollywood last year, French actors in an open letter published Sunday, are asking to be "compensated proportionally to the success of the work in which they collaborated".

Actors including André Dussollier, Karin Viard and Catherine Frot are asking for the application of a 2021 law based on a European directive passed three years before that intends for a framework to compensate actors for streaming rights, but which the signatories to the letter say platforms like Netflix and Prime Video appear to have forgotten.

“Legally the platforms are totally out of line. But we have the impression that they don’t care,” actor Anne Bouvier, president of the board of directors of the Adami performers’ rights association, which launched the open letter.

Streaming rights, which complement authors’ rights, can be much higher, but Bouvier said that currently actors only receive a one-time flat fee of about €1,000 to €1,500, even if a series or film is played a million times.

“If by good fortune the whole planet is glued to your series, not a single extra euro will be given to those who embody the success on screen,” wrote the authors of the text.

Read more on RFI English

Read also:
Cannes Film Festival workers call for strike ahead of opening
French stars Omar Sy and Eva Green part of 2024 Cannes Film Festival jury
Apple facing €1.8bn EU fine for breaking music streaming competition laws