The ongoing strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists might slow the flow of American productions coming to the region, though they also present opportunities for local creatives.
"I think we are quieter than we would be," Tom Viinikka, CEO of the Edmonton Screen Industries Office, told Taproot. "But it's not directly because of the Americans; it's indirectly because of the Americans."
Edmonton is "nascent" as a destination for American-based productions that are governed by the two striking unions, Viinikka said. Ordinarily, those productions keep markets like Toronto and Vancouver busy to the point that the cities have to turn some projects away. So, Canadian filmmakers may be less likely to consider Edmonton right now because there is an excess of capacity in these better-established markets. But these factors haven't led to a severe drop-off in Edmonton — yet.
"Most of the stuff in 2022 was Canadian," Viinikka said. "The types of producers that film here are still, for the most part, filming. It hasn't affected us as directly."
The last major U.S. project to come here was The Last of Us in 2021. Though Edmonton had no confirmed American productions locked in leading up to the strikes, the disruption has slowed progress on enticing future projects to come to the region.
"In the last two years, we've done a ton of work to try to attract American production … we're still in early-stage growth mode," Viinikka said. "There's a likelihood that it should have been going up and doesn't because of the strike, but that's impossible to quantify."
But there's a silver lining. Edmonton-region film workers currently have better access to high-calibre talent who would be otherwise occupied on U.S. productions.
"Our local productions — I've heard, anecdotally — are able to hire people that they otherwise would have never been able to get, because they are off these other shows. And that's been something they've seen as positive," Viinikka said.
Viinikka attended both the Tribeca Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, where he had an Edmonton-made film to brag about. Hey Viktor! stars Edmonton's Cody Lightning, who also co-wrote and directed it, funded in part by the ESIO.
Hey Viktor!, a new movie by Cody Lightning (left), is an Edmonton-made film that has been getting festival attention during the American industry strikes. (Liam Mitchell)
Promoting the film has been a "life-saver," said Samuel Miller, a WGA member based in Los Angeles who co-wrote the film.
"All my friends are out of work. Every contract I have down here is on pause and hopefully coming back. But everybody else is trying to figure out what they're gonna do with their time, and I get to fly to these film festivals for this film," Miller told Taproot.
In Hey Viktor!, Lightning plays a somewhat manic version of himself trying to recapture the magic of the 1998 cult film Smoke Signals, in which he was a child actor. Lightning and Miller filmed the movie in and around Edmonton before the strikes kicked off.
Actors Adam Beach and Irene Bedard were both issued SAG-AFTRA exemptions to promote Hey Viktor! on the festival circuit, Miller said. WGA and SAG-AFTRA members are otherwise forbidden from promoting work for any struck company.
At Tribeca, Hey Viktor! was picked up for international sales by Visit Films. At TIFF, the team inked a domestic theatrical deal with levelFILM for next spring. A release on Crave, a funder for the film, will follow its Canadian theatrical run. Hey Viktor! will be part of the closing night gala at the Edmonton International Film Festival on Sept. 30.
The strikes have not been damaging to EIFF, artistic director Vincent Brulotte said before the festival kicked off on Sept. 21.
"We have had a couple of projects that have had to bail out," he said in an interview. "But I believe for this year we don't see our programming being as affected specifically with our in-person guests from our Canadian films."
The writers' strike began on May 2, while the actors' labour action followed on July 14. Both unions are fighting the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers over the use of AI and the digital recreation of likenesses, wages and health benefits, and the effect of streaming services on residuals, among other things. Negotiations for the WGA, which have been bitter, resumed on Sept. 20.
The ESIO will unveil the new programs in its Strategic Initiatives Fund on Sept. 27 at CKUA.