Tag: Entertainment – Variety

It didn’t take long for politics to take the spotlight at this year’s Venice Film Festival jury press conference. Amid the wars raging in Gaza and Ukraine, as well as the unrest in the United States, jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal was asked whether cinema should be political.

“OK,” Gyllenhaal said with a laugh. “May as well get into it.”

The filmmaker, who recently directed “The Bride,” directly addressed the question by sharing her belief that movies are “fundamentally, unavoidably political.”

“Look, we could say, how are we possibly here talking about movies right now when the world is in a state of emergency?” she said. “To me, the answer has something to do with empathy. I think that film allows an opening into an opportunity to find empathy inside of ourselves.”

She added that every subject or filmmaker should have the ability to be heard. “I think we can challenge ourselves to hear stories about the most corrupt, most perverse people because it opens up the opportunity to find empathy for those people,” she says. “I am here open. I am here curious.”

Gyllenhaal was also probed about the lack of female directors in this year’s competition lineup. Only one film up for the Golden Lion — the drama “Woman Unknown” by Danish-Egyptian director May El-Toukhysolely — was solely directed by a women.

“I guess it’s finally become clear that men make better movies than women do,” Gyllenhaal deadpanned.

Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera interjected, saying that “Naza,” a documentary from “No Other Land” filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, was added to the competition lineup shortly before the festival.

Gyllenhall returned to the question, saying, “I will answer you seriously. There’s a systemic problem. It’s harder for women to get films financed.”

She wondered aloud: “Could it be possible that women, having had a different experience of being alive in the world, want to make movies about are not always deemed high art? Who decide what’s good? Who decides what is valuable?”

Gyllenhall also noted it’s “important to consider” that she was asked to be head of the competition jury. Gyllenhaal heads a seven-member jury that includes Tunisian helmer Kaouther Ben Hania, Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To, Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat, French filmmaker Xavier Giannoli, British composer Daniel Blumberg and Italian film scholar Francesco Casetti. Gyllenhaal represented the jury at the conference, while her fellow members sat in the audience.

The traditional opening jury press conference took place after some uncertainty over whether Venice would hold it at all. The festival considered scrapping the event because of “scheduling issues,” but some perceived the move as a way to shield jury members from being quizzed about politics. After facing backlash, the festival reinstated the jury presser, explaining the programming conflicts had been solved.

The debate surrounding the press conference came amid heightened political tensions on the international festival circuit, where actors, directors and jury members have increasingly been pressed to address wars, Gaza, U.S. politics and the rise of the far right. The conversation around politics escalated at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year after jury president Wim Wenders said filmmakers should “stay out of politics” while fielding questions about Israel and Palestine. His remarks triggered fierce criticism and prompted Berlin artistic director Tricia Tuttle to publicly defend artists’ right to decide whether or not to speak on political issues.

Venice itself is opening against a particularly charged backdrop. An open letter issued by the Venice4Palestine collective and signed by figures including Nobel Prize-winning writer Annie Ernaux, Roger Waters, Isabel Coixet and Matteo Garrone has called on the festival to take “concrete action” in support of Palestine. The group has also asked Venice to fly the Palestinian flag throughout the festival.

The subject carries particular resonance for Ben Hania, whose Gaza drama “The Voice of Hind Rajab” premiered in competition at Venice last year and won the Silver Lion after receiving a 22-minute standing ovation.

Barbera has himself described this year’s selection as the festival’s most political in recent years, pointing to films dealing with war, Palestine, immigration, climate change, mounting social tensions and shrinking freedoms.

More to come…

Life really does imitate art.

George Clooney attended last year’s Venice Film Festival with “Jay Kelly,” a comedic drama in which he portrayed an aging A-lister who travels to Italy to receive a life achievement award. Now the actor is getting a real Venetian tribute, accepting the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award on the festival’s opening day.

Before his big honor, Clooney sat for a press conference on Wednesday morning and addressed a range of topics, including the fraught state of politics in America, the rise of artificial intelligence and Paramount’s ongoing attempt to merge with Warner Bros. He also defended Mark Ruffalo, who was accused by Paramount of “antisemitic tropes” after the Marvel star attacked the deal over its potential consequences for Hollywood and accused the Ellison family of being complicit in the “genocide” against Palestinians. David Ellison is the CEO of Paramount Skydance.

“I support Mark Ruffalo’s ability to speak freely,” Clooney said. “It’s ridiculous. We’re not going to ban speech. I believe in free speech even when I completely disagree with it. That’s important. In fact, it’s part of how democracy works.”

Clooney called the pending merger “a complicated thing” and suggested he “doesn’t know how it works out.”

“I don’t see how the merger financially ends up making sense for the people who are trying to do it. We’ll see. I worry when a big company swallows up another company,” he said. “I always worry whenever big companies are consolidating because it means a lot of people are going to lose their jobs.”

On the topic of AI, Clooney predicted that it’s “going to be a very big part of this industry” and worries that “it’s going to hurt us in a lot of ways.” He expressed a concerned about the complications that AI will pose for actors, cracking that “I would like to avoid being in a tampon commercial 20 years after I’m dead.”

Clooney was also probed about the state of journalism, having directed 2005’s “Good Night, and Good Luck,” a drama about the conflict between the veteran CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy. Clooney also earning a Tony nomination for his Broadway debut in “Good Night, and Good Luck,” a play based on his film.

“The state of journalism is in question. The richest people in the world are owning the Washington Post and Twitter, and that is a concern,” he said, referring to Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Yet Clooney remains optimistic. “There’s a lot of room for great journalists. I do believe that information will find it’s way out.”

Clooney has a long history with the Venice Film Festival, having first attended with 1998’s Steven Soderbergh’s ”Out of Sight” and returning many times over the years with movies such as 2005’s “Good Night, and Good Luck,” 2007’s “Michael Clayton,” 2013’s “Gravity,” 2017’s “Suburbicon,” 2024’s “Wolfs” and 2025’s “Jay Kelly.” Clooney was a particularly welcomed presence at this year’s press conference after he missed the press conference for “Jay Kelly” because he was diagnosed with a sinus infection.

Clooney joked that he’s been getting nostalgic has he prepares to receive a career honor.

“I’m 65 years old — everything is melancholy,” he said. “You brush your teeth and you’re like, ‘My teeth used to be so much better…’”

One of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Clooney’s influence spans television and film, starting with his breakout role on “ER” and continuing with films such as “Syriana,” “O Brother Where Art Thou,” “Up in the Air” and the “Oceans” trilogy. Although he’s directed several films, Clooney says he’s stepped back as a filmmaker to focus on acting.

“The reason is because I have two 9-year-old kids — in order to spend time with them,” Clooney said. “If I act in a movie, it’s three months. When I direct a movie, it’s a year. And I cant do that anymore. I can’t pull the kids out of school anymore. I’m happy to doing this, being an actor again. It’s fun. I’m a character actor now.”

Clooney teased that he’s excited for one upcoming project — a new “Oceans” heist with Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. “I would do anything with them,” he said. “As soon as we get our schedules to work, we’re going to film.”

Indian star Trisha Krishnan is leading Panorama Studios‘ first Tamil-language production, a psychological horror directed by Raja Krishna Menon. Radhika Sarathkumar and Aparna Balamurali co-star in the yet-to-be-titled film, which has begun principal photography in London.

The film is presented by Panorama Studios in association with Locomotive Global and credited as a Fusion Flicks and Locomotive Global production. Producer credits go to Kumar Mangat Pathak, Abhishek Pathak, Sunder Aaron, Vikas Sharma and Amit Dalmia, while Rajesh Menon and George Cameron serve as co-producers and Abhinav Mehrotra as creative producer.

Krishnan is known for roles in “96,” “Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa,” “Ghilli” and “Ponniyin Selvan.” Sarathkumar has appeared in “Kizhakku Cheemaiyile,” “Pasumpon,” “Thanga Magan” and “Theri.” Balamurali’s credits include “SooraraiPottru,” “Maheshinte Prathikaaram” and “8 Thottakkal.”

Menon, whose credits include “Airlift,” “Chef” and “Pippa,” is making his first foray into psychological horror with the project.

Kumar Mangat Pathak, founder and chair of Panorama Studios, said, “Tamil cinema has always been a space for bold, original and culturally rooted storytelling, and we wanted our first Tamil production to reflect exactly that spirit. This is a genre film with a very intriguing world at its core, and Raja has brought a distinctive vision to it. We are delighted to partner with such talented collaborators and are confident that this film will offer audiences a fresh cinematic experience.”

Menon added, “Someone once quite aptly called me ‘genre agnostic’, and this film is another exploration in that journey. This is a story that is a first for me in many ways – my first film in Tamil, my first psychological horror, and my first story centred entirely around women. Adding to that is the privilege of working with Trisha Krishnan, Radhika ma’am, Aparna Balamurali, the wonderful cast and a fantastic crew. It makes this journey all the more exciting. Panorama Studios and Kumar Mangat ji have been incredibly supportive of my creative process, while Vikas and Sunder from Locomotive Global share the same commitment to telling the story the way it should be told, without compromising on anything. I couldn’t have asked for a better set of people to take this new journey with.”

Sunder Aaron, managing partner and producer, and Vikas Sharma, producer, at Locomotive Global, said in a joint statement, “At Locomotive Global, we are drawn to stories that transcend borders while remaining rooted in powerful human emotion. We were immediately drawn to the world of this Tamil-language psychological horror, with its mystery, atmosphere, emotional depth and sustained tension. Shot in London and led by an exceptional cast including Trisha Krishnan, Radhika Ma’am and Aparna Balamurali, the film marks an exciting step in our growing pipeline of elevated horror projects. Bringing together Raja Krishna Menon, Kumar Ji and Panorama Studios on a project with such a distinctive voice makes this a particularly meaningful collaboration for us. We look forward to taking this unique film to audiences.”

The Tamil film adds to Panorama Studios’ expanding presence in South Indian cinema, following its Malayalam productions “Anomie,” “Unmadham” and “Tiki Taka.” Two more Malayalam titles, “Production No. 4” and “Munpe,” starring Tovino Thomas, are shooting at present, and the studio has also struck collaborations with Malayalam industry figures including Fahadh Faasil.

Further details about the film, including its title, are expected in due course.

A frantic journey across London on foot provides a lot of exercise for Gal Gadot, but not much reward for viewers, in “The Runner.” Hardly the first thriller centering on an exceptionally action-ready parent surmounting various obstacles to rescue an imperiled child from some diabolical abductor, and surely not the last, this Prime Original has energy — but lacks the strong suspense or novelty necessary to elevate an overfamiliar concept. It premieres on the platform September 2.

An opening montage finds the historic metropolis full of people lost in their own individual worlds, digitally connected yet oblivious to the offscreen reality around them. This visual motif is so pervasive throughout, you might wonder if the filmmakers somehow think it’s a startling insight — rather than one more way in which the movie fails to find any fresh ideas, or revivify old ones. 

Maia Marten (Gadot) is an emigre single mother packing her approximately eight-year-old son Noah (Rory Wilmot, also in the forthcoming “Harry Potter” HBO series) off to school before her own big day. A lawyer with a top firm, she’s on the team prosecuting a notorious crime boss for the murder of two women, and today is the day their heavily guarded star witness (Phoenix Di Sebastiani) will testify. 

We have already noticed, though Maia has not, that her phone has been hacked by some outside player. She figures that out soon enough, however, when she’s just commenced her pre-work morning run —receiving a call from her son’s phone, only it’s not Noah on the line. Instead, it’s a sneeringly in-control adult male voice (Damian Lewis), who’s apparently been spying on the small family for a while. Not only does he know all about them and their daily habits, he’s already whisked the too-trusting boy from school grounds. 

This unnamed caller, who can track Maia’s every move through her phone, has a straightforward if thorny demand: She must use her security clearance to access and kill the witness before his court appearance. She only has an hour to get that done, as the perp has ensured her diabetic son’s life will hang in the balance for that long, and no longer. Meanwhile, the onetime track champion must race across the city, dodging slow pedestrians, getting hit by the occasional vehicle, soliciting no help from police or anyone else — “or he dies.”

Mark Gibson’s screenplay is brisk but routine. Its attempts at providing psychological depth are often painfully on-the-nose, as when Maia announces, “I’m going to give those murdered women a voice in front of the jury,” or our voice-only villain snarls, “Is that why you became a lawyer, to exert your will over violent men?” (He also periodically mutters, “Tick, tick, tick,” as if otherwise we might forget she’s on urgent deadline.) An eventual big twist feels too trickily over-contrived to impress, or convince.

Director Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotland,” “The Mauritanian”) can’t be accused of sleeping on the job, though this material probably wasn’t his ideal choice. He crowds the film with hyperbolic visual and editorial gimmicks, pouring on so much eyeblink local color as Maia crosses London that at times “The Runner” resembles one of those “A Day In The Life Of…” coffee-table books where photographers offer a random panoply of human experience. (Five years ago Macdonald directed “Life In A Day 2020,” their documentary-feature equivalent.) But none of that filigree does much to heighten tension. If anything, it distracts from what ought to be a pulse-pounding watch, instead making it occasionally seem like a glorified tourist advert. While the result is not dull, it achieves little real emotional or visceral punch.

Nor is Gadot a performer inclined to lend much more than athleticism to a role that could use some warmth and idiosyncrasy to color its rather generic action-hero gist. Lewis, glimpsed onscreen just in the last lap, likewise digs into the most predictable aspects of an uninspired part. 

“The Runner’s” slick design and technical contributions do not transcend the outward packaging for a potboiler with scant substance beneath. Not much helping is Tom Hodge’s score, the percussive thrust of which sounds mostly driven by bongoes. An attempt to lend this enterprise flippant retro cool by bookending two golden Blondie oldies (“Heart of Glass,” “Hanging on the Telephone”) only underlines its overall dearth of personality. 

Among the 15 projects participating in the upcoming San Sebastián Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum is “The Rehearsals” (“Los Ensayos”) by Argentina’s Celina Murga, best known for her Martin Scorsese-executive produced dramas ‘The Freshly Cut Grass’ and ‘The Third Side of the River’ and of course, her career-launching 2003 debut, “Ana and the Others.”

Based on various short stories by Japanese-Argentine author Alejandra Kamiya, “The Rehearsals” follows Eva, nearly 50, who goes along with her 80-year-old mother, a now retired prominent doctor facing the onset of Alzheimer’s. Eva’s family home is also shared by her teenage son and younger sister, who share in caregiving duties. Between small celebrations, hospital visits and disagreements about how to care for her, a mysterious presence of bulls begins to surround the house. Weaving everyday reality with the fantastic, the film explores vulnerability and how caring for someone can also bring love, connection and a renewed sense of life.

“The film reflects on the way our society looks at aging, deterioration and death. We live in a culture that rewards youth and productivity, making aging bodies and slowing time increasingly invisible. Yet confronting mortality can also open new forms of intimacy and a renewed perception of vitality. ‘The Rehearsals’ was born from the desire to make these experiences visible and to ask what we lose when we deny our finite condition,” Murga told Variety.

She plans to shoot the film in Uruguay by 2028 and will make use of its newly introduced audiovisual tax credit on up to 30% of eligible expenditures in the country.

Currently consolidating its international co-production and financing structure, the project counts on Uruguay-based Alterna Media, which will lead the local production. Alterna Media’s Maria Laura Berch, Joaquin Romero Vercellino and Lucia Vela serve as executive producers.

Founded by Berch and Romero, Alterna Media’s credits include “La noche sin mi,” co-produced with Tarea Fina and winner of the Best First Feature award at Argentina’s Premios Sur and “El mensaje,” winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlinale. This year, Alterna Media presented “La de Punta Carretas,” a series directed by César Charlone and Fernando Meirelles, at the Berlinale, in co-production with Federation and Ojo Films.

The Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum will take place over Sept 21 – 23 during the 74th San Sebastian Film Festival.

Murga expands on her latest project and how Scorsese impacted her work:

Martin Scorsese chose to mentor you and executive produced “The Third Side of the River” and your last film to date, “The Freshly Cut Grass.” Are you still in touch with him? How has that experience shaped you and your filmmaking?

Yes, we have stayed in touch. In fact, he attended the Tribeca presentation of ‘The Freshly Cut Grass.’ He has a deep understanding of the challenges of making films in different parts of the world, particularly for women filmmakers. He is always attentive to what I’m doing – he emails me to ask about my projects and suggest new ones.

I value not only his place as an emblematic director in the history of world cinema, but also his human commitment and his profound understanding of cinema’s power within individual cultures and across the world.

That is what I treasure most from the experience, beyond the specific technical aspects I was able to observe while watching him work on set: a sense of mission, of why we make films and what they can mean and of how deeply that purpose can inspire others.

You say “The Rehearsals” is based on short stories by author Alejandra Kamiya.  Did you mean you combined several stories into one? What drew you to these stories?

I combined several stories. The main one, ‘The Rehearsals,’ comes from ‘The Patience of Water Over Every Stone,’ but I also drew characters and situations from other stories in that book and from ‘The Fallen Trees Are Also the Forest.’ I was deeply struck by how these stories explore themes that interest me: the ambiguous, tense relationship between parents and children; humanity’s profound connection to nature; death as an inevitable part of life and the passage of time. I was also drawn to a narrative style that subtly shifts reality toward the fantastic. This coexistence of the everyday and the extraordinary suggested to me a cinematic way of approaching death – not as a spectacular intrusion, but as a presence that slowly infiltrates daily life.

Will the story be set in Argentina but shot in Uruguay because of its new tax credit? I assume that many Argentine filmmakers are going to Uruguay and elsewhere given the lack of state support in Argentina.

The story is set in Entre Ríos, Argentina, although its landscape and cultural context could naturally exist on the Uruguayan side of the river as well. Since the film is being produced by the Uruguayan company Alterna Media, Uruguay’s current audiovisual incentives have been an important factor in making the production possible. Beyond the economic dimension, however, there is a strong cultural and geographical connection between Entre Ríos and Paysandú that makes this collaboration especially meaningful to the project.

The current context is also encouraging us to think about film production in more regional terms. Uruguay has created a dynamic environment for audiovisual projects and we see these opportunities not as a replacement for Argentine production, but as a way to strengthen connections between filmmakers and producers on both sides of the river.I imagine the story unfolding in an emotionally essential territory for me: my home province of Entre Ríos, Argentina. Uruguay shares the same river border and I have always felt a very organic connection between the two.

The project also grew from my desire to work with Alterna Media’s María Laura Berch, with whom I have collaborated since my second film, ‘Una Semana Solos.’

What themes are you exploring in this project? Are there themes you have always gravitated to throughout your career?

The heart of ‘The Rehearsals’ is not Alzheimer’s itself, but care as an everyday practice and as an experience of accepting the cycles of life. The film follows a daughter trying to accompany her mother through her final stage, navigating the challenge of remaining close without denying the loss or imposing a particular way of experiencing it.

Through a restrained approach, I want the cinematic gaze itself to become an ethical question: How can we look at someone experiencing deterioration without reducing them to their fragility? How can we approach vulnerability without turning it into spectacle? The film seeks to hold that tension through a deeply human perspective, where observing can also become an act of care.

The film also reflects on how our society views aging, deterioration and death. We live in a culture that privileges youth, productivity and autonomy, while rendering aging bodies and slower forms of existence increasingly invisible. Old age has a political dimension that is rarely acknowledged: it confronts us with our finitude and with the fact that neither technology nor the market can buy permanence.

I want to make a film rooted in affection, far from both condescension and the aestheticization of suffering– a sensitive, human portrait centered on relationships, shared time, and our ability to accompany one another. More than a film about Alzheimer’s or death, I want ‘The Rehearsals’ to be, above all, a film about love.

David Byrne wrote a song about the world’s richest man.

The Talking Heads frontman wrote and performed an original song for “Musk,” Alex Gibney‘s sprawling documentary reckoning with Elon Musk, Variety can exclusively reveal. Titled “Let Me Sell You a Dream,” the track plays within the 235-minute film and arrives as an Oscar-qualifying entry in the best original song race.

Byrne wrote the song with the documentary’s composer Daniel Pemberton, the Oscar-nominated musician behind “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

“I was thrilled when David agreed to write (with our composer Daniel Pemberton) and perform the final song in the film,” Gibney says. “I am a huge fan of his. My wife and I were at the Pantages for the filming of ‘Stop Making Sense,’ so I sensed that he would find a musical way into what the film is trying to say. And he did. ‘Let Me Sell You a Dream’ is kick-ass. And, in writing the lyrics, David dug deep into the sayings of Musk himself to get to ‘extremely hard core,’ foot-tapping sardonic poetry.”

For Byrne, the lyrics required little invention. “A thrill to collaborate with Pemberton and get invited to do this as a fan of Gibney’s films,” he says. “I asked for good quotes from the Martian, and found more of them online. I’m sure he loves dropping these wild statements, and those became the lyrics. All his own words. No editorializing. Straight from the man’s mouth to mine.”

For Byrne, the collaboration reopens a door he last walked through nearly four decades ago. He won the Academy Award for best original score for “The Last Emperor” in 1988, sharing the honor with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su. A nomination for “Let Me Sell You a Dream” would mark his first return to the Oscar race since. Pemberton earned a best original song nod in 2021 for “Hear My Voice,” co-written with Celeste for “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

The song will be entered for best original song at the 2027 Oscars by way of the film’s theatrical run. Bleecker Street releases “Musk” in U.S. theaters on Oct. 16, a berth that clears the category’s eligibility requirements.

Early buzz surrounding the film, described in some quarters as “scathing” and billed by Gibney himself as a “definitive and unvarnished examination” of the businessman, has been strong. “Musk” world premieres out of competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 8 before continuing to the Toronto International Film Festival. At just shy of four hours, it stands among the most ambitious nonfiction portraits of Gibney’s career.

Gibney first revealed in March 2023 that he had begun work on the documentary and was “many months” into production. Musk responded to news of the project on his X/Twitter account by predicting it would be “a hit-piece.” Gibney fired back on the same platform, asking “how would you know?”

Gibney directs and produces “Musk,” joined by Jessie Deeter and Erin Edeiken for Jigsaw Productions, Dana O’Keefe for Double Agent, Joey Marra and Zhang Xin for Closer Media and Anonymous Content’s Nick Shumaker and Jessica Grimshaw. Ronan Farrow and Lawrence Wright round out the producing team.

Remote workers at DreamWorks Animation have ratified their first collective bargaining agreement.

The agreement was ratified on Aug. 21, with 97 percent of participants voting in favor of the contract. Of the 108 eligible voters, 90 cast ballots, representing 83.3% of voter turnout.

Until recently, remote animation artists and technicians working on the same projects as their Los Angeles counterparts did not receive the same wage scales, benefits or protections.

Remote workers are now on parity with on-campus workers, including pension and healthcare coverage. The newly-ratified agreement gives the unit all the same protections offered in the IATSE Local 839 Master Agreement through a Sideletter.

Anthony Holden, DreamWorks Story Artist and member of the Negotiation Committee said, “This contract is a huge victory for DreamWorks remote artists, but also for the animation industry as a whole.” He added, “Our coworkers who work in-person at studios in L.A. enjoy mobility between employers with guaranteed benefits such as healthcare coverage and a pension plan. Many of us remote DreamWorkers have served for years (and in some cases decades) in the same industry without the same protections. Now we can work under the same terms as our union brothers and sisters. This contract represents an important shift towards broader industry change that values and respects not only artists’ skills but also our right to choose to live in locations around the country that are best for our families and personal circumstances.”

Under the agreement, remote working animators will receive the same healthcare and pension plans as on-campus workers, with $0 premiums for individuals.

In addtion, the agreement establishes the same minimum wage standards that apply under TAG’s Master
Agreement. The lowest-paid remote artist covered by the agreement will see compensation increase from $40.82 per hour to $62.22 per hour. This represents a 52.4% wage increase.

The unit includes remote workers across the U.S. doing work traditionally covered under TAG’s Master Agreement when performed in L.A. County, including Story Artists, Animators, Character Effects Artists, Technical Directors, Lighters, Visual Development Artists, Modelers, and Production Coordinators, among others.

Workers at Sony Pictures Animation also voted overwhelmingly on Aug. 27 to join TAG after
seeking voluntary recognition from the company. Sony declined the request and instead required workers to proceed through an NLRB election.

The results demonstrated strong support for union representation with 95% voter participation and 84% voting in favor of unionizing.

“Despite Sony’s deliberate attempts to challenge our movement, when the rubber hits the road, we’re all in favor of dignity and respect in the workplace.” says Grayson Arndt, Sr. Administrative Assistant. “Now it’s time to take our seat at the table.”

Production Coordinator Maddie Rodriguez added, “It’s exciting to follow in the footsteps of so many animation production workers before us and it’s continually heartening to know that we were never alone. So many of us have wanted this for so long. Together, we are Prod Strong!”