Fears for Cannes As Unions Plan Festival Protests

Organisers and politicians were scrambling yesterday to head off the threat of the Cannes film festival being wrecked by protests from showbusiness workers.

Officials at the event, which runs from tomorrow until May 23 with a guestlist that includes Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz and Michael Moore, insisted yesterday there was no risk of it being called off.

"There's no question of that," a festival director, Veronique Cayla, told French radio.

"Relations with the protesters are good. We respect their desire to be heard ... and they have told us that they want the screenings and appearances to take place in good conditions."

But five coaches packed with protesters, whose sit-ins and strikes last summer forced cancelled dozens of leading French arts events, including the Avignon and Aix-en-Provence theatre and opera festivals, are due to leave Paris for Cannes today.

"There'll be up to 600 of us there, and we are still very angry," said one protester, Jérome. "We demand at the very least the opportunity to speak during the opening ceremony, and a room to hold a daily press conference."

Organisers are to meet protest leaders this morning - just as Cannes restaurant and bar owners, worried that any ugly protests will adversely affect business, stage a silent protest march in the town.

Unions for some 100,000 intermittents de spectacle - part-time arts performers and technicians ranging from actors, dancers, musicians and backstage workers to electricians, film editors and cameramen - are still unhappy at government-approved reforms to the welfare scheme that ensures a reasonable income while in between contracts.

The scheme is widely abused by arts companies, production houses and TV stations, and the number of claimants has more than doubled over the past decade. To help plug a €830m (£554m) deficit, professionals who previously had to work 507 hours over 12 months to qualify for benefits are now expected to work the same hours in 10 months.

Most of the French arts world, fearing for the survival of France's cultural exception, back the protesters. Most French directors showing films at Cannes - including Raymond Depardon, Olivier Assayas, Agnes Jaoui and Tony Gatlif - signed an open letter on Sunday saying they could not make films without the unemployment scheme.

But the Cannes mayor, Bernard Brochant, has already said he would take "any measures needed" - including deploying 1,000 police - to ensure the festival runs smoothly. "Cannes is a jewel of French culture which must be protected. It cannot be hampered or destroyed by protests of any kind," he told French radio.

The newly appointed culture minister, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, last week announced a temporary fund of €20m to help the intermittents.