The Directors Guild of America (DGA) which represents film and television directors announced late on Saturday that it had reached a tentative agreement with Hollywood’s major studios, averting a possible work stoppage.
The development comes as Hollywood writers are currently on strike and actors represented by the Sag-Aftra union are currently holding a strike authorization vote.
The DGA union will proceed to ask its 19,000 members to vote on the tentative three-year contract, which includes gains in wages, residuals and protections around the use of artificial intelligence. The agreement stipulates, “generative AI cannot replace the duties performed by members”. The agreement came after several weeks during which Hollywood writers have been on strike. Previous negotiations between directors and the studios took place earlier this year without reaching an agreement, but bargaining restarted three weeks ago once writers began their strike.
A ratification vote is scheduled for Tuesday 6 June.
Writers and actors have also been seeking protections included in contracts around the use of artificial intelligence. Writers have criticized the rejection of their proposals around artificial intelligence by the studios, instead only being offered annual meetings to discuss the issue. Prior to the directors reaching a tentative agreement, the Writers Guild of America criticized Hollywood studios over the anticipation of using an agreement with the directors to force writers to accept similar terms to end their strike.
The Sag-Aftra national board unanimously asked members to vote to authorize a strike, with voting open until late on Monday 5 June. Negotiations with Hollywood studios for their new TV/theatrical agreement are set to begin on 7 June.
Over 11,000 film and television writers have been on strike since 1 May, over what writers say have been dwindling compensation and residuals amid the rise of streaming services.
The strike has halted production of several television and film projects including season 2 of Severance, the final season of Netflix’s Stranger Things, and Marvel’s Blade.
Reuters contributed reporting
