The A24 drama Past Lives has landed a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement, allowing actors to participate in upcoming events this award season. Premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and bowing in theaters in June, the film finds itself a contender in several categories on the awards circuit including best actor, actress and supporting actor for stars Greta Lee, Teo Yoo and John Magaor
A24 does not fall under the AMPTP banner so was able to apply for and receive an interim agreement. It allows for its talent to participate in awards-season events that a majority of actors in contending films will not be able to as most of those films are affiliated with studios repped by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
A24 has already been granted interim agreements for films, like Mother Mary, to finish shooting films during the SAG AFTRA strike but this marks the first time a film that has been released well before the strike, has landed an agreement for award season campaign purposes. Several films like Neon’s Ferrari applied and were granted interim agreements so that talent could promote films at the fall festivals, essentially launching there own campaigns.
Past Lives was written and directed by Celine Song and starring Lee, Yoo and John Magaro follows Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are parted after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week, confronting notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life. Playwright Song, in her first feature, explores ‘in-yun,’ a Korean belief in fate that connects two people who knew each other in a past life.
