Tomorrow, the indie Western movie Rust — marred by the tragic on-set death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins — will premiere.
The big opening night comes a little after three years after an accidental on-set shooting that halted its production.
On October 21, 2021, on the film set of Rust, actor Alec Baldwin's prop gun fired a live round of ammunition and tragically killed the 42-year-old cinematographer and injured director Joel Souza.
After the tragedy, the armorer on the set of Rust – Hannah Gutierrez-Reed – was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on April 15 and received the maximum possible sentence which in this case was 18 months.
After some legal back and forth, Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter in January 2024 and appeared in court in July, where the charges were dismissed.
Despite backlash from the public and some of his peers in the industry, Baldwin has maintained that he is innocent and free from any wrongdoing.
Now, the film is set to make a premiere at Poland's Camerimage International Film Festival, a renowned event celebrated for spotlighting the art of cinematography.
The anticipation for Rust's debut in the quaint town of Toruń was so high that it caused the festival's ticketing system to crash shortly after tickets were released on Tuesday morning, per The Hollywood Reporter. Within 35 minutes of going live, the private ticketing system was back up, signaling the intense interest in the film.
"The Camerimage portal is currently undergoing system maintenance," was the message posted on the festival's website shortly after tickets were released at 8:00AM. By around 8:35AM, access was restored.
Camerimage is famed for attracting cinema enthusiasts who fill theaters to the rafters, often spilling into the aisles, all eager to glean the latest releases from the world's top cinematographers.
However, the buzz surrounding Rust is unprecedented. The festival plans to screen the film just once, followed by a panel discussion featuring writer-director Joel Souza - who was also injured during the 2021 incident - Stephen Lighthill -Hutchins' mentor - and Bianca Cline - who stepped in to complete the film’s cinematography after the settlement of a wrongful death lawsuit.
The decision to feature Rust at Camerimage wasn't without controversy. Some industry professionals voiced concerns over social media, labeling the move as in poor taste due to the circumstances of its creation. Despite the criticism, festival organizers remain committed to honoring Hutchins' legacy, pointing out that Camerimage was a place she held in high regard and had expressed hopes of one day showcasing her work there.
Kazimierz Suwała, the festival director, emphasized this sentiment, stating: "I know it has become divisive. Some felt we were doing it for promotional reasons and that it was inappropriate to screen a film that resulted in a death. But for us, the motivation was very simple. Halyna had a strong connection to this festival.
"She attended several times. And we were contacted by her friends, who told us that before shooting even began on Rust, she told them that the film was very important to her and it was her dream to screen it at Camerimage. So the screening is only about that: fulfilling her wish of showing her film at the festival. Halyna’s mother, who is Ukrainian, is going to attend the screening if she’s able to leave her country, but it’s not easy right now because of the war. Some have suggested we are holding this screening simply to generate attention for the festival, but we don’t need that kind of attention."
Organizers have made a pointed decision to not invite Alec Baldwin, whose presence might divert attention from the film’s artistic merit.
"We didn’t invite Alec Baldwin, and we never considered doing so. That would be too distracting. What this is about is honoring Halyna’s dreams for her work," Kazimierz Suwała added in an interview with THR.
