Olga Solovey, mother of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins who died in an accident on set three years ago, has declined to attend the Rust premiere in Poland, saying Alec Baldwin’s “refusal” to apologise “continues to increase my pain”.
Rust will make its debut at the Camerimage International Film Festival, which specialises in achievements in cinematography, on 20 November.
The ticketing website for the festival crashed on Tuesday morning shortly after tickets to the movie became available.
Solovey said she will not attend the festival since she believes there is “still no justice for my daughter”.
“It was always my hope to meet my daughter in Poland to watch her work come alive on screen. Unfortunately, that was ripped away from me when Alec Baldwin discharged his gun and killed my daughter,” she said in a statement.
“Alec Baldwin continues to increase my pain with his refusal to apologise to me and his refusal to take responsibility for her death. Instead, he seeks to unjustly profit from his killing of my daughter.
“That is the reason why I refuse to attend the festival for the promotion of Rust, especially now when there is still no justice for my daughter.”
The involuntary manslaughter case against Baldwin was dismissed in July after the state was found to have withheld evidence that could have shown how live rounds got onto the set of Rust where the young cinematographer was fatally shot.
The actor, 66, was facing up to 18 months in prison before the case was thrown out.
A prop gun that Baldwin was holding went off during a rehearsal of a shooting scene in October 2021, striking and killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.
Baldwin has maintained his innocence, claiming that he pulled back the hammer – but not the trigger – and the gun fired.
Gutierrez-Reed, the film’s armourer, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months in prison. She was blamed by prosecutors for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.
Gloria Allred, attorney for Hutchins’s family said in a statement that Baldwin had not apologised to the family, which “dishonours Halyna and her memory”.
“Even though Mr Baldwin discharged the gun that killed Halyna, he has never called them to apologise. Even worse, he argued, through his attorneys, that Halyna was emotionally distant from her family in Ukraine. That is false, hurtful and insulting,” her statement said.
“Further, the decision not to even call the family to say he is sorry is cruel and dishonours Halyna and her memory. Now, a decision has been made to promote Rust to buyers in order to make a profit for Alec Baldwin and others that had a role in Halyna’s death. Olga, Anatolii, and Svetlana will not agree with this plan to exploit Halyna’s death.”
When it was announced in October that Rust would premiere at Camerimage, several industry professionals criticised the move as “distasteful”.
“I’m all for memorialising Halyna and her beautiful work but not by screening and thereby promoting the film that killed her,” Black Panther’s Oscar-nominated director of photography Rachel Morrison wrote under a post announcing the screening at the festival.
Deadline reported comments from a private WhatsApp group of working cinematographers who are regular Camerimage Festival delegates calling the decision “distasteful” and “tone deaf”.