Tickets for the world premiere of Alec Baldwin’s Rust have sparked an online frenzy – three years after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed in an on-set shooting.

Production on the Western was paused in October 2021 when a prop gun being held by Baldwin, 66, discharged, killing Halyna, who was just 42, and injuring director Joel Souza, but the movie ultimately wrapped filming in May 2023.   

Rust is set to premiere at the EnergaCAMERIMAGE Film Festival in Toruń, Poland on Wednesday, November 20 – with overwhelming ticket demand crashing the private booking website as the event began to sell out on Tuesday morning.

Shortly after 8am Poland time, a message on the booking website read: ‘The Camerimage portal is currently undergoing system maintenance.’

By around 8.35am THR reports some users were able to finally get on and get their tickets.   

Tickets for the world premiere of Alec Baldwin’s Rust have sparked an online frenzy – three years after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed in an on-set shooting 

Production on the Western was paused in October 2021 when a prop gun being held by Baldwin, 66, discharged, killing Halyna, who was just 42, (pictured) and injuring director Joel Souza, but the movie, ultimately, wrapped filming in May 2023 

Alongside staging the world premiere, festival organizers will hold a panel discussion featuring Souza, cinematographer Bianca Cline who took over the project, and Halyna’s mentor Stephen Lighthill after the screening.

Read MoreBREAKING NEWS Alec Baldwin’s Rust to premiere at Polish film festival next month

Baldwin is understood to have not been invited to the event due to fears his presence would overshadow the premiere.

It will see the trio discuss events surrounding the movie and how production continued with Bianca following Halyna’s death, as well as talk about the role of women in cinematography and safety on film sets. 

Organizers had been hit with backlash for choosing to give the film a world premiere in the wake of Hutchins’ shock death. 

Camerimage director Kazimierz Suwała told THR ahead of the festival: ‘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.’

According to ᴅᴇᴀᴅline, Ukrainian-born Halyna is said to have campaigned to the director early in production to screen the film at Camerimage, which honors international cinematographers.

Festival director Marek Zydowicz said in a statement: ‘During the festival, we honored Halyna’s memory with a moment of silence and a panel of cinematographers discussed safety on set.

Rust is set to premiere at the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography Camerimage in Toruń, Poland on November 20 – with ticket demand crashing the booking website on Tuesday morning. (Baldwin pictured with his costar Patrick Scott McDermott)

‘Now, once again, together with cinematographers and film enthusiasts, we will have this special opportunity to remember her.’

Baldwin’s trial for involuntary manslaughter was thrown out in August after a judge ruled evidence had been mishandled – will attend the premiere.

The Boss Baby star has repeatedly insisted that he didn’t pull the trigger of the gun or know why it contained live ammunition.

A source told The Hollywood Reporter, however, ‘Baldwin will not be present for the premiere, although he is both its star and lead producer.’ 

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the film’s armorer, was jailed for 18 months in April after being found guilty of charges connected to the incident.

Rust resumed filming and finished its shoot in May 2023, saying in an Instagram post marking its completion: ‘It’s been a long and difficult road. But we reach the end of the trail today.’

Earlier this month, a judge upheld an involuntary manslaughter conviction against the movie’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, in the fatal shooting of Hutchins. 

Gutierrez-Reed asked a New Mexico court to dismiss her conviction or convene a new trial, alleging that prosecutors failed to share evidence that could have cleared her over the shooting on the set of Rust. 

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, however, explained in her written order that Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys did not establish that there was a reasonable possibility that the outcome of the trial would have been different had the evidence been available to her. 

The judge also rejected a request from Gutierrez-Reed that she be released from custody, saying it was moot because the request for a new trial was denied. 

In July, Marlow Sommer halted and ended Baldwin’s trial based on misconduct of police and prosecutors and their withholding evidence from the defense in the 2021 shooting of Hutchins. 

Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer for Rust, was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding Souza. 

A jury convicted Gutierrez-Reed of involuntary manslaughter in March in a trial overseen by Marlowe Sommer, who later sentenced her to the maximum 18-months.

Gutierrez-Reed has an appeal of the conviction pending in a higher court. Jurors acquitted her of allegations she tampered with evidence in the Rust investigation. 

Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of ‘Rust’ and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.

Earlier this month, a judge upheld an involuntary manslaughter conviction against the movie’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed (seen in April 2024), in the fatal shooting of Hutchins

Gutierrez-Reed is currently serving her sentence at the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility 

Evidence that Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys said prosecutors failed to share included a report by a firearms expert about the functionality of the gun that Baldwin used, ammunition that was later turned in to authorities and an interview with Rust ammunition supplier Seth Kenney.

Gutierrez-Reed is currently serving her sentence at the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility.

Baldwin, meanwhile, saw his involuntary manslaughter case dismissed in July.

The judge at the court in Santa Fe, New Mexico, said at the time that there had been errors by the prosecution in the handling of evidence, which she said ‘impacted the fundamental fairness of the case’.

Baldwin, Hutchins and armorer Gutierrez-Reed are circled on the set of Rust alongside fellow cast members and staffers

The decision came after a day-long hearing without the jury present over bullets that should have been in evidence, which Baldwin’s lawyers claimed were ‘concealed’ from them and ‘buried’ in another case file.

The issue had upended the trial for Baldwin who pleaded not guilty to two counts of involuntary manslaughter as he was accused of negligence.