Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper made surprise appearance at the NY Film Fest‘s American premiere screening of his biopic Maestro on Monday night.

The actor stars as legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein in the Netflix film he also directed and co-wrote. He had been skipping press opportunities, including the movie’spremiere at Venice Fest, due to the ongoing actors strike, but he was in the audience at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall Monday night.

Speaking from the stage as she introduced Maestro, Leonard Bernstein’s daughter Jamie triumphantly told the packed auditorium that Cooper was able to watch the film in keeping with SAG-AFTRA strike rules.

A rep for SAG confirmed that Cooper was allowed to attend the screening because he was not promoting the film, pointing to the film festival section of the strike rules, which states in part, “performers are free to attend film festivals or other events.”

But they cannot “promote struck work or struck companies at such events,” by, for instance, “serving on a Q&A panel” or walking the red carpet.

Reps for Cooper and Netflix have not yet responded to THR‘s request for comment.

The Directors Guild of America quickly reached new deal with the AMPTP group that represents studios and streamers over the summer while the Writers Guild of America has reached a tentative agreement with the AMPTP. The Writers Guild last week voted to end the strike while the deal was being ratified.

SAG-AFTRA is still on strike but resumed negotiations with the AMPTP on Monday, with the two sides expected to talk again on Wednesday.

Due to the writers’ strike ending, Cooper’s co-writer Josh Singer, who skipped the Venice world premiere for Maestro, was able to attend the NY Film Festival event and spoke with media outlets on the red carpet and participated in a post-screening Q&A.

Singer said that he was grateful to the WGA negotiators “who I think worked very hard and bravely fought to put in protections for writers for many years to come.”

Singer added that he was hopeful for a speedy resolution to the actors strike.

“I know there are different issues [with the actors than with the WGA], but I’m hopeful just so the town can get working again,” he said. “But I think actors need to get the protections they want.”

When asked he and his fellow producers felt about debuting Maestro amid the ongoing actors strike, producer Fred Berner indicated he was hopeful a resolution would be coming soon.

“I’m just sad I can’t hug all of these folks and celebrate,” he said. “We will hopefully have an opportunity. I’m starting to think it’s beginning to thaw a little bit.”

He added, “I think it’s worse for [the actors] than it is for us. How can you put all of that time and energy and love into something and not be able to stand there and get a smidgen of it back?”