Film festivals – the most important market and audience access points for film culture

Tomorrow, the Sundance Film Festival, the world’s most important platform for independent film, kicks off, and with it the most significant serve for some 70 productions in search of buyers (see: Chris Lindahl/ Indiewire). For long, every conceivable precaution had been taken – including a dedicated vaccination station – to implement an onsite festival despite the pandemic situation. But due to the Omicron spread in the U.S., this was not

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New year, new luck – film festivals in the new dual format

After a series of denials of the Berlinale to limit itself to an online offering in February, the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) follows suit today with similar news. While the IFFR had already moved its industry events such as the film market CineMart and the Rotterdam Lab into the digital space, they seem to be sticking to an on-site edition despite the pandemic developments worsening because of the Omikron

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HessenFilm affirms innovative strength of film festivals in the crisis

According to Managing Director Anna Schoeppe, the film festivals in Hessen have once again impressed with numerous „creative and forward-looking ideas and approaches“. Against this background, it seems more than strategically sensible to place the Hessian film festival landscape on a solid and future-proof basis and consequently to strengthen it again with a higher budget. The aspect of fair pay and thus targeted countermeasures to the often prevailing precarious working

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Förderfonds de⁺ Goethe-Institut launches new funding program for film festivals

In cooperation with the German Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut is launching a new funding program for film festivals in Germany with an international focus. The Förderfonds de⁺ supports festivals that have an international profile or would like to develop one. The total amount of funding is 200,000 euros per year, and an external jury decides on the award in two rounds of calls for proposals each year. Film festivals and

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Film Culture Check for the Bundestag Election: 8 Questions to 7 Parties on the Future of Cinema and Film Culture

The Initiative Future Cinema+Film (IZK+F), an alliance of professional associations, interest groups and networks in film culture and the film industry, had asked seven political parties eight questions about their visions of the future of cinema and film culture, so-called Wahlprüfsteine. The questions take a critical look at a cinema situation characterized by disruptive change and, with the demand for more artistic diversity in German film, point to a necessary

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Film festivals back as meeting places for film lovers as for filmmakers

While the Berlinale Summer Special with 16 open-air venues (June 9-20) was celebrated as a summer fairy tale even before the first screening, while Cannes made surprising concessions to gender parity at the festival, which was postponed until July 6-17, and Tribecca prepared to extend its presence to the entire city of New York for the first time from June 9-20, Austria sent audiences and creatives alike into a veritable

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Hollywood Foreign Press Association white to the core

Even though the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a the small circle of about 90 journalists with a California residency who award the Golden Globe every year, has been the subject of numerous scandals, it now seems that the privileged closed club can no longer legitimize its claim to power.  For a long time, attempts had been made to evade movements in the film industry in the context of me too

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European films in cinemas worldwide between a fragmented audience market and a flood of films

Even if it is not possible to quantify the total market volume for theatrical films along their value chain based on consumer spending due to a lack of transparency, at least the window of theatrical exploitation, as one of four main market segments, can be more closely defined. A report published recently by the European Audiovisual Observatory reveals a surprising picture and confirms the trend towards a „flood of films“,

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Insights into the FUTURE OF FILM CULTURE

As part of the Initiative Zukunft Deutscher Film (Future of German Film initiative), this time the Frankfurt LICHTER Filmfest specifically took a European perspective to discuss central questions around FUTURE OF FILM CULTURE. Moderated by author of the Nostradamus Report and media analyst Johanna Koljonen, the discussion with Carlo Chatrian (Berlinale, Artistic Director), Sonja Heinen (European Film Promotion, CE), Laura Houlgatte (UNIC – International Union of Cinemas, CEO), Alby James

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Review: Setting new standards for a film festival’s online edition (interview)

It is exactly half a year that in the light of continuously rising Corona numbers the cinemas beside all cultural institutions in Germany were closed. 2020 not yet affected by the pandemic, the Berlinale had to (including the Berlinale Talents) like the European Film Market among other film festivals of the beginning of the year, including the Sundance Film Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, implement their first online

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