In recent years, a modest number of film festivals have been founded and established worldwide. Be it in the city or the country, in Germany alone there are over 400 professionally-organized film festivals. While this development is on-going, employment issues have so far mainly been discussed behind closed doors. Yet, film festivals are part of the cultural and creative economy and thus just as much employer and contractor as film productions, for example.
The festival sector has not only made a name for itself in basic and advanced training, but has also given rise to some highly specialized occupational fields. The curating, programming and coordination of a film program, sponsorship, guest service, copy management, venue management, catalogue editing, etc. require very specific expert knowledge. Nevertheless, there are neither uniform job descriptions nor regulated working conditions.
During the Berlinale “Active Talk Event” was held under the Fair Festivals banner, where the working conditions at film festivals were discussed with guests and an international audience. Click here for a recording of the event (discussion language English)