Curating in times of war – One sees films with a pathos that justifies a war that cannot be justified.

The Cottbus film festival is regarded as one of the most important festivals of East European Cinema worldwide. In an interview, artistic director Bernd Buder outlines the responsible role of film festivals, especially in times of a changing political climate, and offers insights into his curatorial work today defined by the ongoing war: „As a festival, we always say we don’t just celebrate cinema, but cinema is also an instrument

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Safe the date: May 11 – 13, 2022 Second Congress Future German Film

After the fruitful first congress Future of German Film in 2018, the LICHTER Filmfest illuminates the future and perspectives of German and European film and cinema culture together with numerous filmmakers and representatives of the film industry as well as film politics from all over Europe at their second edition in Frankfurt. Various events in cooperation with the AG DOK, the VG Bild-Kunst and the Bundesverband Regie e.V., as well

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Safe the date: June 24 – 26, 2022 Symposium Cinema of Commoning in Berlin

With the project Cinema of Commoning the collective around SINEMA TRANSTOPIA organizes another initiative for the discussion around and the new conception of cinema in the transnational society. The international event will kick off with screenings of collectively curated programs from March 31 – June 23, 2022 in Bangkok, Berlin, Cluj, Dubai, Jakarta, Luanda, Istanbul, Santiago de Chile. Accompanied by discussions, these will finally culminate in a three-day symposium in

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Forbidden: Standstill – Imperative: Progress

Rarely have crisis situations brought to light such different positions as the pandemic in the field of the film and cinema industry. During the opening conference of the Week of Criticism on the occasion of the Berlinale, the tension between a new beginning with unlimited fantasies of progress and an upholding and rethinking of lived routines up to activism was examined more closely by means of lectures and panels.

Success course of paid-VoD-services unstoppable

It certainly came as no surprise to anyone that the paid-VoD market continued to post growth rates in 2021. An increase of 25 percent, as evidenced by a study conducted by Goldmedia on behalf of the FFA, should have once again demonstrated the extent and seriousness of the disruptive shifts. But it’s hardly surprising when you consider that only the versatile digital offerings of film festivals provided an alternative to

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New Theme Report shows record results at 100th anniversary of the Motion Picture Association

The Motion Picture Association’s 100th birthday present could hardly have been more gratifying than the figures for the global cinema and home entertainment market (including mobile use, but excluding pay TV), which were presented in March by means of the 70-page Theme Report. With a new record total of $99.7 billion, the figures not only surpassed the first pandemic year by 24 percent, but exceeded even the record $98.1 billion

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An Option Becomes a Constraint: On the Debate Around Online Editions of Film Festivals

After the Sundance edition in January, which by means of further steps towards decentralization now counts the whole world among its enthusiastic audience and thus even offered the global film community a foreshadowing of the Oscar-winning film, the heated debate about an exclusively physical edition of this year’s Berlinale came as no surprise. Similar discussions had already taken place late last summer in the US around similar decisions by the

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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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