06/08/2024

This Dokutalk was dedicated to the ongoing challenges that film festivals face, lessons learned from the pandemic, and strategies for navigating the global political waters. The world has over 5000 film festivals, with Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) being the highest publicly attended, with almost half a million visitors annually.

TIFF’s Dorota Lech was on site to serve as the moderator for our distinguished panel, which included Yulia Kovalenko from Docudays, Eric Hynes from the Museum of the Moving Image in NYC, Afsun Moshiry of the Arsenal for Film and Videokunst e.V. and Camilla Larsson of the Goteborg Film Festival in Sweden.

The panelists discussed the ever-present struggle for funding, how each of their individual festivals recovered from the pandemic, and talked about other challenges and opportunities in the film festival landscape. Festivals play a key part in the filmmaking industry, and while they are beloved by filmmakers and film fans everywhere, they deal with the unique pressures faced by being large scale, in person events.

The panelists touched upon the important role of film festivals in our world, the pressure to provide content online, and how best to not just survive but thrive, by enlarging their audiences and scope as a festival, while remaining true to the original mission and vision of the festival.

Some festivals are partially or totally funded by donations, and while donors are vital financially, it also presents a challenge. The group discussed the tension and difficulty inherent for festivals that wade deeply into subjects like ongoing wars, human rights, social or economic justice, environmental agendas, and other areas where humans naturally tend to disagree with one another.

Some good news came from Camilla who stated “We were afraid of losing our audience after the pandemic, but that did not happen, we found that people are actually seeing more films now than before.” 

Afsun said that Arsenal realized “it was important to have an online market, both to keep our audience, and provide a means for our audience who cannot attend in person.”

Julia from Docudays, held in Kiev, Ukraine each year, stated that her film festival goes on because “When you have this dream, this idea that you love, you simply do it.” DokuFest has joined with her film festival to spotlight the struggle in Ukraine, showcasing life in the warzone endured by Ukrainians, termed “Focus Ukraine”.

By: Scott Hoy

Photo: Elmedina Arapi. 

*The Focus Ukraine project is implemented by DokuFest Kosovo and Docudays UA with the support of IZOLYATSIA foundation, Trans Europe Halles and Malý Berlín and co-financed by the ZMINA: Rebuilding program, created with the support of the European Union under a dedicated call for proposals to support Ukrainian displaced people and the Ukrainian Cultural and Creative Sectors.