The film and TV industry is currently operating in a climate of fear, scarcity, and pressure that is stifling creativity and forcing stakeholders to default to tried and tested formulas rather than taking chances on new voices or unfamiliar narratives, according to a new expansive report by the anti-racism think tank for European Film (ARTEF).
Titled “A New Europe Must Emerge: Rethinking Power, People And Pipelines In European Cinema,” ARTEF’s report was launched at this year’s Göteborg Film Festival. Producer Victoria Thomas and academic Dr Regina Mosch authored the report and compiled data through discussions with stakeholders from across the European film sector, including producers, journalists, film funders, awards bodies, and filmmakers.
The report states that a series of conflating issues, such as widespread budget cuts, technological disruption, the dominance of streamers, and economic instability, have caused the feeling of fear and crisis across the industry. An acute example of how this shapes industry output, according to the report, is how film festivals function.
The report says that film festivals are operating under enormous pressure and fear for their survival. “This anxiety creates tension between risk management and risk aversion,” the report states, “with festivals often defaulting to safer programming choices, which may conflict with the goal of discovering new voices.”
Film festivals “must evolve in an industry marked by rapid change and evolution of traditional release windows,” the report concludes.
The report offers several recommendations to address these contemporary anxieties. For pubic funders, the report urges the creation of separate funding streams for newcomers “so they do not compete directly with established companies that have existing relationships and market access.”
Scroll down below for the full industry-wide recommendations offered by ARTEF. The anti-racism think tank was founded in 2020 and works with funding bodies and film festivals across Europe. The think tank is currently led by a steering committee of volunteers, including producer and director Filson Ali, director Veronique Doumbé, producer Helene Granqvist, producer Emile Hertling Péronard, and director Johanna Makabi, alongside Mosch and Thomas.
Key Recommendations:
- Reframe conversations about representation to focus beyond on-screen visibility and
interrogate inclusion in all segments of the value chain and at all levels of seniority. - Rethink cultural definitions of success and the traditional routes to market. The current
system was developed over seventy years ago and, whilst revolutionary at the time, may need
to evolve to better serve practitioners and audiences today. - Map and track the impact of diversity initiatives on participants and the industry as a whole,
paying careful consideration to the nuanced differences between diversity in participation and
inclusion in decision-making and power sharing. - Recognise that terminology like ‘racialised minorities’, ’BIPOC, ‘BAME’ ‘People of colour’
‘Ethnic Minority’ ‘Minority Ethnic’, while a useful shorthand, aggregates multiple racial
identities which do not always face the same challenges. Intersectionality within specific
communities must also be considered in any conversation about racial equality. - Industry stakeholders should engage with film schools to encourage diversification of faculty,
curriculum and student recruitment, recognising that change at this foundational level can
have long-term impact across the entire ecosystem. - Support niche circuits already doing the work of discovery and engaging with practitioners and
audiences that mainstream institutions are not reaching. - While it is efficient to use existing organisations to curate panels and supply mentors or
trainers for programmes and talent, consider that these networks may also have their own
taste and if you are simply endorsing their gatekeeping. Diversify sources. - Create intentional interventions that plug the identified gaps, ideally through open calls with
transparency on how selections are made followed by audits on impact.
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