Plea for a festival pact

Since the pandemic breakout, most festivals have faced or are bound to face an unprecedented situation. Film production has stalled, cinemas are closed, releases are postponed, markets are paralyzed, technicians and artists are left unemployed and directors see no sign of prospect.

In this weakened environment, film festivals of all sizes and all genres, but also TV and documentary festivals, had to react urgently.

Each of them followed different paths adapted to their industry, their audience, their size, their sponsors and partners. Some decided to digitize all or part of their program, others to cancel or postpone their 2020 edition.

Whether or not affiliated with FIAPF, international festivals have so far operated according to written or unwritten rules, which guarantee the circulation of films and the market’s fluidity. These rules serve as points of reference for sellers and producers, while aiming to preserve cultural diversity and a dynamic audience pledge.

These rules, though, are not set in stone and often have no legal basis. They have evolved and continue to evolve along with technologies and according to the needs of the industry and the market.

The digitalisation of their programs is a real revolution in the history of festivals. And if they are, for the most part, willing to go back into movie theatres and a live audience once the pandemic has passed, because a festival is more than ever about bringing people together for a state of the art screening.

But there is every reason to believe that many festivals will maintain a digital part in addition to their “physical” program and that this use of digital technology will become widespread.

For most of us, the digital shift was taken in an emergency, without any predefined course of action, depending on negotiations with rights holders and filmmakers. The abrupt transition to digital did not have time to be the subject of a global consultation between the key players of the audiovisual industry.

We believe that if digital is here to stay, in whatever form and whatever the importance we attribute to it within our programming, we must, in consultation with the filmmakers, producers, sellers, distributors, national and international public institutions, agree on a few rules. We have to protect the ecosystem of the audiovisual industry by guaranteeing a healthy circulation and diversity of audiovisual programs and films, a fair remuneration of rights holders as well as a committed dialogue with the audience

We therefore call for concerted action between the festivals and the industry players likely to be impacted by this digital revolution of non-commercial screening (associations, national and European institutions, representatives of rights holders).

In the meantime, and in order not to further weaken the audiovisual sector, we undertake to:

- Geo-block for the audience the online diffusion of national and international premieres

- Loosen, as much as possible, our rules on international premieres for films that have been recently premiered online.

Festivals already signed the plea:

• 58th FICX | Gijon IFF
• ACAMPADOC IDFF Panamá
• African American Women In Cinema Film Festival
• African Film Festivals Association
• Amiens International Film festival
• Arc Film Festival
• Athens International Digital Film Festival (AIDFF)
• British Film Institute
• Cameroon International Film Festival - CAMIFF
• Carthage Film Festival JCC
• CINEMANIA FILM FESTIVAL
• Crossing Europe Film Festival Linz
• Cyprus Film Days IFF
• Cyprus International Film Festival
• DOK.fest München
• Duhok International Film Festival
• Durban International Film Festival
• exground filmfest Wiesbaden
• Fantasia Film Festival
• Festival cine por mujeres
• Festival des 3 Continents
• Festival International du Film Oriental de Genève
• FICValdivia - Valdivia IFF
• Film Fest Gent
• FIPADOC
• goEast - Festival of Central and Eastern European Film
• Golden Rooster Film Festival
• ICFF “Manaki Brothers”
• IFFMH - International Film Festival Mannheim Heidelberg
• International Francophone Film Festival Tuebingen | Stuttgart
• Istanbul Film Festival
• Jerusalem Film Festival
• Kyiv International Film Festival Molodist
• Leeds International Film Festival
• Ljubljana Intl. Film Festival
• Luxembourg City Film Festival
• MakeDox, Creative Documentary Film Festival
• Modiband - Mi primer festival de cine
• New Horizons IFF
• Nollywood Travel Film Festival
• Noordelijk Film Festival
• Psarokokalo International Short Film Festival
• Razor Reel Flanders Film Festival
• REGARD (Saguenay Intl Short Film Festival)
• Rwanda Film Festival
• San Diego Asian Film Festival
• Sarajevo Film Festival
• Sedicicorto Forlí International Film Festival
• Seville European Film Festival
• Shawna Shea Memorial Film Festival
• ShorTS International Film Festival - Associazione Maremetraggio Trieste
• Sofia International Film Festival
• Stockholm Int Film Festival
• Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
• Thessaloniki Film Festival
• Torino Film Festival
• Toronto Jewish Film Festival
• Trento Film Festival
• Trieste Film Festival - Alpe Adria Cinema
• West Side Mountains Doc Fest

Sign the form here