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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Förderfonds de⁺ Goethe-Institut launches new funding program for film festivals

In cooperation with the German Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut is launching a new funding program for film festivals in Germany with an international focus. The Förderfonds de⁺ supports festivals that have an international profile or would like to develop one. The total amount of funding is 200,000 euros per year, and an external jury decides on the award in two rounds of calls for proposals each year. Film festivals and

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Film Culture Check for the Bundestag Election: 8 Questions to 7 Parties on the Future of Cinema and Film Culture

The Initiative Future Cinema+Film (IZK+F), an alliance of professional associations, interest groups and networks in film culture and the film industry, had asked seven political parties eight questions about their visions of the future of cinema and film culture, so-called Wahlprüfsteine. The questions take a critical look at a cinema situation characterized by disruptive change and, with the demand for more artistic diversity in German film, point to a necessary

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Film festivals back as meeting places for film lovers as for filmmakers

While the Berlinale Summer Special with 16 open-air venues (June 9-20) was celebrated as a summer fairy tale even before the first screening, while Cannes made surprising concessions to gender parity at the festival, which was postponed until July 6-17, and Tribecca prepared to extend its presence to the entire city of New York for the first time from June 9-20, Austria sent audiences and creatives alike into a veritable

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Hollywood Foreign Press Association white to the core

Even though the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a the small circle of about 90 journalists with a California residency who award the Golden Globe every year, has been the subject of numerous scandals, it now seems that the privileged closed club can no longer legitimize its claim to power.  For a long time, attempts had been made to evade movements in the film industry in the context of me too

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European films in cinemas worldwide between a fragmented audience market and a flood of films

Even if it is not possible to quantify the total market volume for theatrical films along their value chain based on consumer spending due to a lack of transparency, at least the window of theatrical exploitation, as one of four main market segments, can be more closely defined. A report published recently by the European Audiovisual Observatory reveals a surprising picture and confirms the trend towards a „flood of films“,

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