Film festivals are a universalist project that was associated with the hope of overcoming social particularisation and political division through cultural understanding and artistic progress – through something that concerns everyone. This project has clearly fallen into crisis. With the transformation of film culture and cinema in the last two decades due to the establishment of the internet as a mass medium and the digitalisation and economisation of all areas of life, but also due to the intensification of social distribution struggles, film festivals are simultaneously confronted with numerous new tasks and challenges. The cinema as a venue for film festivals and public discourse has been pushed to the sidelines of society. Identity politics and culturalisation, the translation of political and economic conflicts into standards of lifestyle and world view in the field of culture, are social challenges that have recently affected film festivals in particular in terms of their self-image and mission. At the same time, the economic conditions for film festivals are deteriorating rapidly in the wake of the great pandemic and armed conflicts. Under these changing conditions, the question arises as to what remains of the original self-image of film festivals and whether and how film festivals will still be able to fulfil their mission.

5 May 2024 10:00 a.m. Why festivals? The politicization of culture

The artistic autonomy of festivals suffers increasingly from the imposition of political gestures such as petitions, cancellations, the withdrawal of works, boycotts, and accusations of censorship. Festivals are reclaimed as a stage and resonance chamber for political views, not aesthetics. The general question ‘Why festivals?’ must now be reformulated: Why do political gestures mainly affect festivals as a genuine platform of discourse, cultural understanding and aesthetic diversity?