Festivals: 'We Don't Judge Artists by Their Passport' — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Laurence Herszberg, general director of Séries Mania, issued the panel's most direct call for protection of programming autonomy — 'we don't judge artists by their passport, we judge them by their works' — and warned that festivals increasingly face pressure from politicians and groups objecting to the representation of certain countries.
- Toronto Film Festival is launching its first formal market this year, with CEO Cameron Bailey framing it as 'the fertilizer of the ecosystem' that feeds a steady supply of ambitious films and pointing to the 15-year-old Next Wave youth program as proof audience-building pays off.
- Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle put audience development at the center of her remarks, noting the festival drew 450,000 admissions last year while sitting 'at the eye of a political storm,' with Cannes president Iris Knobloch countering that her festival's 40,000 accredited participants from 140 countries and 4,000-plus journalists remain 'the real shining light on films and the talent all over the world.'
- Red Sea Film Foundation CEO Faisal Baltyuor said the last edition sold out every screening and that 11 Foundation-supported films appeared at Venice while eight are heading to Toronto, underscoring the festival's role as a launchpad for regional talent.
- San Sebastián deputy director Maialen Beloki warned that shrinking press resources are eroding festival coverage: 'Each year, media send less and less critics to the festival' and 'we are losing our capacity to talk about the films with some time and with some respect,' according to the source.
- Durban FilmMart Institute director Magdalene Reddy was the only panelist to answer 'no' when moderator Rajendra Roy asked whether festivals could survive without the American industry, framing her dissent around a focus on African content and cinema infrastructure gaps on the continent.
- MAMI Mumbai director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur said his restored-film screenings regularly draw 1,000 to 1,400 people and all MAMI events are free, while Annecy's Mickaël Marin highlighted a permanent exhibition space that opened last June as part of his push to broaden the animation festival beyond its professional base since 2018.
Why it matters: Festival chiefs publicly drew a red line around political interference with programming at a moment when their events face mounting scrutiny over geopolitical representation, with the lone dissenter — Durban FilmMart's Magdalene Reddy — revealing that Global South festivals remain structurally dependent on American industry support that the rest of the panel took for granted.
Ask SkimNews
