Fresh data from the East West Index 2021, which analyses the representation of different regions at documentary film festivals, was presented today during the debate Back to “Normal”? at Marché du Film / Cannes Docs, co-organised by the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.
The data collected at 14 European film festivals in 2020 and 2021 have shown that as a result of the pandemic most festivals have decided to cut the number of selected films in their programme. This reduction amounts to 22% in total, with some of the film festivals in focus (such as IDFA, DOK Leipzig and Dokufest Kosovo) having to reduce their programme even more dramatically – to one third or even a half compared with the “regular” year 2019. As a result of the cuts, one in four or five films is missing from festival programmes.
”In terms of regional balance we can see that the programme structure has not changed much, but if we focus on the details, we see how dangerous this trend of cutting down the festival programme can be: The underrepresented regions were even less represented during the Covid year. Of course, the number of films is not the only key criterion when analyzing the impact of film festivals, but losing such a big space for filmmakers might affect the diversity of presented films and change the European film infrastructure“, says Marek Hovorka, director of Ji.hlava IDFF which has been behind the regular East West Index surveys in the past years.
You can find more info in the press release attached below.
