Together with film students at Babelsberg Film Academy, the “Workshop Film Festival Labour” of German media trade union ver.di is researching justice in the film festival sector and has for the first time presented the Fair Festival Award: The winner is 30-year-old Kinofest Lünen near Düsseldorf, just rebranded as KinoFilmFestLünen. The Porn Film Festival Berlin, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, the Short Film Festival Hamburg, the International Women's Film Festival Dortmund/Cologne and the Film Festival Max Ophüls Preis also received the "Fair Festival" rating.Saturday, July 17. 2021
The fairest film festival is...
Together with film students at Babelsberg Film Academy, the “Workshop Film Festival Labour” of German media trade union ver.di is researching justice in the film festival sector and has for the first time presented the Fair Festival Award: The winner is 30-year-old Kinofest Lünen near Düsseldorf, just rebranded as KinoFilmFestLünen. The Porn Film Festival Berlin, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, the Short Film Festival Hamburg, the International Women's Film Festival Dortmund/Cologne and the Film Festival Max Ophüls Preis also received the "Fair Festival" rating.The FAIR FESTIVAL AWARD was determined based on the fairness performance of German film festivals. Festival workers rated their festivals using a survey in several categories such as contracting, working conditions, communication, leadership, work culture, co-determination, equal opportunities, equal treatment, and remuneration, and rated them on a four-point scale from fair to unfair. Kinofest Lünen came out on top with the best rating (3.78 out of 4) given to a festival in Germany by its employees. The survey was conducted in 2020 by Prof. Dr. Skadi Loist and Sarah Herbst as a cooperation project of the Babelsberg Film University and ver.di. Fairness in the workplace is not created by general legal provisions alone, but is also ensured through their enforcement and through constructive teamwork and characterized by equality, honesty and appropriateness, stated the union.
However, the aim of the survey was not only to select the fairest film festival in Germany, but also to investigate the sparsely documented field of working conditions at film festivals, which has hardly been explored scientifically to date. The resulting industry picture provides a first vivid sketch of working conditions in the German film festival landscape and gives an insight into the structures, even if it is not representative of the entire industry and thus highlights the need for further research.
"The FAIR FESTIVAL AWARD 2020 survey made it clear that the film festival industry contributes to precarious and gendered working conditions: 39% of the festival workers surveyed cannot make a living from this work alone, and the career paths of women and men diverge greatly. That's why it's important to recognize the festivals that are doing better with the FAIR FESTIVAL AWARD. Public funding institutions should insist that the film festivals they support ensure fair working conditions," says Christoph Schmitz from ver.di's national executive board.
Read the full survey report here.
image: courtesy Kinofest Lünen, red carpet 17 November 2019
However, the aim of the survey was not only to select the fairest film festival in Germany, but also to investigate the sparsely documented field of working conditions at film festivals, which has hardly been explored scientifically to date. The resulting industry picture provides a first vivid sketch of working conditions in the German film festival landscape and gives an insight into the structures, even if it is not representative of the entire industry and thus highlights the need for further research.
"The FAIR FESTIVAL AWARD 2020 survey made it clear that the film festival industry contributes to precarious and gendered working conditions: 39% of the festival workers surveyed cannot make a living from this work alone, and the career paths of women and men diverge greatly. That's why it's important to recognize the festivals that are doing better with the FAIR FESTIVAL AWARD. Public funding institutions should insist that the film festivals they support ensure fair working conditions," says Christoph Schmitz from ver.di's national executive board.
Read the full survey report here.
image: courtesy Kinofest Lünen, red carpet 17 November 2019
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