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European Children's Film Association
Association Européenne du Cinéma pour l'Enfance et la Jeunesse

Survey

The 2nd Conference of International Children's Film Festivals in Europe

Krems/Austria, September 1998

Results of the working groups

1. Selection of Films – Programming

There is a necessity to discuss the criteria for selecting a film. Festivals must take children seriously, which was taken for granted and thus had not to be discussed.

Wide variety – distinct profile
 On the one hand should each festival show a wide variety of productions, on the other hand should each festival also develop its own distinct profile (which is mostly the case anyway, although the participants complaint about the fact that the same productions are shown at all festivals).

Content: All participants agreed on the following viewpoint – after having seen a movie children should leave the cinema optimistically and full of hope. No matter what story has been told in the film, the end should leave enough room for hope (which is not identical to a Happy End). The life of children as a film-topic should be the main point of focus in selecting festival films. The cultural value of festivals has to be emphasized, thus it is important to stress the notion of film as an artform.

Jury versus individual person
 No agreement could be come to on the question who should be responsible for the actual selection of festival films, whether it should be a jury or an individual person. Nevertheless the majority of participants was in favor of the notion that an artistic director has positive influence on the development of a distinct artistic festival profile.

Sales agents and producers wish for and expect better communication with festivals as well as more information of them, and they also want more transparency in the process of selecting or refusing a film. Especially sales agents are of the opinion that subsidized film copies would be of great help, as they could be sent to all the festivals.

Claim to producers: little children need films too!
 As productions tend to focus more and more on older children and teenagers, festivals would like to see a higher number of productions for children age 5-7 (cf. Denmark). Production companies should be encouraged to take action to produce short films. Directors should be animated to work for young children, too.

To make communication between producers, sales agents and festivals easier, the conference participants agreed to collect material on all European Children's Film Festivals and to publish a folder including information on the program and profile of each festival.

Disagreement about entry fees
 The workgroups were in disagreement about financial issues in terms of fees. On the one hand there were producers demanding festivals to pay for films, as well as distributors who want festivals to contribute to the expenses and on the other hand there was the fact that festivals do not earn enough money from entry-fees as they have to be kept to an absolute minimum. Thus, subsidized copies were considered a solution to the problem (cf. The Netherlands).


2. Competition

Awards are essential for the media, as they increase the importance of the festival and as they also make the festival atmosphere more exiting and enthusiastic. They also rise the expectations of the audience. In this respect a children's jury is very important. Its opinion should not only be accepted but also in no respect manipulated.

Awards are important – Who receives them?
 It is important to distinguish between awards recognizing the artistic value of a production and awards granted for the increase of the national distribution of films. In order to be able to distinguish, it is essential to establish rules. The artistic value of a movie is not necessarily the decisive factor for the commercial success of a production, as well as an award as such does not ensure its successful distribution, e.g. if the film does not meet the criteria of the market.


3. Presentation

A Children's Film Festival is an event. This event includes more than a mere presentation of movies. The ideal situation would thus be one in which the festival is the highlight of continuous work, work that includes the showing of children's film during the year on a regular basis.

Cherry on the cake
 Unfortunately, it is mostly the financial situation that makes these regular showings impossible as festivals barely have enough money for their once-a-year-events. A festival on-tour would be an interesting way to tackle the problems, as the number of people who could see the films would inevitably go up, but – seen from the producers' and distributors' viewpoints – this also results in a reduction of its commercial use.

The presentation of a festival as an event has a number of advantages. For the media and consequently for the audience the actors are the highlights of a festival and thus most important.

The audience meets actors – pros meet each other
 It is very exiting for children to meet actors and directors and to discuss their roles and films. For festival directors, however, it is meetings with sales agents and producers that are the most important and interesting factor of a festival, as these meetings can have lasting effects. The notion of festivals as meeting-points for experts of all fields related to children's films is very important for future productions, as this communicative aspect of festivals allows participants to exchange experiences and suggestions. Thus, festivals should strengthen and extend their position as a (mediating) platform for discussions between people involved in film productions and the film audience.

Relationship to schools
 For media-pedagogic goals it is neither sufficient nor sensible to organize one single festival per year. Thus, it is also not enough to contact schools only once a year (during the festival). On the contrary, a close relationship to schools has to be established on a regular, year-round basis. Special showings for schools are important in this respect, also from a PR point of view. However, the audience should not only be from schools, as this would be too easy and on the long run not useful.

Film Version – various systems
 There is no unified system of techniques, various different ways of presenting a film exist side by side. Festivals as such could not agree on which system is most appropriate, whether it is subtitles (starting at 9 years of age), voice-over versions with (slightly) turned down original voices, original version with real-time dubbing via headsets, or whether the children should be sufficiently prepared to watch and understand the original versions. The soon-to-come voice-over CD-Rom system will solve this problem in the future.


4. Public relations

Good connections to the Press pay off! The energy put into announcements, press material, press screenings is essential for the benefit of the festival. Thus, press work should not only include regional newspapers but also national film periodicals, although the amount of press work depends on the festivals' importance or status (regional, national, international), on its profile as a festival, and also on its program. A lot of festivals do not use the media. This has to be changed. Only a few use either new media such as the internet or approved, successful ways to promote themselves, such as trailers.

Cooperation with TV-Stations differs from festival to festival. Bellinzona and Poznan, for instance, have their daily TV program. It is very important to use all kinds of media to give out as much information about the festivals as possible. News are very important in this respect, as a short report in the prime-time news are definitely worth more than a 30 minutes program broadcast at an inappropriate spot. Although everyone agreed on the importance of press work, it was also commonly acknowledged that press work is very time-consuming and intense.

All festivals agree on the importance of marketing. The cooperate design is thus very essential and has to be well considered as it represents the festival in public, forms the public opinion of the festival and also strongly influences the commercial success of the festival. The festival in Oulu, Finland, for example, sends out its catalogue to approx. sixty thousand households, which guarantees its success, but is financially not feasible for other festivals. Catalogues are important for the documentation of the festivals, both in terms of regional importance and development of the program. They should be a profound source of information and present the films so that people want to watch them. Since subsidies generally go back, new ways of cooperation and commercialization have to be found (cf. joint-ventures with multiplex-cinemas).


 5. Financial matters

In general subsidies have decreased. 80% of the budget of Children's Film Festivals is from public funds. Only a small percentage of the festivals receive subsidies granted by the European Union. Thus, more private funds have to be raised. Festivals agree that sponsors are important in this respect but nevertheless only with a few reservations. Firstly, for some festivals the energy put into sponsoring does not meet the (relatively) small financial outcome and secondly, some festivals have ideological reason why not to be sponsored. However, for most festivals sponsoring as a means to increase their budget is feasible yet impossible. Nevertheless, Children's Film Festivals aim for sponsors like those in professional ski racing or car racing.

There is strong urge of Children's Film Festivals to get more support by the European Union including more transparency and less bureaucratic efforts in dealing with applications for subsidies. (This problem does not seem to be festival specific but EU-specific.)

An alternative to sponsoring are donations (cf. Gera). They are tax-deductible and also ideologically justifiable as nothing is expected in return.


Final Statement:

There is enormous demand for better coordination between the festivals including exchange of material and information.
Better cooperation and coordination by exchanging information:


 

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