Greening Film Festivals

Abstract

In this chapter we seize the momentum of the pandemic crisis and its disruption of the film festival world to consider festivals’ stake in the climate and ecological crisis. We will delineate three layers of concern that need to be considered holistically when taking on the challenge of greening film festivals. The first layer tackles the context of festival operations, namely, all arrangements and preparations required to organize festival events. The second layer addresses the emergent discourse of environmentalist media studies, which urges festival scholars to consider critically the consequences of the virtualization of film festivals. The third layer puts the “eco” back into “ecosystem.” The phrase “festival ecosystem” itself is becoming popular in the discourse on film festivals. We think that the time is right to bring what we are calling the festival ecosystem back into a more literal relationship with “environmental media,” media infrastructure and its material relations to the biological environment. This will entail a rethinking of how that ecosystem can be made to work in balance with our planetary needs regarding its natural resources and include acknowledging there are the limits to widespread festival mechanisms that are rooted in logics of growth and abundance.