IFFR Pro Panel – Thrive and Survive – How to Build and Sustain a Career as a Filmmaker & Curator

The marketplace – from film festivals to institutions, from funders to decision-makers – proclaims support for new voices, but how do filmmakers and artists actually sustain themselves? Making an impact with a successful first or second film can at times become a burden. How to produce new work that can match that same level? And how to survive in the meantime? For curators it can be an equally difficult path to develop a distinct focus and practice in connecting and championing disparate works and voices while working independently or within changing cultural institutions with limited resources.

The panel will address some of the challenges and conflicts faced by creators and curators alike, looking at distinct stories and examples and consider ways to thrive and survive.

Moderated by Delly Shirazi (Locarno – Open Doors), with curator Nico Marzano (Institute of Contemporary Arts, London), freelance film programmer, writer and creative producer Anna Bogutskaya, filmmaker and festival director Michel Lipkes (FICUNAM) and Angolan filmmaker Fradique (Air Conditioner), producer/filmmaker Laura Citarella (Las poetas visitan a Juana Bignozzi) and independent film programmer Puiyee Leong.