Surviving Pandemia: Festivals and the Global Challenge
Throughout 2020, cultural events across the globe had to come up with creative ad hoc solutions that were developed and customized in view of changing epidemiological restrictions. Film festivals have been profoundly affected by the pandemic: some chose to reschedule their programs, some canceled, some went online. The panel will bring together festival representatives from various countries to discuss their experiences and forms of future cooperation that could help the festivals to live through the difficult times. The panel will also address the fundraising strategies and discuss what new forms of support would be most beneficial for the festivals.
Moderator: Oksana Sarkisova, Director, Verzió IHRDFF, Hungary
The discussion is in English.
Csilla Kató has been with Astra Film Festival since 1998. She is working in the departments of communication, film selection / programming, Astra Film Junior, DocumentaryTank @AFF. For several editions from the position of artistic director, coordinates the programming department of the festival. She has served in international film festival juries and was appointed as an expert in various international industry programmes in documentary film festivals across Europe and beyond. She studied cultural anthropology and film at Eötvös Loránt University in Budapest, as well as studies at the London School of Economics and the Australian National University in Canberra.
Ádám Paszternák graduated from Károli Gáspár Protestant University, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Department of English Literature and Culture in 2004. He started working at MEDIA Desk Hungary as project coordinator in 2004, and became managing director of Creative of Creative Europe Desk Hungary and head of the MEDIA sub-programme in 2014.
Tadeusz Strączek is the Festival Coordinator of the WATCH DOCS Human Rights in Film International Film Festival (Poland) organized by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. He is affiliated with WATCH DOCS since 2011. A graduate of the American Studies Center, University of Warsaw; also studied at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Freie Universität Berlin.
Florencia Santucho began her career working for a television channel in Rome, Italy, until she moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she studied at IDAC, Instituto de Artes Cinematográficas de Avellaneda. Since 2004, she has been working as producer, cultural manager and programmer for film festivals and events. She has participated as a jury member in international film festivals and as a panelist at workshops and conferences. Nowadays, she is: the Vicepresident of the Instituto Multimedia DerHumALC (IMD); the Director of the Festival Internacional de Cine de Derechos Humanos (FICDH), the first human rights film festival in South America, and the Festival Internacional de Cine Ambiental (FINCA), both held in Buenos Aires; Board member of the Human Rights Film Network and the Green Film Network.
