Locarno: Arianna Bocco, Mariette Rissenbeek, Agnieszka Moody to Discuss ‘What’s the Deal With Independent Cinema?’ in Fest Keynote (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comNick Vivarelli International Correspondent Former IFC Films president Arianna Bocco, Berlinale managing director Mariette Rissenbeek and the British Film Institute’s head of industry and international policy Agnieszka Moody are set as keynote speakers for the upcoming Locarno Film Festival’s StepIN think tank on the most pressing issues in the indie film industry.
The Swiss fest’s unique event, now at its 11th edition, will explore various aspects of this year’s timely theme, which is “What’s the Deal With Independent Cinema?” A select group of European and international industry players — distributors, exhibitors, producers, sales agents, film institutions, financiers, streaming platforms, broadcasters and film festival and markets reps — will be participating in closed working sessions to exchange thoughts on practices and business models and propose new ideas and strategies.
The themes of this year’s four StepIN roundtables are: the theatrical battlefield between independents, majors and streamers; how to protect the “biodiversity of content and voices” in the current production ecosystem; the dynamics of film festivals torn between commercial constraints and cultural considerations; and the state of gender equality and diversity representation five years after France’s Collectif 50/50 took to Cannes to protest the lack of female representation and diversity across the film industry.
Of course, other themes impacting the European indie industry — such as the overseas reverberations of the current actors’ and writers’ strikes in the U.S.
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