NEWS
Strategic Sustainability Meeting

Guillaume Calop, the General Manager and Co-founder of the Les Arcs Film Festival arranged a strategic MIOB’s sustainability meeting during the Les Arcs Film Festival.

The Green Charter for Film Festivals originated in 2021 at Les Arcs and now counts around sixty signatory festivals.

New ideas for tackling environmental issues as well as reviewing current achievements helped to draw a new eco-conscious map and examples to experiment and test-drive for the future.

Guillaume Esmiol, the Executive Director of the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film noted that over 80% of the event's carbon footprint is a result of attendees travelling to Cannes, as well as their accommodation. To offset this, all attendees are required to pay a €20 eco-contribution fee that is included in the price of the badge.

Gerald Harringer, the Head of Marketing at the Crossing Europe Filmfestival Linz presented a KlimaKultur GreenEvent OÖ certification, obtained by the festival.

Agne Zeringyte, the Administrator at the European Film Forum Scanorama overviewed improvement in filling in the Green Charter and Vaida Kazlauskaite, Project Coordinator at MIOB and Scanorama presented the festival’s switch to electric cars and ecological film screenings. Goda Januskeviciute, Head of Communications at MIOB and Scanorama raised an idea of a sustainability advisor for the festivals.

Joshua Jádi, the Programmer at FilmFestival Cottbus overviewed the recent festival’s initiative of providing all guests with up to 10 hours length train travels instead of previously common plane arrivals and their EcoEast program, dealing with ecological topics in Eastern Europe and struggling to find a financial sponsor.

Sandrine Brauer, the Executive Director of the Festival Nouvelles Vagues in Biarritz, France, oriented towards coming-of-age films, presented a 50 / 50 parity initiative in programming that is also followed by the MIOB’s festivals in competition sections and the festival’s no plastic policy.

Thomas Rosso, the General Coordinator of the Cannes Film Festival's Critics' Week overviewed abandoning the printed catalog, switching to a digital program and ticketing system, and the audience's reaction to receiving a more sustainable bag, not being changed every year.

Though sustainability initiatives may take time and guts, it seems that sharing the practice altogether and generating new ideas may move mountains. Moving Mountains is a program at the Les Arcs Film Festival, whose labeling inspired some new ideas for future sustainability actions.

Signing the Green Charter means committing to reduce the emissions we generate and adopting a constructive attitude towards our natural and human environments.