How to be green: A Guide for (short) film festivals

The 2021 2ANNAS Forum CAN WE BE GREEN? – FILM INDUSTRY EXAMPLE, as the title suggests, was focused on sustainability and ways to make the industry more environmentally friendly. 

In collaboration with the Short Film Conference, we organized a masterclass, series of lectures - case studies, and roundtable discussion with professionals during two days on 12th and 13th April. 

As a follow-up, we have created a practical guide to make (short) film festivals more environmentally friendly. This guide contains general tips as well as guidelines to rethink your activities in the area of waste management, merchandise, print, travel, catering, and energy use.

It is important to acknowledge that running any kind of enterprise has an impact on the environment. This guide is not intended to eliminate all impacts of our activity, rather it suggests practical tips and solutions that will help festival organizers to become more sustainable. Some of the suggestions are small steps while others are more comprehensive changes. Every one of these actions we take is useful, and we encourage festival teams to begin with the easiest tasks first.

Not everything is in our hands, but festival organizers have influence. By having these conversations we can start to change the wider culture and working practices. It’s the whole film sector's responsibility to get behind greening our industry. 

The Guide has been created together with Lotte Kircher (Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur), Sven Schwartz (Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg), Clotilde De Swarte (Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, FNC), Claire O'Neill (A Greener Festival), Guna Dātava (Institute for Environmental Solutions), Bek Berger (New Theatre Institute of Latvia), Daina Auziņa un Raivis Sīmansons (Museums for Environmental Sustainability), Gundega Turnele (Laba Daba), Kristīne Brīniņa (Choreographer).

A more sustainable future awaits!

DOWNLOAD PDF GUIDE