Nostradamus is a multiyear international initiative to document and analyse industry changes and make projections for the future. Take part of the reports, seminars and news of the Nostradamus project here!
Spike Lee: Easier to be black and president of the USA than of Hollywood studio
On November 14th, Spike Lee received an honorary Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Governors Awards. He gave a long speech, embedded above – if you’re in a hurry, the autobiographical part starts around the 4 minute mark, and the politics at 9 minutes 45 seconds. Lee welcomed A2020, the Academy’s five-year […]
True crime spearheads next-level long form documentaries while in drama multiplatform, ”pervasive” storytelling moves from niche transmedia experiments into the mainstream. Around two years ago, probably at the Nordic Media Festival in Bergen, I heard Keri Lewis Brown of K7 media mention in passing that we could expect a re-emergence of True Crime into the mainstream. I did […]
Do or Die? The 2018 Nostradamus report is presented
During Göteborg Film Festival 2018 the 5th Nostradamus Report – titled Do or Die? – was presented. It takes on the topics of whether the film industry as we know it will survive, and what European film makers, financiers and exhibitors need to do to compete with the global majors and remain a cultural force.
The Nostradamus Project is run by Göteborg Film Festival and aims to sketch out the future of the screen industries 3-5 years from now, through interviews with industry experts and research. The annual report is written by Johanna Koljonen.
Interviewed in this year’s report are: Nadira Azermai, CEO, ScriptBook; Walter Iuzzolino, Co-founder, Walter Presents; Ivar Køhn, Head of Drama, NRK; Claus Ladegaard, CEO, Danish Film Institute; Marike Muselaers, Co-CEO, Lumière Group; Marie Nilsson, CEO, Mediavision; Edith Sepp, CEO, Estonian Film Institute and Patrick von Sychowski, editor, Celluloid Junkie.
Johanna Koljonen, writer of the Nostradamus Report, said:
– This year’s title reflects this thrilling moment of risk and opportunity faced by the film industry in particular. Cinemas are doing well, but their cultural role is shifting, and a majority of films are consumed in the home as they have been for decades. But now those later windows are all changing, technologically and more importantly in audience behavior. Monetising audience attention in the value chain, reaching especially the younger audiences who don’t respond to advertising, and remaining relevant in the content all requires shifts in attitudes and business models. That has to happen now, and especially European filmmaking with its slow-moving structures really needs to become proactive to stay connected to the audiences.
– We also take a follow-up look on gender equality in front of and behind the cinema as well as in executive positions in the industry. This connects to the more structural issues in that very homogenous leadership is less likely to have a broad understanding of changes out in the world.
At the seminar today, Johanna Koljonen presented the report and discussed it with panelists Thomas Gammeltoft, CEO, Copenhagen Film Fund; Wendy Mitchell, journalist; Edith Sepp, CEO, Estonian Film Institute and Marike Muselaers, Co-CEO, Lumière Group.
The Nostradamus Project is founded and run by Göteborg Film Festival with support from Lindholmen Science Park, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Västra Götalandsregionen and Kulturakademin.
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Looking ahead
How are the screen industries changing in the next 3-5 years?
The screen media are changing fast. With production, distribution and consumption almost entirely digital, business models, audience behaviour and funding systems are in flux. New opportunities arise and old ways of thinking fall by the wayside, while the purpose of film remains the same. Regardless of format and platform, it is still all about moving the audience: sharing, entertaining, challenging, moving, uplifting.
The Nostradamus Project has as its mission to document and predict these changes on a 3-5 year horizon, and to present analysis in a manner that is equally comprehensible to producers and policymakers, stars and students. We do this through interviews with change-makers and people in strategic positions in the industry about what they are doing and creating today. Context is provided by the excellent research and journalism that is publicly available, but which you may be too busy to close read.
We have published five annual Nostradamus reports, on topics ranging from audience expectations to ad-blocking, from distribution to diversity, and from holdback windows to VR. The reports are free to download here; because of the scope, at least the last two tend to be up-to-date.
In addition, we organise international seminars in Göteborg during the Nordic Film Market and in Cannes at the Marché du Film, and with a more Nordic focus during Audiovisual Days. Nostradamus Project analysis has also been presented at film markets from Berlin to Rio, to film funds, and at meetings of for instance the EFADs Think Tank and the EFARN.
