Austrian Film Festival Forum: Cultural Governance and Accountability in Viennese Film Festivals

Verena Teissl (PhD, University of Innsbruck) is a professor of Cultural Management at the University of Applied Sciences Kufstein, Tirol (Austria). She specializes in festival studies and, for two decades, has worked for film festivals, including the Viennale. Since 2016, she has been a member of the subsidy advisory board for the city of Vienna’s film festival funding scheme.
Elisabeth Mayerhofer (MA, University of Graz/University of Vienna) teaches cultural management at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. She is chief of staff and senior political advisor for the city councillor responsible for cultural affairs and science in Vienna.
Wendy Reid (PhD, York University) is an honorary professor of Arts Management at HEC Montréal. She was a manager in the cultural field for 25 years and later served as associate professor at HEC Montréal, recently retired. Her research work continues, with a particular focus on co-leadership, governance and philanthropy in non-profit arts organizations. 

ABSTRACT
This article draws a portrait of the Austrian Film Festival Forum, an interest group that represents the concerns of film festivals. Austrian film festivals are non-profit organizations and belong to a cultural sector committed to a civil society that emerged in the 1970s. The sector is regulated by funding laws but its working conditions are inherently precarious. Interest groups have been advocating for Fair Pay and have been developing strategies for cooperative cultural governance as well as mutual accountability. Among other projects, the Forum has seen to the establishment of a coherent funding program for film festivals in Vienna that is guided by an expert subsidy advisory board in the hope of improving funding conditions. The authors examine the Forum’s activities in the context of cultural non-profit organizations in a welfare state. They analyze the Forum’s strategies as well as the dynamics that have accompanied the process of establishing and implementing a dedicated funding program for film festivals.
KEYWORDS
Non-profit film festivals, interest groups, expert subsidy advisory board
RÉSUMÉ
Cette étude propose un portrait du Forum des festivals de film autrichiens, un groupe d’intérêt qui représente les préoccupations des festivals de cinéma. Les festivals de cinéma autrichiens sont sans but lucratif et ils ont émergé dans les années 1970 comme un secteur culturel ancré dans la société civile. Le secteur a été reconnu par des lois de financement, mais ses conditions de travail sont par nature précaires. Des groupes d’intérêt militent en faveur d’une rémunération équitable et ont mis de l’avant des stratégies de gouvernance culturelle coopérative et de responsabilité mutuelle. Le Forum est parvenu, entre autres, à établir un programme de financement cohérent pour les festivals de film de Vienne. Le soutien public fourni par ce programme est déterminé par un comité consultatif d’experts et il vise à améliorer les conditions de soutien public. L’étude analyse les activités du Forum dans le contexte des organismes culturels sans but lucratif dans un État-providence et rend compte des stratégies et de la dynamique qui ont accompagné la création et la mise en œuvre du programme de soutien public.
MOTS CLÉS
Festivals de cinéma sans but lucratif, groupes d’intérêt, comité consultatif d’experts en matière de subventions