Middle East

Autumn Fest Politics & Press Coverage; Visions Sud Est & Singapore’s The Projector

Liz Shackleton

22 Aug 2025 — 10 min read

'Lost Land' is premiering in Venice Horizons

Before we dig into this week’s stories, just a quick note to say that Streamlined’s upgrade is now complete. I’ve moved off Substack and both the newsletters and the website that was previously known as Streamlined Global (with an archive of ten years of industry news) are now available on a new platform at Streamlined.news. The new platform is connected to Stripe, just like Substack, so paying subscribers can be assured that their information is safe. However, they will no longer receive a bunch of dubious growth hack emails asking them to subscribe to other publications.

My reasons for moving off Substack are many – but probably the biggest is that Substack is pivoting into being a social media platform, rather than just a publishing tool, without having any real content moderation. So if you’ve signed up for a Substack publication, you may find yourself being pushed into signing up for other publications you have no interest in or even receive a push notification for a neo-Nazi newsletter. Streamlined’s new platform is also part of a community of independent publishers, but each publication remains part of its own distinct ecosystem and is not trying to drive you towards yet another social media website or app.

It's been a busy few weeks in the international film biz, so this week’s newsletter is looking at the politically charged autumn festival season (and some sad news from Switzerland and Singapore), while next week will focus on AI.

Autumn Film Festival Politics & Realities Of The Media

There’s a huge array of films from Asia, Africa and the Middle East being launched during this year’s autumn festival season (see here for Venice & Locarno line-ups and here for Toronto & San Sebastian) and not surprisingly, given what is going on in the world, many of these films deal with hard-hitting social and political issues.

Locarno, which wrapped last weekend, premiered Abbas Fahdel’s Tales Of The Wounded Land, about the war in southern Lebanon; Israeli filmmaker Eran Kolirin’s absurdist Some Notes On The Current Situation, which reflects on Israeli identity and the ongoing war; and Kamal Aljafari’s With Hasan In Gaza, documenting a trip through Gaza in 2001. Venice, which kicks off next week (August 27), has Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice Of Hind Rajab, about the killing of a five-year-old Palestinian girl, in competition; while Orizzonti selection Lost Land, directed by Akio Fujimoto, follows the plight of Rohingya refugees.

Toronto has Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36, a historical drama set in 1930s Palestine, in Gala Presentations; Barry Avrich’s documentary The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, about a retired Israeli general rescuing his family during the October 7 Hamas attacks, in TIFF Docs; Eimi Imanishi’s Nomad Shadow, about a refugee being deported back to Western Sahara, in Centrepiece; and is replaying many politically charged films from other festivals across its various sections.

But as the world becomes more polarised and war-torn, film festivals are inevitably going to get caught up in the maelstrom – from on-site protests calling for an end to the violence in Gaza; to deeply emotional online battles exacerbated by social media; and controversy over the screening – or non-screening – of certain films.

Toronto has already got itself into trouble by pulling The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue from TIFF Docs, a move it said was prompted by uncleared footage rather than censorship, before promptly reversing the decision following an outcry. Last week, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey issued a statement to say a resolution had been found to the clearance issues and the festival was reinstating the film. The festival faced a similar controversy last year when it pulled the documentary Russians At War due to “significant threats to festival operations and public safety”.

Of course, festivals have to tread a fine line between providing an objective and censorship-free platform for debate – possibly one of the few platforms left in these days of fractured online communications – and protecting their guests and sponsors. But complicating all these issues are the festivals’ relationships with the press, which unfortunately is rarely looking for objective and nuanced discussion, because that doesn’t generate clicks.

A discussion among festival heads at the on-going Sarajevo film festival, reported here by Variety, brings up some interesting points about how festivals have an obligation to show “uncomfortable and divisive films”, but perhaps doesn't take into account the extent to which talks at festivals are judged and remembered through their online press coverage, rather than the physical events themselves, which at best can only reach a few hundred people.

Berlin film festival head Tricia Tuttle described festivals as a “space where you can start difficult conversations” that could “show us something much more complex than a news piece can do”, while Sarajevo head Jovan Marjanović said: “It’s important to make the distinction that festivals are not your source of news. It’s a way to get a broader picture and reflect. If we communicate that, we will reduce the amount of tension created by social media and sometimes fake news.”

Marjanović continued: “The last two years have become overly politicised. Festivals should be political; we have brought it upon ourselves, but we need to calm down a little. It is hard, but it’s manageable.”

These are laudable ideas, but the reality of modern media is that if a filmmaker or speaker on a panel says something controversial at your festival, it will be that truncated statement that makes the news, and not the reflection and nuanced debate. Going slightly off topic here, earlier this year Johnnie To made some pro-Trump comments at Qumra that were perhaps reported out of context and created huge consternation in the international film community, without taking into consideration the pain this Hong Kong filmmaker likely feels now that he no longer has the freedom to make the kind of films he used to excel in.

He was perhaps thinking along the lines of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, but there is no time or space for these considerations when you’re filing news from an international film festival. The business model of most media publications is dependent on huge volumes of internet traffic to sell digital advertising and the fastest and most controversial take will get the most clicks. As journalists toiling away for the international film trades, we are judged on how much traffic we generate and how fast we publish - the story that goes up first gets the most clicks. Critics tell me it’s the same for film reviews, especially in Cannes. Usually there’s hardly enough time to spellcheck, let alone reflect.

Add to this the recent impact of AI overviews, which are shredding the internet traffic of most online publications, as very few internet users click beyond the AI-generated summaries to the original websites. As what is known in the industry as “organic traffic” starts to fall off a cliff, publishers are becoming even more desperate to regain lost traffic.

Sadly none of this is likely to change unless the international film media figures out a more sustainable business model. Of course, all the trades have excellent journalists who are trying to do good work, but the economic pressures are real and excellent journalists are losing their jobs.

I’m resisting the temptation to tout subscription rather than advertising-based media here. But we need better business models and different ways of covering film festivals and the wider cinema market, especially in these troubled times, because more than ever we need the space to debate and analyse rather than churn out clickbait headlines and heavily compromised promotional features. But then as journalism jobs are among the most vulnerable in the impending AI tsunami, I’m not holding my breath.

End Of Switzerland’s Visions Sud Est & Singapore’s The Projector

Unfortunately, this edition of Streamlined is ending on a few downbeat items – but it’s important to mark what we’re losing so we can start thinking about how to replace it. Last week, Screen carried a report on the closure of Switzerland’s Visions Sud Est fund, which supports the production and post-production of films and documentaries from Africa, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe.

The fund, which made its final call on August 1, will shut down at the end of September 2026 due to cuts announced by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), although it will continue to sponsor two awards at Visions du Reel’s industry platform and Locarno’s Open Doors programme in 2026.

Since its launch in 2005, the fund has supported more than 200 films, recently including Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, Pepe from Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias, C.J. Obasi’s Mami Wata., Amanda Nell Eu’s Tiger Stripes, and Truong Minh Quy’s Viet And Nam.

Upcoming films supported by Visions Sud Est include two headed for Venice – Iranian filmmaker Ali Asgari’s The Divine Comedy and A Sad And Beautiful World from Lebanese filmmaker Cyril Aris – as well as Spying Stars from Sri Lanka’s Vimukthi Jayasundara. The fund handed out $62,000 (CHF50,000) for production and $25,000 (CHF20,000) for post-production of narrative features, so not unsubstantial amounts.

To put this into context, the Swiss government is shaving $121m (CHF110m) from its 2025 international aid budget as it increases military spending at a time of “heightened geopolitical tension”, which basically means the threat from Russia. Among the organisations that will receive less Swiss funding are UNAids, UNICEF and the Global Partnership for Education. We probably need to get used to this, because inevitably there will be less cultural funding from Europe in a time of war.

**'All We Imagine As Light' was backed by Visions Sud Est**

Finally, Singapore was hit this week by the sudden closure of arthouse cinema The Projector, which has gone into voluntary liquidation with debts of more than S$1.2m. Located in Singapore’s Golden Mile Tower, the site was a cultural hub that in addition to showing arthouse movies also hosted live performances and arts events. Judging by social media posts this week, the local film industry is feeling the loss deeply.

In this case, it’s good old-fashioned late-stage capitalism, not public funding cuts, that is the culprit, as Singapore’s sky-high rents and other costs are making it increasingly difficult to operate cultural spaces. Of course streaming and changing customer habits are also to blame, but it’s worth noting that across Asia, cinema is flourishing in countries where property is not yet ridiculously over-valued – Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia – and dying in countries, or at least cities with massive property inflation – Seoul, Singapore and my hometown of Hong Kong.

It's not just cinemas that are suffering – restaurants, retail spaces and small businesses are also undergoing a mass extinction event in these cities mostly because they can’t afford to pay the rent and customers can’t afford to spend in them. This is going to sound wildly idealistic, but could rent control be the answer? Or should government film commissions think about supporting distribution and exhibition, rather than just production? Otherwise, we are going to end up living in cultural deserts.

As a member of the start-up and freelance community (i.e. not rich), I’m personally struggling with the decision to either stay in Hong Kong and support the culture that is left or moving to a place where I can afford to visit the cinema and eat out a few times a week. I'm sure I’m not the only one facing this dilemma.

IN THE TRADES:

Autumn Fest Politics & Press Coverage; Visions Sud Est & Singapore’s The Projector

Liz Shackleton

Autumn Film Festival Politics & Realities Of The Media

End Of Switzerland’s Visions Sud Est & Singapore’s The Projector

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