Transforming Production Culture: Towards Social Sustainability in the Film Industry

The film industry continues to be marked by precarious labor, rigid hierarchies, and systemic discrimination. While debates around #MeToo, power abuse, and diversity have gained visibility in the past decade, recent political shifts threaten to erode hard-won progress. This talk frames production culture as a key site where inequalities persist through self-exploitation, project-based precarity, and patriarchal ideas of creative “genius.”

Drawing on findings from the international Gender Equity Policy (GEP) Analysis project (Germany/UK/Canada, 2021–24), I will show how current policies and practices both reveal the scale of inequities and highlight the limits of existing interventions. Using policy analysis, industry interviews, quantitative data, and social network approaches, the project points to the need for systemic reforms that go beyond individual blame.

At the same time, I will spotlight alternative practices - such as queer independent productions, the Fair Film Award, and the OMNI Inclusion initiative - that model more sustainable and equitable ways of working. Extending the discussion across the film value chain, from production to circulation and exhibition, the talk explores how inequities are reproduced in film schools, training programs, and festivals.

Ultimately, I argue for reimagining production cultures within feminist and intersectional frameworks - as collective, sustainable, and equitable rather than competitive and exploitative.