The famous event has not recovered since the corona pandemic.
Film festival Love & Anarchy has run into financial difficulties. The festival is seeking help from its audience with a support campaign, which also includes three special performances.
In support presentations, ticket buyers can choose how much they pay for the ticket from three options. Ticket sales start on Monday.
The corona pandemic has affected the finances of the Rakkautat & Anarkiaa festival. Before the pandemic, the festival’s screenings were attended by 60,000 spectators at their best. This year there were 51,000 spectators.
In addition to the decrease in ticket revenues, the event’s finances have been burdened by investments in personnel, the ticket office and websites, as well as the general increase in cost levels.
The festival, which has been operating since 1988, has now had to take layoffs and look for new forms of support. In addition to them, it has set a goal of collecting 45,000 euros by the end of the year with a support campaign aimed at the festival audience.
Support campaign will open the special screenings organized on November 27 at Bio Rex in Helsinki. See you there Kaouther Ben Hanian guided by Four daughters, Alexander Paynen The Holdovers and as a classic film from Hong Kong Wong Kar-wain guided by In the Mood for Love from the year 2000.
Four daughters and The Holdovers are new movies that aren’t coming out until next year, and In the Mood for Lovekin will be performed now for the first time, says the executive director of the Rakkauta & Anarkiaa festival Anna Möttölä.
The Holdoversin director Alexander Payne is best known Sideways-as the creator of the film, which was played by Paul Giamatti is also in the main role In The Holdovers.
“We also wanted to do what we do best in Finland at the support shows and bring out R&A’s profile,” says Möttölä.
According to him, some special film festivals have had financial difficulties in other parts of Europe after the pandemic, and for example the Gothenburg International Film Festival, which is comparable to R&A in terms of its program profile, has suffered setbacks.
“Acute corona years are one factor and recovery from them is another. We are now living in the fourth exceptional year. Other cultural fields are also now trying to find what the new normal is.”
Next the implementation of this year’s Love & Anarchy festival depends on the support campaign and other funding projects, as well as the festival’s cost-saving measures.
Möttölä says that the number of films presented by the R&A has decreased somewhat in the past five years anyway, but he does not want to estimate the scope of next year’s event yet.
“The aim is that even if the quantity decreases, the quality and versatility of the software will not suffer. We have a lot of other activities throughout the year, and adaptations are widely sought from the entire activity. We believe in the importance of film culture and that’s what the audience expects from us.”