film industry in the world essay

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Driving Economic Growth

Film and television production creates and supports jobs for millions of Americans in front of and behind the camera, while generating a valuable and sought-after global export.

An Engine for the U.S. Economy

The film and television industry supports a dynamic U.S. creative economy, employing people in every state, and across a diversity of skills and trades. In all, 2.74 million people—from special effects technicians to makeup artists to writers to set builders to ticket takers and more—work in jobs supported by the industry, which pays over $242 billion in wages annually.

When a movie or television show shoots on location, it brings jobs, revenue, and related infrastructure development, providing an immediate boost to the local economy. Our industry pays out $33 billion per year to more than 240,000 businesses in cities and small towns across the country—and the industry itself is comprised of more than 122,000 businesses, 92 percent of which employ fewer than 10 people. As much as $1.3 million can be injected into local economies per day when a film shoots on location. In some cases, popular films and television shows can also boost tourism.

For example, Marvel’s Black Panther involved more than 3,100 local workers in Georgia who took home more than $26.5 million in wages, while 20th Century Fox’s popular television series This Is Us contributed more than $61.5 million to the California economy. And in New York, Oscar-nominated films The Post and The Greatest Showman contributed more than $108 million to the state’s local economy.

A strong national economy depends on a strong creative economy—and it all starts with a story.

The film and television industry supports 2.74 million jobs, pays out $242 billion in total wages, and comprises over 122,000 businesses.

FILM & TELEVISION ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION BY STATE

The production and distribution of movies and TV shows is one of the nation’s most valuable cultural and economic resources. Each year, film and TV production activity takes places in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. To find out more about the industry’s impact on specific states, click on the states below. Additional information and updates can be found at the state's film commission website located here. Note: Industry impact (jobs/wages) numbers reflect 2020 data. Numbers are updated annually following the release of the prior year’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.

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The American Motion Picture and Television Industry: Creating Jobs, Trading Around the World

The American film and television industry supports 2.74 million jobs, pays out $242 billion in total wages, and comprises more than 122,000 businesses—according to an analysis of the most recent economic figures released by the Motion Picture Association.

For a more detailed analysis of the industry’s economic impact, download the full report:

A Global Creative Economy

American storytelling is enjoyed by audiences around the world, accounting for $14.4 billion annually in exports and registering a positive trade balance with nearly every country in the world.

To maintain our competitiveness and reach global audiences, we need open access to markets around the world via forward-looking trade policies that reduce trade barriers, address intellectual property theft, and improve international copyright laws.

More than 70 percent of global box office sales come from international markets.

More of What We Do

Production incentives.

America’s film and television industry creates and embraces new advances in technology—both in how we tell stories and how we engage audiences. Innovations in filmmaking transport audiences to new worlds and deliver content where, when, and on any device they want.

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Nine talking points for the global film industry in 2022

By Ben Dalton , Jeremy Kay , Melanie Goodfellow and Mona Tabbara 2022-01-11T10:43:00+00:00

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Source: Moon Films / EFM/Juliane Eirich / Getty Images/Wael Abutalib/EyeEm

Top right: EFM, bottom left: Jeddah

The theatrical window could get even shorter

Cinema distribution and theatrical exhibition as we know them are evolving to a place where they are becoming unrecognisable compared to where we were just over two years ago. The question is will the exclusive theatrical window get shorter in 2022 if Covid continues to discourage cinema-going?

Distribution models vary by studio but generally the pandemic-fuelled individual deals cut by distributors and exhibitors around the world mean North America’s pre-Covid 75- to 90-day exclusive theatrical window – 90 days in the UK – has shrunk to 30-45 days. It’s even shorter at Universal, which has the option to move a film from North American cinemas to PVoD after 17 days of exclusive theatrical play, rising to 31 days for those that score a $50m-plus opening weekend. And starting this year all Universal and Focus films will debut on Peacock as soon as 45 days after their theatrical and PVoD release.

The international rollout of HBO Max means Warner Bros titles now have just a 31-day window in the UK (45 days in the US), while Paramount releases in the US can play in cinemas for a maximum of 45 days before heading to Paramount+. Depending on the title, Disney is experimenting with exclusive theatrical and day-and-date models whereby a film opens simultaneously in cinemas and on Disney+. However, the studio will be wary of switching models without careful consultation with talent after Scarlett Johansson sued when Black Widow opened day-and-date, which the star said was contrary to what she believed was an exclusive theatrical agreement and cost her a pile of money in lost potential backend participation. (The parties settled out of court.)

Sony has been the most reluctant US major to abandon exclusive theatrical releases – not surprising given it doesn’t have a global streaming service. In the case of Spider-Man: No Way Home that reluctance has paid huge dividends.

There will always be exceptions to the rule of dwindling theatrical exclusivity. Christopher Nolan and his  Oppenheimer  project at Universal is a case in point and James Cameron will surely have insisted Disney keep his upcoming  Avatar  sequels exclusively in cinemas far longer than the new norm. On the whole, however, studios are now expected to play their part in growing subscribers on in-house platforms and their media corporation parent companies will be chomping at the bit to bring films to audiences at home as quickly as possible.

Exhibitors need to adapt. Fast.

Cinema owners have endured a torrid two years and will inevitably contract. Sad to say, but a footprint of 44,000 cinemas in the US today seems needlessly high and wasteful. In these days of the streaming wars, no in-house audits by exhibitors or a perusal of the books by potential suitors will look kindly on keeping the lights on in struggling markets, or at times of the day when there is minimal engagement. The world is changing fast and more exhibitors will need to cut VoD revenue-share deals with distributors, implement dynamic ticket pricing, programme alternative content like sports, theatre and live music, and make more noise with fewer sites. 

Indie films’ disappearing act at the box office

The pandemic has shifted the balance of cinema releases even further in the direction of blockbusters and away from local and independent titles. This has been replicated in key international markets including the big English-language ones of the UK-Ireland and Australia, but also in Italy where the big local comedies failed to ignite in 2021, and even in France where the older demographic has had its usual dedication to independent cinema shaken by Covid concerns. Now indie distributors are looking to find space for titles among a release schedule that is still holding back blockbusters first planned for 2020. And while exhibitors will be glad of the money brought by No Time To Die ,  Spider-Man: No Way Home  and co, they – especially independent venues – will know a variety of programming is important to their long-term survival. 

The big exception is China, where US releases are severely limited. The China box office has made a stellar start to 2022, continuing its strong form from last year when it was the largest individual territory with $7.4bn. Three of the top five films in last weekend’s global top five were local Chinese titles;  local content has also flourished in Thailand in recent weeks.

Festivals cannot sustain the Covid uncertainty for a third year…

The physical components of January festivals Rotterdam and Sundance and the European Film Market in February have been forced online by the pandemic, meaning it will be three years since their last get-togethers should they return as in-person events next year. By March, international film events will be reaching a third pandemic-afflicted edition; and while vaccines have reduced the virus’ damage, events are still walking a tightrope between holding in-person events and being overwhelmed by case numbers.

This uncertainty is not sustainable in the long term, and while numerous events took place last year with varying degrees of ‘Covid safety’, such measures are expensive – prohibitively so for some. With the less-deadly Omicron now widespread in many countries, film festivals may follow other industries in reducing testing and returning towards a scenario where illness is the determining factor in attendance, not swab results. With Cannes now under 130 days away and counting (gulp), for now, the industry is crossing its fingers – and holding its breath.

…and neither can buyers and sellers 

International sales companies and distributors are at sea over their immediate next moves, with many now likely scrambling to move their Berlin flight to Cannes.or wondering whether to attend a festival-only event. There’s a nervousness in the market as we head into the third year of the pandemic, with sellers wondering where on earth is best to hold the sales or theatrical launch of a title and fielding growing concern as to whether their long-time distribution clients are in even in a position to buy new titles. Many are still working their way through the release of a backlog. “Normally at this time of the year, we’d be setting out our strategy up until Cannes and beyond but this year, I can’t figure out what is going to happen over the coming three months,” confided one key European sales agent.

US streamers may meet greater regulation in Europe

2021 saw another big push by global streamers into Europe. Their investment in local content is a boon but there is growing unrest in the independent community over the all-rights demands they impose and how they are pricing local producers out of their own markets. Now regulation in this highly regulated region looms. France’s long-awaited bold transposition in December of the European Union’s updated Audiovisual Media Services Services Directive, for example, includes measures to protect independent producers from all-rights deals and sets limits on how long a platform can hold rights. Will other territories follow where France dares to tread?

Covid measures take a toll on mental health – and budgets

The impact of filming under Covid conditions is hitting both budgets and the mental health of the film industry hard as productions attempt to balance duty of care towards employees with ever-evolving and wildly different national guidelines. Fatigue is setting in over regular testing, quarantine requirements and the strain when productions are interrupted by Covid outbreaks. On-set camaraderie, the stuff that gets crew through the long hours and often challenging conditions, has taken a hit, while departmental bubbles have made after-hours bonding sessions almost impossible. Wellbeing officers on set may now be commonplace, but this can add further stress owing to a squeeze on production costs. Removing Covid measures entirely does not appear to be the answer either. But the time may be coming to explore a middle ground, in which protective measures remain in place, but vaccination statuses are taken into greater consideration with regards to on-set regulations and testing regimes, before the burden becomes too great.

NFTs as a possible funding and distribution mechanism

Hollywood is continuing to scrutinise and experiment with the NFT, or non‑fungible token. It’s like a digital version of a rare coin or some other coveted item made from a unique chunk of digital code stored on the blockchain and verified for authenticity. Investors ascribe value to NFTs which are traded on specific marketplaces like Open Sea. At first it was deemed a fad, but the idea of NFTs has not gone away and after gaining popularity in art and music now the film industry is dipping its toes in the water. Warner Bros has partnered with a company to create unique digital avatars of ordinary people trapped in the Matrix, while Quentin Tarantino has locked horns with Miramax in a copyright dispute over his plan to auction off seven digitally scanned scenes based on his original handwritten Pulp Fiction screenplay (with misspellings and original character names intact) as secret NFTs. The content will only be known to the buyer. There has been early blue-sky talk of NFTs as a kind of ultra-boutique distribution model for small films whereby the buyer gets a digital collectible of the work with some unique accompanying element, while the producer or financier pockets the proceeds of the auction. NFTs remain a new frontier for Hollywood, but the industry is circling.

Saudi’s cinema drive may signal a new era 

Key Middle East and North African industry players flocked to the first edition of Saudi Arabia’s new Red Sea International Film Festival in December. Most view Saudi Arabia’s push into cinema, after its 35-year ban was lifted at the end of 2017, as a game-changer for the MENA film industry and were eager to connect with the country’s burgeoning filmmaking scene and its market of 34.8 million people, two thirds of whom are under the age of 35. Saudi’s cinema push is already having reverberations in the region, particularly for Egypt, the mainstream comedies of which are proving a hit with the local audiences. A raft of new partnerships between emerging Saudi film companies and established MENA players were announced while the country’s ambitions to become a major international shooting location were exemplified by the arrival of action pictures Desert Warrior and Kandahar .

Five talking points for the UK industry in 2022

No comments yet, only registered users or subscribers can comment on this article., more from features.

Is the indie tax credit finally making the UK a valuable co-production partner?

2024-05-31T13:57:00Z By Geoffrey Macnab

European producers are taking notice. 

Word of Mouth - UK casting director Isabella Odoffin: “My mum has the most wide-ranging taste”

2024-05-30T09:55:00Z By Ben Dalton

Odoffin worked on Un Certain Regard titles ’On Becoming A Guinea Fowl’ and ’September Says’

Screen critics’ stand-out titles from Cannes 2024

2024-05-29T11:35:00Z By Fionnuala Halligan

Our critics round up the films that may have flown under the radar but generated a lot of praise.

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Film production worldwide - statistics & facts

The three asian titans, everybody (still) comes to hollywood, key insights.

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Key data on the movie production & distribution industry worldwide 2022

Forecast filmed entertainment revenue in selected countries worldwide 2026

Forecast filmed entertainment revenue growth in selected markets worldwide 2021-2026

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Filmed entertainment revenue in selected countries worldwide 2021

Global box office revenue 2004-2021, by region

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• Premium Statistic Global box office revenue 2004-2021, by region
• Premium Statistic Leading box office markets worldwide 2021, by revenue
• Premium Statistic Leading film markets worldwide 2022, by number of tickets sold
• Premium Statistic Key data on the movie production & distribution industry worldwide 2022
• Premium Statistic Forecast filmed entertainment revenue growth in selected markets worldwide 2021-2026
• Premium Statistic Forecast filmed entertainment revenue in selected countries worldwide 2026
• Premium Statistic Movie market revenue worldwide 2002-2020
• Premium Statistic Filmed entertainment revenue in selected countries worldwide 2021

Global box office revenue from 2004 to 2021, by region (in billion U.S. dollars)

Leading box office markets worldwide 2021, by revenue

Leading box office markets worldwide in 2021, by revenue (in billion U.S. dollars)

Leading film markets worldwide 2022, by number of tickets sold

Leading film markets worldwide in 2022, by number of tickets sold (in millions)

Key data on the movie production & distribution industry worldwide 2022

Key data on the movie production and distribution industry worldwide in 2022

Estimated filmed entertainment revenue growth in selected countries worldwide between 2021 and 2026

Estimated filmed entertainment revenue in selected countries worldwide in 2026 (in million U.S. dollars)

Movie market revenue worldwide 2002-2020

Theatrical market revenue worldwide from 2002 to 2020 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Filmed entertainment revenue in selected countries worldwide in 2021 (in million U.S. dollars)

Asia & Australia

• Premium Statistic Number of feature films produced in China 2013-2023
• Premium Statistic Box office revenue in China 2013-2023
• Premium Statistic Number of Japanese movies shown at theaters in Japan 2014-2023
• Premium Statistic Total box office gross in Japan 2014-2023
• Premium Statistic Overseas releases of Indian films 2017-2023
• Premium Statistic Box office revenue in India 2023, by language
• Premium Statistic Movie export number in South Korea 2013-2023
• Premium Statistic Box office revenue in South Korea 2004-2023
• Premium Statistic Number of movies released in Australia 2014-2023, by origin of production
• Premium Statistic Box office revenue in Australia 2014-2023

Number of feature films produced in China 2013-2023

Number of feature films produced in China from 2013 to 2023

Box office revenue in China 2013-2023

Box office revenue in China from 2013 to 2023 (in billion yuan)

Number of Japanese movies shown at theaters in Japan 2014-2023

Number of Japanese movies released to cinemas in Japan from 2014 to 2023

Total box office gross in Japan 2014-2023

Total box office gross in Japan from 2014 to 2023 (in billion Japanese yen)

Overseas releases of Indian films 2017-2023

Overseas releases of Indian films from 2017 to 2023

Box office revenue in India 2023, by language

Box office revenue across India from 2017 to 2023, by language (in billion Indian rupees)

Movie export number in South Korea 2013-2023

Number of exported South Korean films from 2013 to 2023

Box office revenue in South Korea 2004-2023

Box office revenue in South Korea from 2004 to 2023 (in trillion South Korean won)

Number of movies released in Australia 2014-2023, by origin of production

Number of movies released in Australia from 2014 to 2023, by origin of production

Box office revenue in Australia 2014-2023

Box office revenue in Australia from 2014 to 2023 (in million Australian dollars)

United States & Canada

• Basic Statistic Movie releases in the U.S. & Canada 2000-2023
• Premium Statistic Revenue of the film & video production and distribution sector in the U.S. 2005-2022
• Premium Statistic Feature film production shoot days in L.A. 2017-2023
• Basic Statistic Employment in the motion picture & sound recording industries in the U.S. 2001-2024
• Premium Statistic Number of domestic movies produced in Canada 2004-2022
• Premium Statistic Box office revenue in Canada 2007-2022, by origin of production

Movie releases in the U.S. & Canada 2000-2023

Number of movies released in the United States and Canada from 2000 to 2023

Revenue of the film & video production and distribution sector in the U.S. 2005-2022

Estimated revenue of the motion picture and video production and distribution industry in the United States from 2005 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Feature film production shoot days in L.A. 2017-2023

Number of shoot days spent on feature film production in Greater Los Angeles from 1st quarter 2017 to 4th quarter 2023

Employment in the motion picture & sound recording industries in the U.S. 2001-2024

Total employment in the motion picture and sound recording industries in the United States from 2001 to 2024 (in 1,000s)

Number of domestic movies produced in Canada 2004-2022

Number of Canadian theatrical movies produced in Canada from fiscal year 2004/05 to 2021/22

Box office revenue in Canada 2007-2022, by origin of production

Box office revenue in Canada from 2007 to 2022, by origin of production (in million Canadian dollars)

• Premium Statistic Number of movies produced in France 2011-2022
• Basic Statistic Revenues of cinema box office in France 2000-2022
• Premium Statistic Cinema films produced in Germany 1999-2020
• Premium Statistic Cinema revenue in Germany H1 2004-H1 2023
• Premium Statistic Number of feature films produced in the United Kingdom 1994-2021
• Basic Statistic Box office revenue in the UK 2010-2022
• Premium Statistic Global theatrical market share of British films 2002-2023, by production type
• Premium Statistic Number of feature movies produced in Spain 2000-2022
• Premium Statistic Box office revenue of domestic feature films in Spain 2000-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of Italian movies released in Italy 2017-2023
• Basic Statistic Box office revenue in Italy 2011-2023

Number of movies produced in France 2011-2022

Number of feature films produced in France from 2011 to 2022

Revenues of cinema box office in France 2000-2022

Revenues of movie theaters in France from 2000 to 2022 (in million euros)

Cinema films produced in Germany 1999-2020

Number of cinema films produced in Germany from 1999 to 2020

Cinema revenue in Germany H1 2004-H1 2023

Cinema revenue in Germany from H1 2004 to H1 2023 (in million euros)

Number of feature films produced in the United Kingdom 1994-2021

Number of feature films produced in the United Kingdom from 1994 to 2021

Box office revenue in the UK 2010-2022

Box office revenue in the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2022 (in million GBP)

Global theatrical market share of British films 2002-2023, by production type

Share of worldwide box office revenue generated by UK films from 2002 to 2023, by production type

Number of feature movies produced in Spain 2000-2022

Number of domestic feature films produced in Spain from 2000 to 2022

Box office revenue of domestic feature films in Spain 2000-2022

Box office revenue of domestic feature films in Spain from 2000 to 2022 (in million euros)

Number of Italian movies released in Italy 2017-2023

Number of domestic films released in Italy from 2017 to 2023

Box office revenue in Italy 2011-2023

Total box office revenue in Italy from 2011 to 2023 (in million euros)

Latin America

• Premium Statistic Box office revenue in selected countries in Latin America 2022
• Premium Statistic Mexico: domestic movies released 2010-2022
• Basic Statistic Mexico: national movie releases outside of Mexico 2009-2022
• Basic Statistic Box office revenue in Mexico 2010-2023
• Premium Statistic New domestic movies released in Brazil 2009-2022
• Premium Statistic Box office revenue in Brazil 2006-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of domestic movies released in Colombia 2010-2022
• Premium Statistic Box office revenue in Colombia 2010-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of domestic movies released in Argentina 2014-2022
• Premium Statistic Box office revenue in Argentina 2014-2022

Box office revenue in selected countries in Latin America 2022

Box office revenue in selected countries in Latin America in 2022 (in million U.S. dollars)

Mexico: domestic movies released 2010-2022

Number of domestic movies released in Mexico from 2010 to 2022

Mexico: national movie releases outside of Mexico 2009-2022

Number of Mexican movie releases outside of Mexico from 2009 to 2022

Box office revenue in Mexico 2010-2023

Box office revenue in Mexico from 2010 to 2023 (in billion Mexican pesos)

New domestic movies released in Brazil 2009-2022

Number of new domestic movies released in Brazil from 2009 to 2022

Box office revenue in Brazil 2006-2022

Box office revenue in Brazil from 2006 to 2022 (in million Brazilian reals)

Number of domestic movies released in Colombia 2010-2022

Number of domestic movies released in Colombia from 2010 to 2022

Box office revenue in Colombia 2010-2022

Box office revenue in Colombia from 2010 to 2022 (in billion Colombian pesos)

Number of domestic movies released in Argentina 2014-2022

Number of domestic movies released in Argentina from 2014 to 2022

Box office revenue in Argentina 2014-2022

Box office revenue in Argentina from 2014 to 2022 (in billion Argentine pesos)

• Premium Statistic Nollywood, Bollywood, and Hollywood titles in anglophone West-Africa 2021
• Premium Statistic Nollywood, Bollywood, and Hollywood revenue in West-Africa 2022
• Premium Statistic Films produced by the Nigerian film industry 2017-2021
• Premium Statistic GDP by motion pictures, sound and music production in Nigeria 2019-2021

Nollywood, Bollywood, and Hollywood titles in anglophone West-Africa 2021

Number of titles released by the main film industries in Ghana, Liberia, and Nigeria in 2021

Nollywood, Bollywood, and Hollywood revenue in West-Africa 2022

Distribution of revenue generated by the main film industries in Ghana and Nigeria as of 2022

Films produced by the Nigerian film industry 2017-2021

Number of movies produced and censored by Nollywood from 2017 to the 2nd quarter of 2021

GDP by motion pictures, sound and music production in Nigeria 2019-2021

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) generated by the industry of motion pictures, sound recording and music production in Nigeria from 2019 to 2021 (in million Naira)

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The Indian film industry in a changing international market

• Original Article
• Open access
• Published: 03 May 2019
• Volume 44 , pages 97–116, ( 2020 )

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• Sayantan Ghosh Dastidar 1 &
• Caroline Elliott   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1218-4164 2  

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India has a longstanding reputation for its acclaimed film industry and continues to be by far the world’s largest producer of films. Nevertheless, domestic demand for films appears to be waning as in a number of developed countries with mature film industries. Hence, the econometric analysis in this paper is particularly timely as with demand for films in Indian cinemas falling it is important to identify those factors that make films appealing for Indian audiences. An original dataset is utilised that includes data on all Bollywood films released in India between 2011 and 2015. Account is taken of the potential endogeneity between variables through the use of the generalised method of moments approach. Results are used to demonstrate how the Indian film market can continue to have a significant positive impact on the Indian economy. The discussion highlights appropriate film production company strategies and government policy responses that should be considered to ensure the continued success of the Indian film industry both domestically and in an increasingly competitive international market.

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Introduction

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1 Introduction

India has a longstanding reputation for its acclaimed film industry, with the term Bollywood synonymous with vividly coloured films featuring complex dance routines, singing and spectacular large cast scenes. India continues to be by far the world’s largest producer of films, producing 1724 films in 2013 compared to 738 films produced in the USA, and 638 films produced in China. Footnote 1 Nevertheless, domestic demand for films appears to be waning as in a number of developed countries including the USA and UK. For comparison purposes, film industry data for China, the USA and the UK as well as India are provided in Table  1 .

It is immediately clear that while India produces by far the greatest number of films, with the number of films produced continuing to rise, the number of consumers paying to see films at cinemas in India has declined dramatically in recent years, despite significant growth in GDP since 2000 and international investment in the Indian film industry, Fetscherin ( 2010 ). However, falling popularity of going to the cinema is not exclusive to India, with falls in cinema ticket sales also seen in the USA and UK. Each of these film markets can be considered mature markets, with long established, successful film production industries, and cinema visits a long-established social activity. Indeed, the first full-length Indian film, Raja Harischandra , was produced in 1913, and by the 1920s, large-scale Indian film studio companies existed, and Mumbai had established itself as an early hub for film making (to become known as Bollywood). See Jones et al. ( 2008 ) for a history of the Indian film industry.

The importance of the Indian film industry to the Indian economy cannot be overstated: in 2012, Indian cinema box office revenues were $1.6 billion (McCarthy, 2014 ), in a services sector which accounts for more than 50% of the Indian economy. Footnote 2 Fetscherin ( 2010 ) suggests that the film industry accounts for approximately 20% of all revenues in the Indian media and entertainment industries. Further, despite the high profile of ‘Bollywood’ which is based in Mumbai, film production also has positive spillover benefits to other local economies, particularly Chennai where film production has long been established, with films made in four key southern Indian languages. There are also notable film production activities in Hyderabad, Karnataka, Kolkata and Kerala that benefit the local economies. Local economy benefits are not restricted to the direct benefits and multiplier effects associated with film production and therefore employment in specific local economies. Bollywood, in particular, also has tourism benefits with Bollywood locations boosting tourist visitor numbers, i.e. an indirect channel through which the Indian film industry contributes to gross domestic product (GDP).

Yet, the Indian film industry currently faces a number of challenges. First, a major challenge remains film piracy which limits the revenues that can be reinvested by producers, distributors and exhibitors. A complicated system of regulations with responsibility shared by a number of national and state level government departments only contributes to the often ineffective nature of policies and laws that should guard against piracy, Jones et al. ( 2008 ). The problem of piracy results in lower revenues across the film industry, and the negative effect on investment in the industry is compounded by the high entertainment tax rates imposed in India.

Second, relative to many countries, domestic cinema ticket prices remain low, Jones et al. ( 2008 ) and see Table  1 . This again results in smaller box office revenues to be shared between film exhibitors, distributors and producers, reducing opportunities for reinvestment across the Indian film industry. This is particularly important at the moment as international film producers are increasingly investing in expensive technology associated with ‘enhanced format’ films, such as 3D and IMAX. Elliott et al. ( 2018 ) have found these films particularly popular with Chinese audiences, but these films require very large production budgets, as well as investment in cinemas by film exhibitors. Nevertheless, despite the costs of producing enhanced format films, they offer the advantage that the piracy of these films is less attractive as the special effects will be much less impressive to viewers when watching pirated films either on television screens or computer monitors. A further issue relating to low ticket prices is that regardless of this advantage, consumers are still purchasing fewer cinema tickets.

Meanwhile, despite difficulties until the early 1990s, the Chinese film market now continues to grow rapidly, both in terms of films produced and audiences’ desire to view films at cinemas. Despite initially slow growth of the film industry in China prior to the 1990s, its film box office revenues were expected to exceed $10 billion in 2016, coming close to overtaking the USA which enjoyed box office revenues of $11 billion in 2015, Shoard ( 2016 ). It is within this context that the performance of the Indian film industry has to be considered. The Indian and Chinese film industries share some similarities. Both countries have adopted economic liberalisation policies since the later years of the twentieth century, and as a result in both countries, the film industry has attracted greater foreign investment. Meanwhile, liberalisation has led to greater competition for domestic films from large budget, internationally produced films, often originating in Hollywood, with both Indian and Chinese audiences keen to watch these films.

This paper seeks to identify the factors that contribute to films’ success in Indian cinemas using an econometric analysis such that film production companies are in a better position to identify strategies to ensure their future success. These strategies relate to film characteristics as well as marketing strategy. Given the importance of the film industry to the Indian economy and the difficulties currently faced by the industry, our analysis is particularly important and timely. We believe this to be the first paper econometrically to estimate the determinants of domestic box office success for the Indian film industry. To do this, an original dataset has been collated and utilised, considering all Bollywood films released in Indian cinemas over the period 2011 to 2015. For each film, released data are collected on the size of production budget; Indian cinema box office revenues; film genre; the use of Bollywood star actors and directors; and the distributor of the film in India. Alternative measures of critical acclaim for each film are also collected. As well as identifying those factors associated with films’ Indian box office success, the results of the statistical analysis are used to develop government policy recommendations.

A literature review covering economic analyses of the film industry, both in India and more broadly, is provided in Sect.  2 . The data and econometric methodology are described in Sect.  3 . Results are reported in Sect.  4 , with discussion of these results, policy implications and conclusions provided in Sect.  5 .

2 Literature review

Despite the large and burgeoning film industry literature, spanning the Economics, Marketing and Management disciplines, there are very few analyses of the Indian film industry. The only econometric analysis of factors impacting on Indian film success is that of Fetscherin ( 2010 ), who considers the variables that affect the opening week and total cinema box office returns of Indian films exhibited in the UK and USA. Fetscherin ( 2010 ) concludes that neither star power nor the previous directing experience of the director impacted on opening week or total box office revenues, and that consumer online reviews, posted on the www.imdb.com website, also had no significant impact on either revenue variable. Our statistical analysis differs as we are interested in the factors determining the success of Indian films in the domestic, Indian market. Arguably, our analysis is also strengthened as we were able to obtain data on film production budgets and film critic review scores and could identify if a film was a sequel. Other analyses of the impact of the Indian film industry include Jones et al. ( 2008 ) and Balasubramanyam ( 2009 ), but a lack of Indian film industry data has resulted in a paucity of Indian analyses despite the high profile of Bollywood. Our analysis contributes directly to this limited literature.

A film represents an experience good, for which full details of the properties and quality of the good cannot be determined, prior to purchase and consumption. Consequently, it is important for consumers to receive quality signals in advance of cinema ticket (or DVD) purchase decisions, to help ensure that consumers select films that best match their preferences. Beyond the Indian market, there is a large literature that considers the factors that determine films’ box office success, and much of the literature highlights factors that can be considered quality signals. See Mckenzie ( 2012 ) for a recent literature survey.

A number of potential quality signals under the control of film production companies have been considered, with research estimating their impact on film box office revenues. A consensus has emerged in the literature that there is a positive, significant relationship between a film’s budget and box office revenues with consumers perceiving higher film budgets as a signal of film quality, Elliott et al. ( 2018 ). Footnote 3 Related to film budget, one of the most expensive costs of producing a film may be the costs of employing high profile star actors and actresses. The use of stars is a very visible signal that production companies are willing to invest large amounts of money in a film, and also signals the actors’ belief in the quality of a film. A number of researchers have considered the impact of employing stars in films, including US analyses of Prag and Casavant ( 1994 ), Ravid 1999 ), Elberse ( 2007 ), Brewer et al. ( 2009 ), Akdeniz and Talay ( 2013 ), the Italian analysis of Bagella and Becchetti ( 1999 ), as well as Fetscherin’s ( 2010 ) Indian analysis. However, results remain mixed, with some but not all studies concluding that the use of stars positively impacts on film box office revenues. Similarly, the use of a high profile film director as a signal quality that may impact positively on box office revenues has been considered by Bagella and Becchetti ( 1999 ) as well as Fetscherin ( 2010 ).

If a film is successful in terms of box office revenues, this may then encourage film production companies to invest in a sequel, as considered by, Basuroy et al. ( 2003 ), Moon et al. ( 2010 ), Akdeniz and Talay ( 2013 ). Similarly, cinemagoers may be eager to pay to view a sequel if they have enjoyed an earlier film in a film franchise. Elliott et al. ( 2018 ) conclude that Chinese audiences are positively attracted to sequel films. The final quality signal under the control of film production and distribution companies is the date of release of a film, with firms keen for films that they think will particularly appeal to audiences to be screened around major holiday periods. This has previously been explored in a US context by Litman ( 1983 ), Sochay ( 1994 ), Einav ( 2007 ) and Brewer et al. ( 2009 ) and is considered in the Indian context in the analysis below.

A second set of potential quality signals that may influence consumers’ film ticket purchase decisions is not under the control of film production companies, namely expert critics’ review scores and online review scores given by members of the general public. The impact of critics’ review scores on box office revenues has been explored by Eliashberg and Shugan ( 1997 ), Basuroy et al. ( 2003 ), Reinstein and Snyder ( 2005 ) in the US context, and by Elliott and Simmons ( 2008 ) using UK data. Nevertheless, Moon et al. ( 2010 ) suggest that consumers may take more note of consumer reviews than those of expert critics. The increasing availability of online review scores posted by non-expert reviewers has led to Elliott et al. ( 2018 ) exploring the impact of these reviews on Chinese box office revenues, concluding that these reviews are positively and significantly related to box office revenues.

All of the quality signals highlighted above, including both those under the control of film production companies, and those associated with expert and non-expert critics are considered in the statistical analysis below.

A crucial issue addressed in the literature is how to take account of the potentially highly skewed distribution of film revenues which may also be characterised by unbounded variance, as identified by Collins et al. ( 2002 ); De Vany and Lee ( 2001 ); De Vany and Walls ( 1996 , 1999 , 2002 ). These characteristics result in film revenue variables violating the classical assumptions required for ordinary least squares (OLS) of variables having well-defined mean and constant and finite variance. De Vany and Walls ( 1999 , 2002 ) have suggested using the Pareto distribution to deal with the excessive kurtosis; Collins et al. ( 2002 ) used an ordered Probit model with threshold revenue values imposed, while Walls ( 2005 ) recommends using a t-skew distribution. These issues will be addressed in Sect.  3 .

3 Data and methodology

The dataset comprises all Bollywood films screened in Indian cinemas over five years, 2011–2015 for which data on all required variables were available. This gives rise to a dataset of 245 films as data were missing on key variables for a number of films released in India during this period. Nevertheless, we believe this to be the largest dataset collated to date on the Indian film industry. Variable definitions and data sources are detailed in Appendix 1, while descriptive statistics for the continuous variables are reported in Table  2 .

Both total Indian film box office revenues and opening week box office revenues are used as dependent variables ( REVENUE ). While much of the literature focuses on factors that determine total box office revenues, we also consider opening week revenues as these are particularly important in the Indian film market context given the rapidity with which films are pirated, with film revenues often falling rapidly within the first two weeks after they are released. Both variables are reported in 10 million Indian Rupees INR (crore) and converted into real values taking 2010 as the base year and using World Bank Consumer Prices Index (CPI) data from 2011 to 2015 to deflate the budget and box office revenue values during 2011–2015. Hence, the budget and revenue variables used are in 2010 constant prices. As is standard in the film industry literature, the revenue and budget variables are logged in the statistical analysis. In Sect.  2 , we highlighted that previously researchers have identified that box office revenues may not be normally distributed. We tested for skewness and kurtosis of our revenue variables. As anticipated, non-logged opening week and total revenues do suffer from kurtosis with values of 4.63 and 5.30, respectively. However, the skewness values are less concerning at 2.08 and 2.17 for opening week and total revenues, respectively. Reassuringly, the values for the logged variables indicate less of a problem with skewness and kurtosis, as the values for skewness are − 1.59 and − 1.08, and with kurtosis values of 2.61 and 1.23, again for opening week and total revenues, respectively.

As well as BUDGET , a number of further potential quality signals are used as explanatory variables. A dummy variable STARPOWER was created, indicating the reputation of the leading actor/actress. There are many rankings of Bollywood actors and actresses but the TIMES Celebex ranking is often considered the most well respected. The data of 2011 are not available as the ranking was only launched in 2012, Guptal ( 2015 ). Hence, we consider a film to have an actor/actress with star power if they have been in the TIMES Celebex ranking at any time during 2012–2015. There are approximately five actors and five actresses in the ranking in any one year, with persistence of actors and actresses in the top five ranking for at least one year and sometimes throughout the period 2012–2015. See Appendix 2 for a list of actors and actresses who are considered to have star power in our analysis. An alternative star power explanatory variable was also created, and rather than a dummy variable, this was a count variable of the number of films that the leading actor/actress had been in during their career, the data taken from www.imdb.com . This is in line with Chang and Ki ( 2005 ) and Fetscherin ( 2010 ) who similarly count the number of films an actor or actress has appeared in as a measure of star power. However, the coefficient on this variable was insignificantly different from zero; this also the case when the variable plus the squared variable were used reflecting a possible nonlinear relationship between star power and box office revenues. Hence, the statistical analysis continued using the dummy STARPOWER variable. As a further robustness check, the regression analysis was repeated using an interaction variable STARPOWER * ( logged ) BUDGET , but again, the coefficient on this explanatory variable was insignificantly different from zero so results with this interaction variable were excluded from the model. Again following Chang and Ki ( 2005 ) and Fetscherin ( 2010 ), a DIRECTORPOWER variable was created by counting the number of films a director had previously directed to reflect the star power and experience of a director.

Initially, regressions were run including a quality signal variable of Times of India critics’ film review scores, CRITIC . The reviews in this newspaper were selected as the Times of India is the largest selling English daily newspaper sold in India. However, this quality signal was not found to influence cinemagoers significantly and it was dropped from the analysis. Instead, mean online review scores for films posted on the internationally well-known website www.imdb.com were collected and used as an alternative quality signal, ONLINEREVIEW . Audiences will often submit online review scores very soon after films’ release that further potential audiences can access easily prior to deciding which films to watch at the cinema. Moon et al. ( 2010 ) conclude that for potential audiences, online reviews are a better quality signal than expert review scores.

A dummy variable, DISTRIBUTOR , was included to indicate a film distributed in India by one of the ten largest film distribution companies. However, given that the coefficient on this variable was consistently found to be insignificantly different from zero, alternative distributor dummy variables were also created. Given the traditional importance of family firms in the Indian economy, DISTRIBUTORFAM indicates that the distribution company is family owned, while DISTRIBUTORFAM10 indicates that a film was distributed by one of the ten largest distribution companies that are family owned. Only the coefficient on DISTRIBUTORFAM10 was ever found to be significantly different from zero so this is the variable used in the analysis below.

A SEASON dummy variable, taking the value unity when a film was released in India during key Muslim, Hindu and Christian festivals as well as around Independence Day, Republic Day and New Year, was also included to aid comparability with studies published that consider the impact on revenues of films released around major holiday periods. See Appendix 3 for details. Yet, again the coefficient on this explanatory variable was found to be insignificantly different from zero. Hence, alternative forms of this variable were considered. Successively, less important festivals were assigned a zero value, and the regressions rerun to test if the coefficient on the SEASON dummy variable became significantly different from zero. However, even when only the three largest festivals were assigned a value of unity, namely Christmas, Diwali and Eid, the coefficient on the SEASON dummy variable remains insignificantly different from zero. It is this final iteration of the SEASON dummy variable which is used in the results below. Both the DISTRIBUTOR and SEASON dummy variables can be considered potential quality signals as films expected to do well at the box office are likely to attract major distributors, with production and distribution companies keen to release films that they anticipate will do well around holiday periods.

Alternatively, potential film audiences may only have limited leisure time and have to select between alternative leisure activities. Izquierdo Sanchez et al. ( 2016 ) highlight that when key football tournaments take place, potential European cinema audiences may choose instead to watch football matches. Hence, to test whether potential Indian film audiences similarly select between cinema visits and the watching of major cricket matches, a dummy variable CRICKET is included that takes the value unity for films released during the Indian Premier League (IPL) season. Footnote 4

A set of genre dummy variables was included as these are commonly included in statistical analyses in the literature. For example, Elliott and Simmons ( 2008 ) conclude that, in the UK, films targeted at children do well, while Ravid and Basuroy ( 2004 ) consider US R-rated films, which are targeted at adult audiences. In our analysis, we categorised the films into the following genres COMEDY , DRAMA , ROMANCE and ACTION/THRILLER where COMEDY was treated as the control category of genre. Finally, a dummy SEQUEL variable was included, taking the value unity if a film was a sequel in a film franchise. Audiences may take a film’s sequel status as a signal of quality if they have enjoyed another film in a film franchise, while film production companies may be keen to invest in a sequel if a previous film in a franchise has had box office success.

Inspection of the correlation matrices indicated that multicollinearity is not expected to be a particular concern in the statistical analysis. Footnote 5 The lack of multicollinearity is confirmed in the results, Table  3 .

3.2 Methodology

The model first estimated was an ad hoc model with explanatory variables chosen following a thorough review of the film industry literature. Hence, we started by estimating the following equation:

for movie i, e denotes the error term.

Initially, the model was estimated using OLS, with robust standard errors to correct for potential heterscedasticity in the residuals. However, if there is endogeneity or reverse causality in the model, then the OLS results will be biased and unfit for drawing inferences. Potentially, there may be reverse causality from REVENUE towards BUDGET as production companies decide film budget levels partly on the expectation of film revenues that are likely to accrue. Further, as highlighted in Sect.  2 , it is generally accepted in the film industry literature that film budget may be a quality signal to potential audiences, with consumers believing that higher budget films are likely to be of higher quality. To test this hypothesis, we estimated the following model (Eq.  2 ) and employed the GMM C test to assess whether BUDGET is endogenous in our model.

where z denotes the residuals obtained from the estimation of Eq.  1 and u is the error term.

The quality signal CRITIC was dropped from the model because it is determined post-release of the movie and therefore cannot have any influence on the budget of a movie. We use STARPOWER and DIRECTORPOWER as the instruments of BUDGET as the estimation results for Eq.  1 indicated that neither of these variables affect REVENUE directly. Both variables may impact on film budget as it may be more expensive to employ film stars and/or a director with greater previous experience.

The results indicated that BUDGET is indeed endogenous, and so, to control for this issue, we continued our estimation of the model in Eq.  1 by employing the instrumental variable general method of moments (GMM) approach. Footnote 6 Both the OLS and GMM estimation results indicated that expert critic ratings have no effect on the box office revenues of films. Hence, in the results reported in Sect.  4 , the CRITIC variable is replaced with the ONLINEREVIEW variable as a quality signal outside the control of film production companies. Finally, note that the methods proposed by Collin et al. ( 2002 ); De Vany and Walls ( 1999 , 2002 ) and Walls ( 2005 ) for dealing with non-normally distributed film revenues have the cost attached that because of computational complexity, it is only possible to estimate a reduced form model rather than a structural model. As we are able to confirm that BUDGET is in fact endogenously determined, and because the skewness and kurtosis values for our logged REVENUE variables do not give cause for major concern, we are reassured that it is appropriate to use the GMM approach, the results of which are reported in Sect.  4 .

4 Econometric results

Regression results for the key film box office revenue dependent variables are reported in Table  3 , controlling for endogeneity as outlined in the section above. The first thing to note is the robustness of the results, regardless of whether total or opening week box office revenues are selected as the dependent variable. This result is in line with expectations given the short period of time that films remain popular on Indian cinema screens, and the rapidity with which films are pirated. The Hansen J statistic indicates that the instruments are valid as are the over-identification restrictions.

The magnitude of a film’s budget is found to be key to a film’s success: budget has a positive, significant effect on both opening week box office revenues and total revenues. A film’s budget is one potential quality signal to consumers of the film’s quality. Unlike for many goods, film companies are often happy to reveal large budgets attached to film production. A large budget indicates a production company’s faith in the quality of film being produced, and film budget data are routinely reported on websites such as www.imdb.com . Indian film budgets typically remain low compared to those of Hollywood films (Balasubramanyam 2009 ), but as in previous USA and UK studies, a higher budget is associated with film box office success.

The other signal of quality that is found to be a crucial influencer is the mean of online review scores posted by the general public on www.imdb.com . Again, the coefficient on this variable is always positive and significant, regardless of whether we consider its impact on opening week revenues or total revenues. This impact of online reviews is in line with that found in Elliott et al. ( 2018 ) in the Chinese film market context and highlights the importance for production and distribution companies of establishing and maintaining effective communication with potential audiences.

No consensus has been reached in the literature to date on whether films enjoy greater revenues if they are released around major holidays. For example, Litman ( 1983 ) suggests that Christmas is the optimum time to release a film in the USA, while Sochay ( 1994 ) concludes that the summer holiday period is preferred, with Brewer et al. ( 2009 ) supporting this result but also indicating that in the US films perform better if they are released around Thanksgiving. Our results indicate that release date has no significant impact on a film’s box office revenues in the Indian market despite testing various formulations of the SEASON dummy variable. This may reflect the diversity of holiday dates in the Indian calendar as highlighted in Appendix 3. Similarly, in the econometric analysis, we test whether films perform significantly worse if released in the IPL season but find no significant evidence of this. This result indicates that Indian audiences do not substitute between viewing films at the cinema and watching major cricket matches.

If a film is a sequel, our results suggest that this may have a limited, positive impact on a film’s success. Consequently, a film’s sequel status may be a weak indicator of film quality. Meanwhile, while films distributed by an Indian top ten distribution company that is family owned may not perform significantly better in terms of total box office revenues, they enjoy greater box office success in the opening week of general Indian release, at least at a ten per cent significant level. This suggests that until film quality information is spread through word-of-mouth, for example, through IMDB online reviews, the distributor of films can have some impact on opening week revenues.

Finally, the coefficients on the genre dummy variables indicate that films that can be categorised as romantic, action/thriller or drama all perform significantly worse in terms of box office revenues than the excluded film category – comedies.

Note that in initial regressions, the use of star actors and actresses and major distributors were not found to impact significantly on box office revenues, even though both may be considered as potential signals of a film’s quality. These variables have been found to have a positive, significant effect on revenues in a number of country contexts previously, see for example Elliott et al. ( 2018 ). Nevertheless, the result in the current analysis is in line with that of Fetscherin ( 2010 ) who also considers the Indian market. This result is encouraging as it indicates that two potential barriers to entry, namely the use of costly stars and distributors, are not important in the Indian film industry context.

The analysis above contributes directly to our understanding of the question posed in this research paper, namely what factors contribute to a film’s box office success in the Indian market. Results suggest that two factors are key and are signals of film quality, namely film budget and online review scores. The first, but not the second, is under the control of film production companies.

5 Discussion and conclusions

Higher film budgets and better online reviews result in higher Indian box office revenues for Bollywood films, a result in line with conclusions previously drawn for the Chinese film market, Elliott et al. ( 2018 ). Comparisons between the Indian and Chinese film markets are arguably appropriate as there are similarities between these two major Asian economies that similarly have liberalised in recent years, both subsequently enjoying substantial economic growth. However, while economic growth is associated with greater spending power at least for many consumers, demand for Indian films at Indian cinemas has stagnated, while in China, it has flourished. Other potential quality signals found to impact on Chinese film revenues, namely the production of sequels, the use of stars and major distribution companies, do not significantly affect Indian film revenues. These results may be indicative of a potentially competitive Indian film industry. While admittedly large film budget is important for box office success, production firms including new entrants do not need to rely on the use of stars or major distribution companies. This is reassuring as it is potentially more difficult for new production company market entrants to attract stars and major distribution companies to film projects. Note that Balasubramanyam ( 2009 ) also highlights the competitive nature of the Indian film industry, but rather indicates the lack of horizontal and vertical integration, the importance of family firms and the industry’s spread across the country. Yet, the competitive nature of the Indian film industry does not explain its recent difficulties, namely falling cinema attendance. As Elliott et al. ( 2018 ) note, the Chinese film industry is also increasingly becoming competitive.

Our results indicate that production firms should work to obtain financial backing for film projects, be that domestic funding or international funding, including from major Hollywood firms. Yet, while a competitive market is typically seen as advantageous as firms compete to satisfy consumer demands, can learn from each other, and have an incentive to produce efficiently, Indian film production companies should also consider whether too many films are currently being produced. This is particularly pertinent as consumer demand for watching films at the cinema is declining. Arguably fewer, larger budget, films should be produced with production companies focusing on producing higher quality films more likely to attract positive online reviews. Any marketing activities that may encourage positive online reviews should also be considered, and firms need to be aware that comedy films appear to be most popular with Indian audiences. Meanwhile, the timing of the release of a film in India appears irrelevant to its box office success. This may be explained by the diversity of audiences who speak different languages, and who celebrate festivals associated with different religions.

Producing films that can be exported successfully to increasingly sophisticated and better off diaspora is likely to remain a sensible strategy for film production companies, particularly as the Indian diaspora are believed to exceed 20 million, Jones et al. ( 2008 ). This strategy for Indian films has already been adopted, with the USA and UK being profitable export markets for Indian films, Eliashberg et al. ( 2006 ); Fetscherin ( 2010 ). However, exports of Indian films only make up approximately 10% of box office revenues and this figure has fallen slightly in recent years from 10.6% in 2010 to 9.2% in 2014. Footnote 7 Examples of particularly successful Bollywood films overseas include Monsoon Wedding (2001) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008). These are both relatively large budget films so reinforcing the importance of greater film budgets. The Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) set up India’s first major film fund in 2002, Jones et al. ( 2008 ). This initiative is important, but further large-scale investment is required, and the likelihood is that this will partly be funded by overseas, probably Hollywood investment, as well as domestic funds.

Nevertheless, attempts by Hollywood to produce films for domestic audiences have not always been successful, with locally produced films performing better at the box office. Even using Indian casts, crew and directors, it appears that US-backed films can struggle with possible ‘cultural discount’. The cultural discount hypothesis has already received support in other East Asian film markets, as discussed by, for example, Lee ( 2006 , 2009 ), Fu and Lee ( 2008 ), Moon et al. ( 2015 ). Our results above highlight the importance of film budgets, with higher budget films performing significantly better at the Indian box office. Then, the challenge will be to produce films that appeal to domestic audiences, and to do this, the notion of cultural discount will have to be at the forefront of producers’ concerns. The issue of cultural distance is complicated in the case of India by the number of languages in which films are produced, for example with films regularly made in the Bengali; Bhojpuri; Hindi; Kannada; Tamil; and Telugu languages, but the lack of a common language immediately limits the appeal of films to some Indian audiences, creating cultural distance even within country boundaries. Nevertheless, revenues are made from dubbing films into alternative local languages, or by remaking films with regional stars (Balasubramanyam 2009 ).

The challenge of producing big budget films that appeal to audiences is further complicated as evidence suggests that Indian film audiences are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their tastes, for example rejecting more formulaic plots. Meanwhile, middle-class film viewers are increasingly choosing to watch films in the comfort of their homes via cable television subscriptions or the Internet. Footnote 8

The statistical analysis above has a number of limitations, all reflecting data availability problems. Data are restricted to Bollywood films, although results are expected to be comparable for the film industry more broadly across India. This is an area for future research. Data could not be obtained on film advertising expenditures, the number of screens on which films are exhibited in their opening week, major Indian film award nominations both in India and internationally, and any enhanced format features of films released in India. Nevertheless, results for the Chinese film market reported by Elliott et al. ( 2018 ) indicate that enhanced format films are likely to become increasingly important in attempts to attract cinema audiences as well as to deter piracy. Consequently, yet again the importance of large film budgets is highlighted as the production of 3D or IMAX films is particularly costly.

Ultimately, the Indian film industry has faced increasing difficulties in recent years: even increased investment in the film industry by large Hollywood companies and the release in India of internationally produced films has not stemmed falls in audience numbers. The industry is competitive with the capacity to benefit local economies across the country, but the key theme to emerge from this analysis is that funding for large budget films is crucial, and in the future, this may include funding for more enhanced format films. Other mature film markets across the world including in the USA and UK are also struggling to attract cinema audiences, and as a result, film markets are increasingly competitive, with competition from internationally as well as domestically produced films. The Indian film industry cannot afford to delay investments. The continued importance of the Indian film industry cannot be overstated. Governments, both state level and national, must consider whether their policies are sufficient to encourage film funding, should question whether entertainment taxes stifle investment and if policies are sufficiently effective in combating film piracy.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to participants at the British Northern Universities India Forum workshop at the University of Bradford, March 2016, and the International Symposium on Innovation, Catch-Up and Internationalisation: Comparative Studies of China, India and other Emerging Economies, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, July 2016, for very valuable comments and suggestions.

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Appendix 1: Variable information

Appendix 2: star actors and actresses.

• Full year data on actresses in the ranking were not provided until 2013

Appendix 3: List of festivals and holidays

• Where not specified the date of festivals varies from year to year

Appendix 4: OLS regression results

• Multicollinearity is confirmed not to be an issue as we obtained mean VIF scores of 1.3 and 1.32 with total revenue and opening week revenue, respectively, as dependent variables (both VIF scores considerably lower than 10)
• Robust standard errors in brackets; * p  < 0.10; ** p  < 0.05; *** p  < 0.01

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Dastidar, S.G., Elliott, C. The Indian film industry in a changing international market. J Cult Econ 44 , 97–116 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-019-09351-6

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The essay film

In recent years the essay film has attained widespread recognition as a particular category of film practice, with its own history and canonical figures and texts. In tandem with a major season throughout August at London’s BFI Southbank, Sight & Sound explores the characteristics that have come to define this most elastic of forms and looks in detail at a dozen influential milestone essay films.

Andrew Tracy , Katy McGahan , Olaf Möller , Sergio Wolf , Nina Power Updated: 7 May 2019

from our August 2013 issue

Le camera stylo? Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

I recently had a heated argument with a cinephile filmmaking friend about Chris Marker’s Sans soleil (1983). Having recently completed her first feature, and with such matters on her mind, my friend contended that the film’s power lay in its combinations of image and sound, irrespective of Marker’s inimitable voiceover narration. “Do you think that people who can’t understand English or French will get nothing out of the film?” she said; to which I – hot under the collar – replied that they might very well get something, but that something would not be the complete work.

The Sight & Sound Deep Focus season Thought in Action: The Art of the Essay Film runs at BFI Southbank 1-28 August 2013, with a keynote lecture by Kodwo Eshun on 1 August, a talk by writer and academic Laura Rascaroli on 27 August and a closing panel debate on 28 August.

To take this film-lovers’ tiff to a more elevated plane, what it suggests is that the essentialist conception of cinema is still present in cinephilic and critical culture, as are the difficulties of containing within it works that disrupt its very fabric. Ever since Vachel Lindsay published The Art of the Moving Picture in 1915 the quest to secure the autonomy of film as both medium and art – that ever-elusive ‘pure cinema’ – has been a preoccupation of film scholars, critics, cinephiles and filmmakers alike. My friend’s implicit derogation of the irreducible literary element of Sans soleil and her neo- Godard ian invocation of ‘image and sound’ touch on that strain of this phenomenon which finds, in the technical-functional combination of those two elements, an alchemical, if not transubstantiational, result.

Mechanically created, cinema defies mechanism: it is poetic, transportive and, if not irrational, then a-rational. This mystically-minded view has a long and illustrious tradition in film history, stretching from the sense-deranging surrealists – who famously found accidental poetry in the juxtapositions created by randomly walking into and out of films; to the surrealist-influenced, scientifically trained and ontologically minded André Bazin , whose realist veneration of the long take centred on the very preternaturalness of nature as revealed by the unblinking gaze of the camera; to the trash-bin idolatry of the American underground, weaving new cinematic mythologies from Hollywood detritus; and to auteurism itself, which (in its more simplistic iterations) sees the essence of the filmmaker inscribed even upon the most compromised of works.

It isn’t going too far to claim that this tradition has constituted the foundation of cinephilic culture and helped to shape the cinematic canon itself. If Marker has now been welcomed into that canon and – thanks to the far greater availability of his work – into the mainstream of (primarily DVD-educated) cinephilia, it is rarely acknowledged how much of that work cheerfully undercuts many of the long-held assumptions and pieties upon which it is built.

In his review of Letter from Siberia (1957), Bazin placed Marker at right angles to cinema proper, describing the film’s “primary material” as intelligence – specifically a “verbal intelligence” – rather than image. He dubbed Marker’s method a “horizontal” montage, “as opposed to traditional montage that plays with the sense of duration through the relationship of shot to shot”.

Here, claimed Bazin, “a given image doesn’t refer to the one that preceded it or the one that will follow, but rather it refers laterally, in some way, to what is said.” Thus the very thing which makes Letter “extraordinary”, in Bazin’s estimation, is also what makes it not-cinema. Looking for a term to describe it, Bazin hit upon a prophetic turn of phrase, writing that Marker’s film is, “to borrow Jean Vigo’s formulation of À propos de Nice (‘a documentary point of view’), an essay documented by film. The important word is ‘essay’, understood in the same sense that it has in literature – an essay at once historical and political, written by a poet as well.”

Marker’s canonisation has proceeded apace with that of the form of which he has become the exemplar. Whether used as critical/curatorial shorthand in reviews and programme notes, employed as a model by filmmakers or examined in theoretical depth in major retrospectives (this summer’s BFI Southbank programme, for instance, follows upon Andréa Picard’s two-part series ‘The Way of the Termite’ at TIFF Cinémathèque in 2009-2010, which drew inspiration from Jean-Pierre Gorin ’s groundbreaking programme of the same title at Vienna Filmmuseum in 2007), the ‘essay film’ has attained in recent years widespread recognition as a particular, if perennially porous, mode of film practice. An appealingly simple formulation, the term has proved both taxonomically useful and remarkably elastic, allowing one to define a field of previously unassimilable objects while ranging far and wide throughout film history to claim other previously identified objects for this invented tradition.

Las Hurdes (1933)

It is crucial to note that the ‘essay film’ is not only a post-facto appellation for a kind of film practice that had not bothered to mark itself with a moniker, but also an invention and an intervention. While it has acquired its own set of canonical ‘texts’ that include the collected works of Marker, much of Godard – from the missive (the 52-minute Letter to Jane , 1972) to the massive ( Histoire(s) de cinéma , 1988-98) – Welles’s F for Fake (1973) and Thom Andersen’s Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003), it has also poached on the territory of other, ‘sovereign’ forms, expanding its purview in accordance with the whims of its missionaries.

From documentary especially, Vigo’s aforementioned À propos de Nice, Ivens’s Rain (1929), Buñuel’s sardonic Las Hurdes (1933), Resnais’s Night and Fog (1955), Rouch and Morin’s Chronicle of a Summer (1961); from the avant garde, Akerman’s Je, Tu, Il, Elle (1974), Straub/Huillet’s Trop tôt, trop tard (1982); from agitprop, Getino and Solanas’s The Hour of the Furnaces (1968), Portabella’s Informe general… (1976); and even from ‘pure’ fiction, for example Gorin’s provocative selection of Griffith’s A Corner in Wheat (1909).

Just as within itself the essay film presents, in the words of Gorin, “the meandering of an intelligence that tries to multiply the entries and the exits into the material it has elected (or by which it has been elected),” so, without, its scope expands exponentially through the industrious activity of its adherents, blithely cutting across definitional borders and – as per the Manny Farber ian concept which gave Gorin’s ‘Termite’ series its name –  creating meaning precisely by eating away at its own boundaries. In the scope of its application and its association more with an (amorphous) sensibility as opposed to fixed rules, the essay film bears similarities to the most famous of all fabricated genres: film noir, which has been located both in its natural habitat of the crime thriller as well as in such disparate climates as melodramas, westerns and science fiction.

The essay film, however, has proved even more peripatetic: where noir was formulated from the films of a determinate historical period (no matter that the temporal goalposts are continually shifted), the essay film is resolutely unfixed in time; it has its choice of forebears. And while noir, despite its occasional shadings over into semi-documentary during the 1940s, remains bound to fictional narratives, the essay film moves blithely between the realms of fiction and non-fiction, complicating the terms of both.

“Here is a form that seems to accommodate the two sides of that divide at the same time, that can navigate from documentary to fiction and back, creating other polarities in the process between which it can operate,” writes Gorin. When Orson Welles , in the closing moments of his masterful meditation on authenticity and illusion F for Fake, chortles, “I did promise that for one hour, I’d tell you only the truth. For the past 17 minutes, I’ve been lying my head off,” he is expressing both the conjuror’s pleasure in a trick well played and the artist’s delight in a self-defined mode that is cheerfully impure in both form and, perhaps, intention.

Nevertheless, as the essay film merrily traipses through celluloid history it intersects with ‘pure cinema’ at many turns and its form as such owes much to one particularly prominent variety thereof.

The montage tradition

If the mystical strain described above represents the Dionysian side of pure cinema, Soviet montage was its Apollonian opposite: randomness, revelation and sensuous response countered by construction, forceful argumentation and didactic instruction.

No less than the mystics, however, the montagists were after essences. Eisenstein , Dziga Vertov and Pudovkin , along with their transnational associates and acolytes, sought to crystallise abstract concepts in the direct and purposeful juxtaposition of forceful, hard-edged images – the general made powerfully, viscerally immediate in the particular. Here, says Eisenstein, in the umbrella-wielding harpies who set upon the revolutionaries in October (1928), is bourgeois Reaction made manifest; here, in the serried ranks of soldiers proceeding as one down the Odessa Steps in Battleship Potemkin (1925), is Oppression undisguised; here, in the condemned Potemkin sailor who wins over his imminent executioners with a cry of “Brothers!” – a moment powerfully invoked by Marker at the beginning of his magnum opus A Grin Without a Cat (1977) – is Solidarity emergent and, from it, the seeds of Revolution.

The relentlessly unidirectional focus of classical Soviet montage puts it methodologically and temperamentally at odds with the ruminative, digressive and playful qualities we associate with the essay film. So, too, the former’s fierce ideological certainty and cadre spirit contrast with that free play of the mind, the Montaigne -inspired meanderings of individual intelligence, that so characterise our image of the latter.

Beyond Marker’s personal interest in and inheritance from the Soviet masters, classical montage laid the foundations of the essay film most pertinently in its foregrounding of the presence, within the fabric of the film, of a directing intelligence. Conducting their experiments in film not through ‘pure’ abstraction but through narrative, the montagists made manifest at least two operative levels within the film: the narrative itself and the arrangement of that narrative by which the deeper structures that move it are made legible. Against the seamless, immersive illusionism of commercial cinema, montage was a key for decrypting those social forces, both overt and hidden, that govern human society.

And as such it was method rather than material that was the pathway to truth. Fidelity to the authentic – whether the accurate representation of historical events or the documentary flavouring of Eisensteinian typage – was important only insomuch as it provided the filmmaker with another tool to reach a considerably higher plane of reality.

Dziga Vertov’s Enthusiasm (1931)

Midway on their Marxian mission to change the world rather than interpret it, the montagists actively made the world even as they revealed it. In doing so they powerfully expressed the dialectic between control and chaos that would come to be not only one of the chief motors of the essay film but the crux of modernity itself.

Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (1929), now claimed as the most venerable and venerated ancestor of the essay film (and this despite its prototypically purist claim to realise a ‘universal’ cinematic language “based on its complete separation from the language of literature and the theatre”) is the archetypal model of this high-modernist agon. While it is the turning of the movie projector itself and the penetrating gaze of Vertov’s kino-eye that sets the whirling dynamo of the city into motion, the recorder creating that which it records, that motion is also outside its control.

At the dawn of the cinematic century, the American writer Henry Adams saw in the dynamo both the expression of human mastery over nature and a conduit to mysterious, elemental powers beyond our comprehension. So, too, the modernist ambition expressed in literature, painting, architecture and cinema to capture a subject from all angles – to exhaust its wealth of surfaces, meanings, implications, resonances – collides with awe (or fear) before a plenitude that can never be encompassed.

Remove the high-modernist sense of mission and we can see this same dynamic as animating the essay film – recall that last, parenthetical term in Gorin’s formulation of the essay film, “multiply[ing] the entries and the exits into the material it has elected (or by which it has been elected)”. The nimble movements and multi-angled perspectives of the essay film are founded on this negotiation between active choice and passive possession; on the recognition that even the keenest insight pales in the face of an ultimate unknowability.

The other key inheritance the essay film received from the classical montage tradition, perhaps inevitably, was a progressive spirit, however variously defined. While Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (1935) and Olympia (1938) amply and chillingly demonstrated that montage, like any instrumental apparatus, has no inherent ideological nature, hers were more the exceptions that proved the rule. (Though why, apart from ideological repulsiveness, should Riefenstahl’s plentifully fabricated ‘documentaries’ not be considered as essay films in their own right?)

The overwhelming fact remains that the great majority of those who drew upon the Soviet montagists for explicitly ideological ends (as opposed to Hollywood’s opportunistic swipings) resided on the left of the spectrum – and, in the montagists’ most notable successor in the period immediately following, retained their alignment with and inextricability from the state.

Progressive vs radical

The Grierson ian documentary movement in Britain neutered the political and aesthetic radicalism of its more dynamic model in favour of paternalistic progressivism founded on conformity, class complacency and snobbery towards its own medium. But if it offered a far paler antecedent to the essay film than the Soviet montage tradition, it nevertheless represents an important stage in the evolution of the essay-film form, for reasons not unrelated to some of those rather staid qualities.

The Soviet montagists had created a vision of modernity racing into the future at pace with the social and spiritual liberation of its proletarian pilot-passenger, an aggressively public ideology of group solidarity. The Grierson school, by contrast, offered a domesticated image of an efficient, rational and productive modern industrial society based on interconnected but separate public and private spheres, as per the ideological values of middle-class liberal individualism.

The Soviet montagists had looked to forge a universal, ‘pure’ cinematic language, at least before the oppressive dictates of Stalinist socialist realism shackled them. The Grierson school, evincing a middle-class disdain for the popular and ‘low’ arts, sought instead to purify the sullied medium of cinema by importing extra-cinematic prestige: most notably Night Mail (1936), with its Auden -penned, Britten -scored ode to the magic of the mail, or Humphrey Jennings’s salute to wartime solidarity A Diary for Timothy (1945), with its mildly sententious E.M. Forster narration.

Night Mail (1936)

What this domesticated dynamism and retrograde pursuit of high-cultural bona fides achieved, however, was to mingle a newfound cinematic language (montage) with a traditionally literary one (narration); and, despite the salutes to state-oriented communality, to re-introduce the individual, idiosyncratic voice as the vehicle of meaning – as the mediating intelligence that connects the viewer to the images viewed.

In Night Mail especially there is, in the whimsy of the Auden text and the film’s synchronisation of private time and public history, an intimation of the essay film’s musing, reflective voice as the chugging rhythm of the narration timed to the speeding wheels of the train gives way to a nocturnal vision of solitary dreamers bedevilled by spectral monsters, awakening in expectation of the postman’s knock with a “quickening of the heart/for who can bear to be forgot?”

It’s a curiously disquieting conclusion: this unsettling, anxious vision of disappearance that takes on an even darker shade with the looming spectre of war – one that rhymes, five decades on, with the wistful search of Marker’s narrator in Sans soleil, seeking those fleeting images which “quicken the heart” in a world where wars both past and present have been forgotten, subsumed in a modern society built upon the systematic banishment of memory.

It is, of course, with the seminal post-war collaborations between Marker and Alain Resnais that the essay film proper emerges. In contrast to the striving culture-snobbery of the Griersonian documentary, the Resnais-Marker collaborations (and the Resnais solo documentary shorts that preceded them) inaugurate a blithe, seemingly effortless dialogue between cinema and the other arts in both their subjects (painting, sculpture) and their assorted creative personnel (writers Paul Éluard , Jean Cayrol , Raymond Queneau , composers Darius Milhaud and Hanns Eisler ). This also marks the point where the revolutionary line of the Soviets and the soft, statist liberalism of the British documentarians give way to a more free-floating but staunchly oppositional leftism, one derived as much from a spirit of humanistic inquiry as from ideological affiliation.

Related to this was the form’s problems with official patronage. Originally conceived as commissions by various French government or government-affiliated bodies, the Resnais-Marker films famously ran into trouble from French censors: Les statues meurent aussi (1953) for its condemnation of French colonialism, Night and Fog for its shots of Vichy policemen guarding deportation camps; the former film would have its second half lopped off before being cleared for screening, the latter its offending shots removed.

Night and Fog (1955)

Appropriately, it is at this moment that the emphasis of the essay film begins to shift away from tactile presence – the whirl of the city, the rhythm of the rain, the workings of industry – to felt absence. The montagists had marvelled at the workings of human creations which raced ahead irrespective of human efforts; here, the systems created by humanity to master the world write, in their very functioning, an epitaph for those things extinguished in the act of mastering them. The African masks preserved in the Musée de l’Homme in Les statues meurent aussi speak of a bloody legacy of vanquished and conquered civilisations; the labyrinthine archival complex of the Bibliothèque Nationale in the sardonically titled Toute la mémoire du monde (1956) sparks a disquisition on all that is forgotten in the act of cataloguing knowledge; the miracle of modern plastics saluted in the witty, industrially commissioned Le Chant du styrène (1958) regresses backwards to its homely beginnings; in Night and Fog an unprecedentedly enormous effort of human organisation marshals itself to actively produce a dreadful, previously unimaginable nullity.

To overstate the case, loss is the primary motor of the modern essay film: loss of belief in the image’s ability to faithfully reflect reality; loss of faith in the cinema’s ability to capture life as it is lived; loss of illusions about cinema’s ‘purity’, its autonomy from the other arts or, for that matter, the world.

“You never know what you may be filming,” notes one of Marker’s narrating surrogates in A Grin Without a Cat, as footage of the Chilean equestrian team at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics offers a glimpse of a future member of the Pinochet junta. The image and sound captured at the time of filming offer one facet of reality; it is only with this lateral move outside that reality that the future reality it conceals can speak.

What will distinguish the essay film, as Bazin noted, is not only its ability to make the image but also its ability to interrogate it, to dispel the illusion of its sovereignty and see it as part of a matrix of meaning that extends beyond the screen. No less than were the montagists, the film-essayists seek the motive forces of modern society not by crystallising eternal verities in powerful images but by investigating that ever-shifting, kaleidoscopic relationship between our regime of images and the realities it both reveals and occludes.

— Andrew Tracy

1.   À propos de Nice

Jean Vigo, 1930

Few documentaries have achieved the cult status of the 22-minute A propos de Nice, co-directed by Jean Vigo and cameraman Boris Kaufman at the beginning of their careers. The film retains a spontaneous, apparently haphazard, quality yet its careful montage combines a strong realist drive, lyrical dashes – helped by Marc Perrone’s accordion music – and a clear political agenda.

In today’s era, in which the Côte d’Azur has become a byword for hedonistic consumption, it’s refreshing to see a film that systematically undermines its glossy surface. Using images sometimes ‘stolen’ with hidden cameras, A propos de Nice moves between the city’s main sites of pleasure: the Casino, the Promenade des Anglais, the Hotel Negresco and the carnival. Occasionally the filmmakers remind us of the sea, the birds, the wind in the trees but mostly they contrast people: the rich play tennis, the poor boules; the rich have tea, the poor gamble in the (then) squalid streets of the Old Town.

As often, women bear the brunt of any critique of bourgeois consumption: a rich old woman’s head is compared to an ostrich, others grin as they gaze up at phallic factory chimneys; young women dance frenetically, their crotch to the camera. In the film’s most famous image, an elegant woman is ‘stripped’ by the camera to reveal her naked body – not quite matched by a man’s shoes vanishing to display his naked feet to the shoe-shine.

An essay film avant la lettre , A propos de Nice ends on Soviet-style workers’ faces and burning furnaces. The message is clear, even if it has not been heeded by history.

— Ginette Vincendeau

2. A Diary for Timothy

Humphrey Jennings, 1945

A Diary for Timothy takes the form of a journal addressed to the eponymous Timothy James Jenkins, born on 3 September 1944, exactly five years after Britain’s entry into World War II. The narrator, Michael Redgrave , a benevolent offscreen presence, informs young Timothy about the momentous events since his birth and later advises that, even when the war is over, there will be “everyday danger”.

The subjectivity and speculative approach maintained throughout are more akin to the essay tradition than traditional propaganda in their rejection of mere glib conveyance of information or thunderous hectoring. Instead Jennings invites us quietly to observe the nuances of everyday life as Britain enters the final chapter of the war. Against the momentous political backdrop, otherwise routine, everyday activities are ascribed new profundity as the Welsh miner Geronwy, Alan the farmer, Bill the railway engineer and Peter the convalescent fighter pilot go about their daily business.

Within the confines of the Ministry of Information’s remit – to lift the spirits of a battle-weary nation – and the loose narrative framework of Timothy’s first six months, Jennings finds ample expression for the kind of formal experiment that sets his work apart from that of other contemporary documentarians. He worked across film, painting, photography, theatrical design, journalism and poetry; in Diary his protean spirit finds expression in a manner that transgresses the conventional parameters of wartime propaganda, stretching into film poem, philosophical reflection, social document, surrealistic ethnographic observation and impressionistic symphony. Managing to keep to the right side of sentimentality, it still makes for potent viewing.

— Catherine McGahan

3. Toute la mémoire du monde

Alain Resnais, 1956

In the opening credits of Toute la mémoire du monde, alongside the director’s name and that of producer Pierre Braunberger , one reads the mysterious designation “Groupe des XXX”. This Group of Thirty was an assembly of filmmakers who mobilised in the early 1950s to defend the “style, quality and ambitious subject matter” of short films in post-war France; the signatories of its 1953 ‘Declaration’ included Resnais , Chris Marker and Agnès Varda. The success of the campaign contributed to a golden age of short filmmaking that would last a decade and form the crucible of the French essay film.

A 22-minute poetic documentary about the old French Bibliothèque Nationale, Toute la mémoire du monde is a key work in this strand of filmmaking and one which can also be seen as part of a loose ‘trilogy of memory’ in Resnais’s early documentaries. Les statues meurent aussi (co-directed with Chris Marker) explored cultural memory as embodied in African art and the depredations of colonialism; Night and Fog was a seminal reckoning with the historical memory of the Nazi death camps. While less politically controversial than these earlier works, Toute la mémoire du monde’s depiction of the Bibliothèque Nationale is still oddly suggestive of a prison, with its uniformed guards and endless corridors. In W.G. Sebald ’s 2001 novel Austerlitz, directly after a passage dedicated to Resnais’s film, the protagonist describes his uncertainty over whether, when using the library, he “was on the Islands of the Blest, or, on the contrary, in a penal colony”.

Resnais explores the workings of the library through the effective device of following a book from arrival and cataloguing to its delivery to a reader (the book itself being something of an in-joke: a mocked-up travel guide to Mars in the Petite Planète series Marker was then editing for Editions du Seuil). With Resnais’s probing, mobile camerawork and a commentary by French writer Remo Forlani, Toute la mémoire du monde transforms the library into a mysterious labyrinth, something between an edifice and an organism: part brain and part tomb.

— Chris Darke

4. The House is Black

(Khaneh siah ast) Forough Farrokhzad, 1963

Before the House of Makhmalbaf there was The House is Black. Called “the greatest of all Iranian films” by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, who helped translate the subtitles from Farsi into English, this 20-minute black-and-white essay film by feminist poet Farrokhzad was shot in a leper colony near Tabriz in northern Iran and has been heralded as the touchstone of the Iranian New Wave.

The buildings of the Baba Baghi colony are brick and peeling whitewash but a student asked to write a sentence using the word ‘house’ offers Khaneh siah ast : the house is black. His hand, seen in close-up, is one of many in the film; rather than objects of medical curiosity, these hands – some fingerless, many distorted by the disease – are agents, always in movement, doing, making, exercising, praying. In putting white words on the blackboard, the student makes part of the film; in the next shots, the film’s credits appear, similarly handwritten on the same blackboard.

As they negotiate the camera’s gaze and provide the soundtrack by singing, stamping and wheeling a barrow, the lepers are co-authors of the film. Farrokhzad echoes their prayers, heard and seen on screen, with her voiceover, which collages religious texts, beginning with the passage from Psalm 55 famously set to music by Mendelssohn (“O for the wings of a dove”).

In the conjunctions between Farrokhzad’s poetic narration and diegetic sound, including tanbur-playing, an intense assonance arises. Its beat is provided by uniquely lyrical associative editing that would influence Abbas Kiarostami , who quotes Farrokhzad’s poem ‘The Wind Will Carry Us’ in his eponymous film . Repeated shots of familiar bodily movement, made musical, move the film insistently into the viewer’s body: it is infectious. Posing a question of aesthetics, The House Is Black uses the contagious gaze of cinema to dissolve the screen between Us and Them.

— Sophie Mayer

5. Letter to Jane: An Investigation About a Still

Jean-Luc Godard & Jean-Pierre Gorin, 1972

With its invocation of Brecht (“Uncle Bertolt”), rejection of visual pleasure (for 52 minutes we’re mostly looking at a single black-and-white still) and discussion of the role of intellectuals in “the revolution”, Letter to Jane is so much of its time as to appear untranslatable to the present except as a curio from a distant era of radical cinema. Between 1969 and 1971, Godard and Gorin made films collectively as part of the Dziga Vertov Group before they returned, in 1972, to the mainstream with Tout va bien , a big-budget film about the aftermath of May 1968 featuring leftist stars Yves Montand and  Jane Fonda . It was to the latter that Godard and Gorin directed their Letter after seeing a news photograph of her on a solidarity visit to North Vietnam in August 1972.

Intended to accompany the US release of Tout va bien, Letter to Jane is ‘a letter’ only in as much as it is fairly conversational in tone, with Godard and Gorin delivering their voiceovers in English. It’s stylistically more akin to the ‘blackboard films’ of the time, with their combination of pedagogical instruction and stern auto-critique.

It’s also an inspired semiological reading of a media image and a reckoning with the contradictions of celebrity activism. Godard and Gorin examine the image’s framing and camera angle and ask why Fonda is the ‘star’ of the photograph while the Vietnamese themselves remain faceless or out of focus? And what of her expression of compassionate concern? This “expression of an expression” they trace back, via an elaboration of the Kuleshov effect , through other famous faces – Henry Fonda , John Wayne , Lillian Gish and Falconetti – concluding that it allows for “no reverse shot” and serves only to bolster Western “good conscience”.

Letter to Jane is ultimately concerned with the same question that troubled philosophers such as Levinas and Derrida : what’s at stake ethically when one claims to speak “in place of the other”? Any contemporary critique of celebrity activism – from Bono and Geldof to Angelina Jolie – should start here, with a pair of gauchiste trolls muttering darkly beneath a press shot of ‘Hanoi Jane’.

6. F for Fake

Orson Welles, 1973

Those who insist it was all downhill for Orson Welles after Citizen Kane would do well to take a close look at this film made more than three decades later, in its own idiosyncratic way a masterpiece just as innovative as his better-known feature debut.

Perhaps the film’s comparative and undeserved critical neglect is due to its predominantly playful tone, or perhaps it’s because it is a low-budget, hard-to-categorise, deeply personal work that mixes original material with plenty of footage filmed by others – most extensively taken from a documentary by François Reichenbach about Clifford Irving and his bogus biography of his friend Elmyr de Hory , an art forger who claimed to have painted pictures attributed to famous names and hung in the world’s most prestigious galleries.

If the film had simply offered an account of the hoaxes perpetrated by that disreputable duo, it would have been entertaining enough but, by means of some extremely inventive, innovative and inspired editing, Welles broadens his study of fakery to take in his own history as a ‘charlatan’ – not merely his lifelong penchant for magician’s tricks but also the 1938 radio broadcast of his news-report adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds – as well as observations on Howard Hughes , Pablo Picasso and the anonymous builders of Chartres cathedral. So it is that Welles contrives to conjure up, behind a colourful cloak of consistently entertaining mischief, a rueful meditation on truth and falsehood, art and authorship – a subject presumably dear to his heart following Pauline Kael ’s then recent attempts to persuade the world that Herman J. Mankiewicz had been the real creative force behind Kane.

As a riposte to that thesis (albeit never framed as such), F for Fake is subtle, robust, supremely erudite and never once bitter; the darkest moment – as Welles contemplates the serene magnificence of Chartres – is at once an uncharacteristic but touchingly heartfelt display of humility and a poignant memento mori. And it is in this delicate balancing of the autobiographical with the universal, as well as in the dazzling deployment of cinematic form to illustrate and mirror content, that the film works its once unique, now highly influential magic.

— Geoff Andrew

7. How to Live in the German Federal Republic

(Leben – BRD) Harun Farocki, 1990

Harun Farocki ’s portrait of West Germany in 32 simulations from training sessions has no commentary, just the actions themselves in all their surreal beauty, one after the other. The Bundesrepublik Deutschland is shown as a nation of people who can deal with everything because they have been prepared – taught how to react properly in every possible situation.

We know how birth works; how to behave in kindergarten; how to chat up girls, boys or whatever we fancy (for we’re liberal-minded, if only in principle); how to look for a job and maybe live without finding one; how to wiggle our arses in the hottest way possible when we pole-dance, or manage a hostage crisis without things getting (too) bloody. Whatever job we do, we know it by heart; we also know how to manage whatever kind of psychological breakdown we experience; and we are also prepared for the end, and even have an idea about how our burial will go. This is the nation: one of fearful people in dire need of control over their one chance of getting it right.

Viewed from the present, How to Live in the German Federal Republic is revealed as the archetype of many a Farocki film in the decades to follow, for example Die Umschulung (1994), Der Auftritt (1996) or Nicht ohne Risiko (2004), all of which document as dispassionately as possible different – not necessarily simulated – scenarios of social interactions related to labour and capital. For all their enlightening beauty, none of these ever came close to How to Live in the German Federal Republic which, depending on one’s mood, can play like an absurd comedy or the most gut-wrenching drama. Yet one disquieting thing is certain: How to Live in the German Federal Republic didn’t age – our lives still look the same.

— Olaf Möller

8. One Man’s War

(La Guerre d’un seul homme) Edgardo Cozarinsky , 1982

One Man’s War proves that an auteur film can be made without writing a line, recording a sound or shooting a single frame. It’s easy to point to the ‘extraordinary’ character of the film, given its combination of materials that were not made to cohabit; there couldn’t be a less plausible dialogue than the one Cozarinsky establishes between the newsreels shot during the Nazi occupation of Paris and the Parisian diaries of novelist and Nazi officer Ernst Jünger . There’s some truth to Pascal Bonitzer’s assertion in Cahiers du cinéma in 1982 that the principle of the documentary was inverted here, since it is the images that provide a commentary for the voice.

But that observation still doesn’t pin down the uniqueness of a work that forces history through a series of registers, styles and dimensions, wiping out the distance between reality and subjectivity, propaganda and literature, cinema and journalism, daily life and dream, and establishing the idea not so much of communicating vessels as of contaminating vessels.

To enquire about the essayistic dimension of One Man’s War is to submit it to a test of purity against which the film itself is rebelling. This is no ars combinatoria but systems of collision and harmony; organic in their temporal development and experimental in their procedural eagerness. It’s like a machine created to die instantly; neither Cozarinsky nor anyone else could repeat the trick, as is the case with all great avant-garde works.

By blurring the genre of his literary essays, his fictional films, his archival documentaries, his literary fictions, Cozarinsky showed he knew how to reinvent the erasure of borders. One Man’s War is not a film about the Occupation but a meditation on the different forms in which that Occupation can be represented.

—Sergio Wolf. Translated by Mar Diestro-Dópido

9. Sans soleil

Chris Marker, 1982

There are many moments to quicken the heart in Sans soleil but one in particular demonstrates the method at work in Marker’s peerless film. An unseen female narrator reads from letters sent to her by a globetrotting cameraman named Sandor Krasna (Marker’s nom de voyage), one of which muses on the 11th-century Japanese writer  Sei Shōnagon .

As we hear of Shōnagon’s “list of elegant things, distressing things, even of things not worth doing”, we watch images of a missile being launched and a hovering bomber. What’s the connection? There is none. Nothing here fixes word and image in illustrative lockstep; it’s in the space between them that Sans soleil makes room for the spectator to drift, dream and think – to inimitable effect.

Sans soleil was Marker’s return to a personal mode of filmmaking after more than a decade in militant cinema. His reprise of the epistolary form looks back to earlier films such as  Letter from Siberia  (1958) but the ‘voice’ here is both intimate and removed. The narrator’s reading of Krasna’s letters flips the first person to the third, using ‘he’ instead of ‘I’. Distance and proximity in the words mirror, multiply and magnify both the distances travelled and the time spanned in the images, especially those of the 1960s and its lost dreams of revolutionary social change.

While it’s handy to define Sans soleil as an ‘essay film’, there’s something about the dry term that doesn’t do justice to the experience of watching it. After Marker’s death last year, when writing programme notes on the film, I came up with a line that captures something of what it’s like to watch Sans soleil: “a mesmerising, lucid and lovely river of film, which, like the river of the ancients, is never the same when one steps into it a second time”.

10. Handsworth Songs

Black Audio Film Collective, 1986

Made at the time of civil unrest in Birmingham, this key example of the essay film at its most complex remains relevant both formally and thematically. Handsworth Songs is no straightforward attempt to provide answers as to why the riots happened; instead, using archive film spliced with made and found footage of the events and the media and popular reaction to them, it creates a poetic sense of context.

The film is an example of counter-media in that it slows down the demand for either immediate explanation or blanket condemnation. Its stillness allows the history of immigration and the subsequent hostility of the media and the police to the black and Asian population to be told in careful detail.

One repeated scene shows a young black man running through a group of white policemen who surround him on all sides. He manages to break free several times before being wrestled to the ground; if only for one brief, utopian moment, an entirely different history of race in the UK is opened up.

The waves of post-war immigration are charted in the stories told both by a dominant (and frequently repressive) televisual narrative and, importantly, by migrants themselves. Interviews mingle with voiceover, music accompanies the machines that the Windrush generation work at. But there are no definitive answers here, only, as the Black Audio Film Collective memorably suggests, “the ghosts of songs”.

— Nina Power

11.   Los Angeles Plays Itself

Thom Andersen, 2003

One of the attractions that drew early film pioneers out west, besides the sunlight and the industrial freedom, was the versatility of the southern Californian landscape: with sea, snowy mountains, desert, fruit groves, Spanish missions, an urban downtown and suburban boulevards all within a 100-mile radius, the Los Angeles basin quickly and famously became a kind of giant open-air film studio, available and pliant.

Of course, some people actually live there too. “Sometimes I think that gives me the right to criticise,” growls native Angeleno Andersen in his forensic three-hour prosecution of moving images of the movie city, whose mounting litany of complaints – couched in Encke King’s gravelly, near-parodically irritated voiceover, and sometimes organised, as Stuart Klawans wrote in The Nation, “in the manner of a saloon orator” – belies a sly humour leavening a radically serious intent.

Inspired in part by Mark Rappaport’s factual essay appropriations of screen fictions (Rock Hudson’s Home Movies, 1993; From the Journals of Jean Seberg , 1995), as well as Godard’s Histoire(s) de cinéma, this “city symphony in reverse” asserts public rights to our screen discourse through its magpie method as well as its argument. (Today you could rebrand it ‘Occupy Hollywood’.) Tinseltown malfeasance is evidenced across some 200 different film clips, from offences against geography and slurs against architecture to the overt historical mythologies of Chinatown (1974), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and L.A. Confidential (1997), in which the city’s class and cultural fault-lines are repainted “in crocodile tears” as doleful tragedies of conspiracy, promoting hopelessness in the face of injustice.

Andersen’s film by contrast spurs us to independent activism, starting with the reclamation of our gaze: “What if we watch with our voluntary attention, instead of letting the movies direct us?” he asks, peering beyond the foregrounding of character and story. And what if more movies were better and more useful, helping us see our world for what it is? Los Angeles Plays Itself grows most moving – and useful – extolling the Los Angeles neorealism Andersen has in mind: stories of “so many men unneeded, unwanted”, as he says over a scene from Billy Woodberry’s Bless Their Little Hearts (1983), “in a world in which there is so much to be done”.

— Nick Bradshaw

12.   La Morte Rouge

Víctor Erice, 2006

The famously unprolific Spanish director Víctor Erice may remain best known for his full-length fiction feature The Spirit of the Beehive (1973), but his other films are no less rewarding. Having made a brilliant foray into the fertile territory located somewhere between ‘documentary’ and ‘fiction’ with The Quince Tree Sun (1992), in this half-hour film made for the ‘Correspondences’ exhibition exploring resemblances in the oeuvres of Erice and Kiarostami , the relationship between reality and artifice becomes his very subject.

A ‘small’ work, it comprises stills, archive footage, clips from an old Sherlock Holmes movie, a few brief new scenes – mostly without actors – and music by Mompou and (for once, superbly used) Arvo Pärt . If its tone – it’s introduced as a “soliloquy” – and scale are modest, its thematic range and philosophical sophistication are considerable.

The title is the name of the Québécois village that is the setting for The Scarlet Claw (1944), a wartime Holmes mystery starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce which was the first movie Erice ever saw, taken by his sister to the Kursaal cinema in San Sebastian.

For the five-year-old, the experience was a revelation: unable to distinguish the ‘reality’ of the newsreel from that of the nightmare world of Roy William Neill’s film, he not only learned that death and murder existed but noted that the adults in the audience, presumably privy to some secret knowledge denied him, were unaffected by the corpses on screen. Had this something to do with war? Why was La Morte Rouge not on any map? And what did it signify that postman Potts was not, in fact, Potts but the killer – and an actor (whatever that was) to boot?

From such personal reminiscences – evoked with wondrous intimacy in the immaculate Castillian of the writer-director’s own wry narration – Erice fashions a lyrical meditation on themes that have underpinned his work from Beehive to Broken Windows (2012): time and change, memory and identity, innocence and experience, war and death. And because he understands, intellectually and emotionally, that the time-based medium he himself works in can reveal unforgettably vivid realities that belong wholly to the realm of the imaginary, La Morte Rouge is a great film not only about the power of cinema but about life itself.

Sight & Sound: the August 2013 issue

In this issue: Frances Ha’s Greta Gerwig – the most exciting actress in America? Plus Ryan Gosling in Only God Forgives, Wadjda, The Wall,...

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Further reading

Video essay: The essay film – some thoughts of discontent

Kevin B. Lee

The land still lies: Handsworth Songs and the English riots

The world at sea: The Forgotten Space

What I owe to Chris Marker

Patricio Guzmán

His and her ghosts: reworking La Jetée

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Modern Theatre and Film Industry Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

The modern theatre and film industry have helped familiarize people with the reality of the world, emotions people go through and happy, as well as sad situations. Historically, one of the first forms of entertainment which evolved into movies today was theatre.

People went to all the plays that were in their towns and greatly valued this form of art. At the same time, there were many prejudices that were a part of the society, which today might seem harsh and unacceptable. One of these is the way gender and races were viewed by the theatrical population and people viewing the plays.

The present society has seen many advances in the way people are treated and how the differences between individuals are viewed. Today, people are given an equal opportunity to participate in theatre and media, but even though there are laws that prohibit discrimination due to race or gender, there is still prejudice and stereotyping.

In the past, women were not allowed to perform plays. Men would play their parts and from one perspective, this enforced the common views that were abusive towards a certain group. Even though it changed the atmosphere of the theatre, people were not aware that anything could be different, so they accepted it as it was.

It would be reasonable to assume that women realized how unfair and humorous it was that men had to play women’s roles, but the dominant social views could not allow anything different. The same can be said about different races, as people were not used to people who stood out from the crowd. Their own insecurities and fear led them to believe that they must not allow anyone who looked different into the industry.

Right now, the world has changed and the theatres, as well as other forms of entertainment have become greatly “colorblind”. It is obvious that the theatre culture is more old fashioned, so prejudices still exist there, but other forms of media and entertainment, especially in the western world, are a clear example that people from all cultures can become successful and accepted.

Hollywood has seen many prosperous and world famous people from other races, who are loved and respected all over the world. The theatre is slowly adjusting to the change and this is most obviously seen in relation to gender. Women’s roles are played by women and it would be ridiculous to even image a man playing a woman’s role in the modern world. The society needs diversity in all its parts of entertainment, as people should realize that everyone is equal and there are no real differences between people.

Everyone wants to do what they love and have a talent for, and entertainment industry has shown that there are many actors who are of same or even greater talent in relation to “white only” population. The mixing of all societies into one will allow for greater acceptance and cooperation, and because theatre and other media are viewed by so many people, it would be most beneficial to display the unity there.

Even though the times are changing slowly, it is clear that gender or race should not matter in theatre or films. The whole world must see that entertainment comes from emotions and people’s soul and looks are unimportant, as people should be judged by their character and not how they appear to be.

• American Musical Theatre and Twyla Tharp
• Theatre and Society Symbiotic Relationship
• The Renaissance Theatre Development
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
• The Play "Fifth of July" by Lanford Wilson
• An Analysis of Almost Maine
• Edward Albee, His Life and Works
• The Tragedy of Othello: Critical Analysis — Othello Critical Essay
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, January 17). Modern Theatre and Film Industry. https://ivypanda.com/essays/theatre/

"Modern Theatre and Film Industry." IvyPanda , 17 Jan. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/theatre/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Modern Theatre and Film Industry'. 17 January.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Modern Theatre and Film Industry." January 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/theatre/.

1. IvyPanda . "Modern Theatre and Film Industry." January 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/theatre/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Modern Theatre and Film Industry." January 17, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/theatre/.

How Can I Write an Essay About a Movie?

By Film Threat Staff | May 23, 2023

Watching movies for a long time has been a major past-time for most individuals. The people expect to sit in front of their screens and get thrilled into a world of adventure, mystery, and wonder.

But how can you gauge your appreciation and understanding of filmmaking? Writing an essay about a movie is one way of showing your grasp of the content.

Movie analysis is a common assignment for most college students. It is an intricate task where every detail matters while tied together to form a part of the story.

A part of the assignment involves watching a particular movie and writing an essay about your overall impression of the movie.

Essay writing services such as WriteMyEssay show that more than rewatching a movie several times is needed to make up for a solid movie analysis essay. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to write your movie analysis:

What Is a Movie Essay?

The world of literature is multifaceted while testing different attributes of students. A movie analysis essay, at its core, seeks to uncover the hidden layers of meaning within the cinema world.

A movie analysis essay is much more than a movie review that seeks to delve into the artistry behind filmmaking. Thus, it seeks to test a student’s prowess in understanding various elements that come together to form a meaningful cinematic experience.

The main purpose of movie analysis essays is to dissect different components employed by a film in making a unique and impactful storyline.

Students can appreciate the filmmaking process’s complexities by analyzing these different elements. Also, students can develop a keen eye for the nuances that elevate a movie from entertainment to a work of art.

Here are top tips by experts when writing an essay about a particular movie during your assignments:

1. Watch the Movie

The first obvious standpoint for writing an essay about any movie is watching the film. Watching the movie builds an important foundation for the writing exercise. Composing an insightful, compelling, and well-thought movie essay requires you to experience it.

Therefore, select an appropriate environment to watch the movie free from distractions. Moreover, immerse yourself in the full movie experience to absorb all the intricate details. Some critical elements to note down include:

• Characterization
• Cinematography

We recommend watching the movie several times in case the time element allows. Rewatching the film deepens your understanding of the movie while uncovering unnoticed details on the first take.

2. Write an Introduction

The introductory paragraph to your movie essay should contain essential details of the movie, such as:

• Release date
• Name of the director
• Main actors

Moreover, start with a captivating hook to entice readers to keep reading. You can start with a memorable quote from one of the characters.

For example, released in 1976 and Directed by Martin Scorsese, ‘The Taxi Driver’ starring Robert De Niro as the eccentric taxi driver.’

After writing an enticing introduction, it is time to summarize what you watched. A summary provides readers with a clear understanding of the movie’s plot and main events. Hence, your readers can have a foundation for the rest of your movie essay.

Writing a summary need to be concise. The entire movie essay should be brief and straight to the point. Ensure to capture the main arguments within the movie’s plot. However, avoid going into too many details. Just focus on giving concise information about the movie.

4. Start Writing

The next vital part is forming the analysis part. This is where the analysis delves deeply into the movie’s themes, cinematography, characters, and other related elements.

First, start by organizing your analysis clearly and logically. Each section or paragraph should concentrate on a particular aspect of the film. Ensure to incorporate important elements such as cinematography, character development, and symbolism.

In addition, analyze different techniques employed by filmmakers. Take note of stylistic choices, including editing, sound, cinematography, imagery, and allegory. This helps contribute to the overall impact and meaning.

Lastly, connect your analysis to the thesis statement. Ensure all arguments captured in your analysis tie together to the main argument. It should maintain a straight focus throughout your essay.

Remember to re-state your thesis while summarizing previously mentioned arguments innovatively and creatively when finishing up your movie essay. Lastly, you can recommend your reader to watch the movie.

Final Takeaway

The writing process should be a fun, demanding, and engaging assignment. Try these tips from experts in structuring and logically organizing your essay.

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How Do You Break into the Film Industry? 10 Important Lessons

The film industry is infamously hard to break into. This applies whether you’re behind the scenes, in post-production or right in front of the camera. It can be tricky to find that first job to kickstart your career. However, there are ways to gain experience and impress employers – it certainly isn’t easy, but it’s also not impossible. So we’ve put together 10 important lessons for breaking into the film industry.

What are the fundamental things you must know in order to kickstart your career?

1. Find Experience in Low-Level Productions

One of the best ways to start out in the film industry is to find experience in low-level productions. Whether it’s a student-led project or a low-budget production company, there’ll always be films in need of extra hands.

High-end TV and major film sets will most likely require previous work experience. So low-level projects are a great place to start if you lack this. Unfortunately, these projects rarely pay. Nevertheless, it’s still an excellent way to meet other people in the industry and gain valuable experience.

There are many ways to find jobs like this, through online application websites such as Mandy and Backstage , Facebook groups, or simply word of mouth. You may have to search a little bit. But as long as you put yourself out there, low-budget productions will likely be glad for any kind of help on their sets.

There are two halves (at least) to film; the half where you watch and the half where you make. You may be used to watching films and want a career in the industry because of this. But seeing how the sausage is really made is key in knowing whether or not this career will ultimately be right for you.

2. Be Prepared to Work in Unglamorous Roles

When you do find your first jobs in film, whether they are in an unpaid low-level production or perhaps something slightly higher up, don’t expect a whole lot of glamour.

Most entry-level jobs on film sets are as runners or production assistants. Typical duties for these roles include making tea and coffee, general admin work and sometimes driving actors to set. You may not enjoy these tasks that much. They may seem like a grind and far away from the dream you had of directing a blockbuster. However, they’re invaluable to a production and are a great starting point.

With these roles, you can still learn so much from watching everyone else on set and observing how they do things. In addition, it’s a great way to get your foot in the door at a production company and begin to climb the ladder. So don’t think you’re too good for an unglamorous role, it could be a vital first step in your film career.

More importantly though, it’s important to learn that much of the work in the film industry is very different from the glamour and glitz you get used to seeing on red carpets and late-night talk shows. If you’re serious about a career in the film industry, you have to be prepared to get your hands dirty. And the more you’re capable of doing so, the better you’ll come across to your peers. You’ll present as someone who thinks nothing is beneath them and someone who is prepared to graft, whatever the specific role.

3. Find Your Area of Focus

One of the most important steps in breaking into the film industry is to find an area in which you want to focus. There are so many different jobs within film. And it’s impossible to be a jack of all trades. Instead, choose one area to specialise in. Once you’ve found your area of expertise, it’ll make breaking into the film industry much easier.

Whatever you go into – sound, lighting, post-production, writing, directing – make sure it’s something you’re truly passionate about and are eager to learn more about. What is your skill set? And what role could that make you good at? It’s important to not let your ego blind you.

Not everyone can be Paul Thomas-Anderson, leading a crew with their unique vision and deeply embedded in the creative process. A film crew is typically an organism. And you have to work out how you can best serve that organism and help the end product become greater than the sum of its parts.

Moreover, finding your area of focus is a crucial step in breaking into the film industry as it gives you a clear direction. It’s something to work towards, making it easier to look for relevant jobs and projects.

4. Build Your Skill Set

Once you’ve found your area of focus, it’s important to build up your skill set as much as possible. This will make you more qualified for your role, and more likely to find continual work. It speaks to the mindset of progress.

This can be vital in the film industry. You’ll never reach a maximum level of expertise. Instead, you’ll always be growing and learning, finding new ways to articulate your craft. This is not only a great way to keep work but also to keep fresh in your attitude towards such work.

There are many ways to build up your skill set; attending specialised courses, following online tutorials, reading, meeting new people or volunteering on low-level productions and learning on the job.

Developing your skill set and improving your abilities is a massive step to breaking into the film industry. It not only transforms you from an amateur into a professional but keeps you continually growing. There is no end to your potential. This will also help you gain a reputation in the industry and find jobs through recommendations – making you a valued and recognized member on set.

5. Network, Network, Network.

One of the best ways to enter the industry is to make connections early on. You can do this by reaching out to individuals on LinkedIn and many other platforms, attending film festivals in order to meet other filmmakers and like-minded people, and gaining as much relevant work experience as possible.

The more people you know within the industry, the easier you’ll find it to break in. You’ll build relationships with people who will inherently trust you. This will breed recommendations to others. It’s a naturalistic way to build a network. This is because each member goes out and grows their own network in order to, in turn, feed back into yours.

When you are networking, understand what it is you can offer to other filmmakers and people within the industry, and then sell them your skill set. If you make a good impression on as many people as possible, you’ll find more opportunities coming your way. This will consequently allow you to get further and further embedded in the industry.

Networking doesn’t have to be the scary or cynical prospect it can often seem. It comes across as somewhat of a buzzword. But really it’s just a way of describing the process of building relationships. Knowing your skill set and knowing yourself will make this process easier. It will allow you to engage in an exchange of skills, ideas and opportunities.

6. Build a Portfolio

One of the best ways to showcase your abilities and break into the industry is to build up a portfolio/showreel of your work. Whether it’s a producer, director or agent ; whoever is hiring you wants to see what you can do. And the best way to show them is to provide a physical example of your work.

You can either build up your portfolio with any previous work experience you may have done or include independent projects you have created. The most important thing is to showcase your area of focus. So whether that is writing, sound, cinematography or editing, make sure whatever you want to go into is the biggest thing on display.

If a strict portfolio of work isn’t appropriate for your skill set, then strive to make your CV stand out as much as possible. Remember that you will often be one of hundreds of CVs on a pile when applying for a role. So how can you make your CV pop? How can you highlight what is unique about what you can bring to the role? These are the questions to pay close attention to.

7. Work on Other People’s Films

Even if you’re aiming to be a powerful producer or an in-demand director at the very top of the industry, an important way to break into the industry is to work on other people’s films.

The most essential way to break into the film industry is by being in the room. So even if you’re watching other people carrying out the job of your dreams on the film set, it’s better than not being on the film set at all.

From working on other people’s films you’re not only gaining valuable experience but also creating crucial connections which will help you in getting close to the job you truly want. In addition, by working on other people’s films, you can meet talented crew and build partnerships with like-minded people. These people could one day be working on one of your own productions.

There’s no need to be overly cynical about making these connections. This might, in turn, put people off. After all, the most important thing is to do the job at hand and not be distracted by your own personal ambition. However, by just being around other aspiring filmmakers you will be making steps in the right direction. No need to overthink it, just show up and do your job to the best of your ability.

8. Prepare for Long Hours and Lack of Personal Time

One of the most important lessons to learn when breaking into the film industry is that on a film set, working long hours is not only normal but usually expected. Sometimes you’ll be starting your day off at the crack of dawn and not finishing until the late hours of the evening.

Your working hours will depend on whatever your role is. Overall though, when you’re first breaking into the industry, get ready to work all through the day and well into the night. Film shoots can last for months at a time. This will mean potentially working long days for an extended period of time, with little time off to unwind. Obviously, make sure this is clear before you enter into a contract, so you’re not unwittingly overworked and underpaid.

Deciding if the lifestyle suits you is a very significant thing to consider as you think about breaking into the film industry. This is especially true in production as working long hours can be par for the course. Again, a film set is not always a glamorous place but one of early mornings, late nights, hard graft and probably most of all, waiting around. So try and find a method of coping with this tricky working life so that you’re not over-stressed when it arrives.

9. Be Creative On Your Own Terms

It can be frustrating constantly waiting around for someone to give you an opportunity. So in light of this, you must where possible seek to give yourself your own opportunities.

In short, don’t sit around wishing you could be creative when you could, in fact, just be creative. This is obviously much harder to put into action for some disciplines over others. It’s much easier to sit down and write your own material, for example, than it is to act by yourself or light a stage in your bedroom.

However, even if the practicalities are a barrier, you should try and tap into your creative energy as much as possible. For instance, what practices can you try out other than your own? And what’s the most low-key version of your practice? If you’re a budding costume designer, you might try sketching your ideal costumes. If you’re a budding cinematographer, you might take a camera out and start finding your ideal lighting set-ups.

Whatever the method, it’s important to not be idle whilst waiting for your break into the film industry. Sharpening your creative mind will make you all the more ready to take ample advantage of opportunities when they arrive.

10. Get Your Work Seen and Advocate For Your Experience

How do you expect to make any progress if you lock all of your work away in a secret vault? Of course, it can be scary showing off projects which you have put so much hard work into. But if you want to get noticed, it’s necessary.

This applies not just to the films you make yourself but to the films you’ve worked on. You have to advocate for your experience. And hiding your track record or not shouting about it is the opposite of this. Even if you’re not necessarily proud of all the films you’ve worked on, you have to show how it has helped build your overall experience.

As a whole, a key way to break into the film industry is to meet the moment. You must show what you can offer to the specific production you’re looking to get on board with or for the specific job/opportunity you’re applying for.

How does your experience and skill set make you an asset? What is it that you offer that no one else can? This distinction is crucial when trying to break into the film industry. In a highly competitive industry, where and how do you fit in?

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This article was written by Lucas Blaxall and edited by IS staff.

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1 thought on “How Do You Break into the Film Industry? 10 Important Lessons”

“..It’s much easier to sit down and write your own material..” It’s never easy. Even so, this is a great guide for those just starting out. Above all else you will need good health and fitness, physical, mental and creative energy, determination, application, dedication, self-confidence and social skills, in order to make any kind of career. Above all, don’t give up, so you may end up with some satisfying degree of success, even a brief moment of immortality, if not a full career. Remember the Italian gentleman who wrote one novel in his life before he died. He never gave up. A number of publishers turned it down, but it was eventually published posthumously. It became an instant classic and, a few years later, a classic movie, Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) starring Burt Lancaster. Success comes to those who don’t give up.

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Made In India: The World's Biggest Film Industry Hasn't Had A Film In The Cannes Competition Since 1994 … Until Now

The first iteration of the Cannes Film Festival, planned for 1939, was scuppered when Germany invaded Poland to trigger the start of World War II. But when the festival finally got off the ground in 1946, Indian cinema came out swinging. Mounted shortly after the conclusion of the war, the first “real” Cannes Film Festival featured competition entries from Billy Wilder ( The Lost Weekend ), Roberto Rossellini ( Open City ), and David Lean ( Brief Encounter ). In the spirit of post-war peace and reconciliation, the competition jury, headed by French historian Georges Huisman, handed the top prize - then the Grand Prix - to films from 11 of the 18 countries represented that year.

This included India, with Chetan Anand's social-realist drama Neecha Nagar , and, for a decade at least, the country was a regular fixture in Competition. After Anand came V. Shantaram with Amar Bhoopali (1952), then Raj Kapoor with Awaara (1953), and Bimal Roy with Do Bigha Zamin (1954). But the film that put India on the map in Cannes was the debut feature by director Satyajit Ray, whose film Pather Panchali - the first of his now-famous ‘Apu Trilogy' - was championed by prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and won the one-off honor of Best Human Document. After Ray's Devi in 1962, however, the run was broken, and, for a while, it seemed that Shaji N. Karun's Swaham (1994), a Malayalam-language drama, might be the last Indian film ever to play in competition.

But now India is about to break its 30-year hiatus with Mumbai-based filmmaker Payal Kapadia's ambitious fiction feature debut All We Imagine As Light . Shot over 25 late summer days in Mumbai, followed by an extra 15 in the rainy western port town of Ratnagiri, the Malayalam-Hindi language feature tells the story of two young women - Prabha, a nurse from Mumbai, and Anu, her roommate. A rare French-Indo co-production, it is a collaboration between the Paris-based producers Thomas Hakim and Julien Graff, of petit chaos, and Zico Maitra of Chalk & Cheese Films out of Mumbai.

All We Imagine as Light is the first feature from Maitra's Chalk and Cheese after nine years of primarily producing commercials for television and digital media. Hakim and Graff are a buzzy-producing duo widely recognized across the European festival circuit for an impressive range of short and feature projects. The pair's last project, The Moon Also Rises , a 24-minute Mandarin-language doc, debuted in Berlin earlier this year. 

"I met Payal in 2018 at the Berlinale where she was presenting her short film And What is the Summer Saying ," Hakim says as he sneaks away from the editing suite where he and Kapadia are completing their final cut. "As we were living in different parts of the world, it didn't seem like were meant to meet or work together. But I felt a deep connection with her cinema as if we were speaking a common language." 

Hakim says European development funds like Rotterdam's Hubert Bals grant, and the Cannes Cinéfondation Residency, allowed Kapadia to reside in Europe, where they could develop their joint practice before mounting the ambitious production in her native India. "The French and European funding system, through CNC, Eurimages, the Gan Foundation, Cineworld, Visions Sud Est, and Hubert Bals, along with private partners like Arte, Luxbox, Condor, and Pulpa Film allowed us to gather the financing and shoot the entire film in India, with a 99% Indian cast and crew," he adds. "In the process, it was important that this co-production stayed organic and didn't alter Payal's vision with unnecessary constraints."

An alumnus of the state-run Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Kapadia has history at Cannes. In 2017, she screened Afternoon Clouds , a 13-minute project, as part of the festival's Cinéfondation shorts sidebar. Her last film, the non-fiction project A Night of Knowing Nothing (2021), also produced by Hakim and Graff for petit chaos, screened in Director's Fortnight, where it won the Golden Eye for best documentary.

Set mainly at the FTII, A Night of Knowing Nothing is perhaps best described as a kaleidoscopic mix of fiction and documentary filmmaking centered around India's anti-caste movement, as explored through the lives of two film students who have been forced to end their inter-caste relationship. Kapadia began shooting it in the wake of a months-long student strike at FTII, protesting against the Narendra Modi government's appointment of TV actor and right-wing politician Gajendra Chauhan as the university's new chairman.

Similar themes are explored by British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri in her feature Santosh , also set for the Riviera, where it will debut in Un Certain Regard. Developed at Sundance's screenwriting and directing labs, Santosh follows a recently widowed woman, played by Shahana Goswami ( Zwigato , A Suitable Boy ), who inherits her husband's job as a police constable in Northern India. When a low-caste girl is found raped and murdered, she is pulled into the investigation. 

Suri explains that the film was born of her desire to find a "meaningful way" to talk about violence against women. "I was in India researching and working with various NGOs when I came across an image," she says. It was a photograph taken at one of the nationwide protests following the notorious case of 2012, in which a 22-year-old physiotherapy student was gang-raped and fatally wounded on a public bus (the anonymous woman was initially known as ‘Nirbhaya' - a Hindi word meaning  ‘fearless' - since Indian law prohibited the naming of rape victims).

"The photograph," says Suri, "was an image from Delhi of a huge crowd of angry female protestors, their faces contorted with rage, and a line of female police officers, forcing them back. One of them had such an enigmatic expression. I was fascinated by her. What a gulf between her and those protesting, what power her uniform wielded, and what powerlessness not to feel safe as an ordinary woman. To explore this violence and her power within it felt exciting."

Santosh is Suri's narrative directorial debut. Backed by the BFI and BBC Film in co-production with ZDF/ARTE and the CNC, the Hindi-language film was shot over 44 days around the city of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. An alumnus of the U.K.'s National Film and Television School, she's best known internationally for the feature documentary I For India, which premiered in the World Competition section at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 and charts her family's experience migrating from India to Britain in the 1960s. She also directed the BAFTA-nominated short The Field .

"I've been developing and researching this film for almost a decade," says Suri, "so it's been a long, slow burn and such a huge delight to be selected after all that to Un Certain Regard for my first fiction film." 

Also in Un Certain Regard is Bulgarian filmmaker Konstantin Bojanov, who has also turned to India for his Un Certain Regard title The Shameless , his follow-up to the 2017 Barry Keoghan-starrer Light Thereafter . The film deals with the taboo subject of sex work, telling the story of a woman who flees a Delhi brothel after stabbing a policeman to death. Meanwhile, in Directors' Fortnight, Karan Kandhari's black comedy Sister Midnight follows a smalltown misfit (Radhika Apte) struggling with an arranged marriage. The British Council has described it as, "A fantastical punk comedy, a feminist revenge film, and a revamped vampire movie rolled into one. "

And if the return of Indian voices isn't enough, All We Imagine As Light is about to make another kind of history: Kapadia will be the first Indian woman ever to compete for the Palme d'Or. 

"The outpouring of love all across the country for the historical Cannes selection has been heartening to witness," says Zico Maitra. "I hope there will be more and more support from Indian financiers for independent films and filmmakers like Payal, and that the success of this film can be the catalyst that humbly inspires others."

Kapadia described her selection as "thrilling and humbling" in a statement shortly after Thierry Frémaux's opening press conference. "I admire many directors selected in this section," she said, "both in the past and present. It's an immense honor to be showing my film among them." Meanwhile, rushing back to the editing suite, Hakim adds: "We are very proud that our film brings India back to the main Competition of Cannes."

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The US film industry has too much influence on the film industry around the world. Governments have a duty to invest money in their own film industries to protect and develop their cultures. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

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To get an excellent score in the IELTS Task 2 writing section, one of the easiest and most effective tips is structuring your writing in the most solid format. A great argument essay structure may be divided to four paragraphs, in which comprises of four sentences (excluding the conclusion paragraph, which comprises of three sentences).

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You have recently moved to a different house. Write a letter to an English-speaking friend. In your letter -Explain why you have moved -Describe the new apartment -Invite him or her to pay a visit

Some companies sponsor sports and sports stars as a way to advertise themselves. some people think it is good, while others think there are disadvantages. discuss both views and give your opinion., in the future, nobody wiil buy printed newspapers or books because they will be able to read everything they want online without paying. to what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement, car ownership has increased so rapidly over the past thirty years that many cities in the world are now “one big traffic jam”. how true do you think this statement is what measures can governments take to discourage people from owning cars, the bar chart below shows the percentage of australian men and women in different age groups who did regular physical activity in 2010. summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant..

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The trial wasn’t televised: as trump & allies claim a “rigged” process, there’s a greater case for cameras in the court – analysis, entertainment industry “undergoing once-in-a-generation changes” as la’s share of film & tv employment fell by 8% during strikes, study finds.

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During the 2023 Hollywood strikes, the Los Angeles region’s share of national Film and TV employment fell to 27%, compared to 35% just the year before. The stat is from a new study, “Die Another Day”, Part 2 of Otis College Report on the Creative Economy . It also examines the evolution of the entertainment workforce, which has become less dependent on traditional film and TV business as well as more white collar and racially diverse in the streaming era.

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The followup report (you can read it in full here ) focuses on the sea changes in the entertainment industry’s makeup, with the Film and TV industry accounting for 52% of Los Angeles County’s Greater Entertainment Industry, down from 64% in 2013.

As a result, employment is down 9.1% (12,900 jobs) from 2013 to 2024 for the traditional entertainment industries of Film and TV, Sound, Print Media and Broadcasting.

Meanwhile, aspects of the entertainment industry that have gained 53% in employment, or 28,000 jobs, over the same period in areas include Software Publishers, Media Streaming, Performing Arts, Spectator Sports and Related Industries, and Independent Artists.

As the entertainment industry is becoming increasingly tech, the share of college-educated workers it employs has risen from 46% in 2000 to 68% in 2022. The workforce also has become more racially diverse. For the first time, in 2022, the majority of those employed in LA Greater Entertainment were nonwhite, according to the report.

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