Management of Uncertain Resources in Film Festival Organisations : a first European Picture

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how film festivals use project management techniques to manage uncertain resources. Design/methodology/approach – Fourteen case studies are used to explore the project management techniques used by film festivals across Europe. An extensive theoretical framework brings together a number of key fields for the first time and provides an informative background to the study. Based on this theoretical framework a conceptual model was developed, ‘the film festival ‘smoothie’ model’, which provides a guide for data collection and analysis. The research focuses on traditional and contemporary project management techniques, but also contextual factors that impact upon the project management of film festivals. Findings – The findings show that a creative, reactive and flexible approach to project management is vital within film festival organisations and supports earlier research calling for a rethinking of project management to consider the growing presence of ‘soft projects’ and contextual factors of projects. Furthermore, it highlights interesting characteristics and lessons that can be learnt from film festivals, warranting further investigation, since film festivals are ‘interesting repositories of knowledge that provide rich data for organisation and management researchers’ (Rüling and Strandgaard Pedersen, 2010, p. 322) and that cultural projects can be source of inspiration for refreshing project management techniques (Cwikla and Jalocha, 2015). Research limitations – The research gives an initial picture of the European panorama and presents studies of film festivals from Italy, Portugal, United Kingdom and Sweden. Originality/value – Our research contributes to a detailed understanding of the project management processes within film festivals and the way film festivals minimise the negative impact of uncertain resources, and exercise control without stifling creativity. Practical implications - This thesis intends to be descriptive, and therefore does not provide solid ground for practical recommendations of a recipe for success for project management within film festivals. The research does, however, provide evidence of the interesting project management approaches within film festival organisations and therefore advocates further research to be done in this field.