There were major changes this week at the Film Festival, which should start in just a few months.
The board has destabilized the positions of three employees: Executive Director Sally Woodfield, Michael McDonnell Programming Chief and Mid -Period Finance and HR Manager Kirsten DowSett.
Woodfield’s last day was Friday and she didn’t want to comment beyond an and email to the film industry saying she was deeply sad and expected to continue on the role.
The destabilization of the papers was a response to tight finances, Thompson told RNZ’s Culture 101.
“When we are not delivering the film festival, when we are in December and January and February and March, the costs for the organization are still there.”
These “out of season” costs were about $ 300,000 a year, he said.
“Just to keep the organization in operation, we need to reconfigure the way we are operating to ensure that we can deliver the festival.
“The festival should be the number one focus. It cannot be a case of running as an organization and request funding to keep the organization passing through the off -season season.”
The establishment of contractual functions was not uncommon for artistic organizations with uncertain financing, said Thompson.
“The positions established for a long period of time existed for a period of time when we could maintain these positions.
“Our focus must be the event; so to achieve this, we have to retreat in these positions, but we still have the central need, which is to deliver the festival.”
The festival also reconfilled Paolo Bertolin as an artistic director for this year – despite the revivation for this position earlier this month.
Bertolin agreed to continue working with the festival until a decision was made about this year’s artistic director, said Thompson.
“The agreement was that he would continue to do this until the recruitment process for a new artistic director was completed.
“So Paul was part of this process and we had a separate panel that recommended Paolo to be appointed.”
Last year, the festival was shaken by a series of great layoffs, including Ant Timpson, who had been at the festival for 30 years. Sandra Reid, a European programmer, also came out after 30 years, along with Malcolm Turner, Nic Marshall and Vicci Ho.
The New Zealand International Film Festival will be held in late July and August.
