Hollywood is losing its “symbolic value” in mainstream global culture, according to the latest Nostradamus report published by Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival.
Göteborg exec Josef Kullengärd touched down at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival this week where he spoke at the festival’s Industry Days Small Screen Forum on Wednesday about the latest findings of the influential report, this year dubbed Reality/Resistance.
Among the many messages from the 80-page report, Kullengärd said that U.S. “soft power was depleting”, largely in part to the ongoing unsteady political situation in the country.
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“The concept of Americanization has been quite challenged for some time,’ Kullengärd told an audience at the KVIFF industry headquarters. “And by Americanization, that means the globalization of cultural impact, which heavily relies on the U.S. as a key faction. As we all know, the political goodwill of the U.S. is declining at the moment and, with that, potentially also the U.S. soft power.”
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He added that while “U.S. content still dominates” its position as the “dominant culture of power might be wobbling a bit” and this was largely related to the economic impact of the U.S. and the outcome of the current political situation.
“The coming years will, of course, show which direction it will take,” he said. “What we do see is that the mainstream is fading away from what we once knew as a generic, global voice that comes, to a great extent, from American culture.”
The report, which was first unveiled in Cannes in May and is authored by media analyst Johanna Koljonen, also highlighted that “unique artistic voices are breaking the mainstream”, pointing to directors Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan as being “the most bankable directors”.
Kullengärd said that while the report found that the mainstream was “shifting away from the generic”, which he indicated would be “a difficult challenge for U.S. studios,” he indicated that opportunities in other markets would continue to expand.
One key prediction from the report he stressed was the impact democracy “backsliding” will have on culture. “No matter where you are in Europe or the world, in the coming three to five years, you will experience the consequences of democratic backsliding and autocratic development, and this puts a big responsibility on our industry’s shoulders. So, either we will resist this development, or we will be implicated in it.”
He continued: “Reconnecting with the local audience is just as much about the legitimacy of our industry as it is about survival in a moment of political scrutiny and the shrinking support of cultural freedom. We, as an industry, must articulate not only the artistic value of a film, but its public and cultural role.”
He pointed to the success of Netflix’s first ever one-shot TV series Adolescence as being an example of content with significant cultural and public messaging. “It’s an important show to bring up because every time we, as an industry, are surprised by something going really, really well and resonating with audiences, it’s a sign that we didn’t understand the audience.”
It’s not all doom and gloom, he stressed, pointing to the influence great stories and content can have on wider ecosystems.
Kullengärd said: “If we do feel powerless in the face of the world, we are not powerless within our industry and within our profession. Each one of us can make conscious decisions, be agile, transform our practices, workplaces, ecosystems and the stories we tell, the right to produce commission. That is an absolute enormous power that each and every one of us has in this room.”
He added that a key finding was to “make serious stories that are popular” as they are “harder for populists to beat down.”
He said: “Each one of us must practice and continue to talk about why culture and why film, is important not only amongst our state bubble, but with people in a general sense. In doing so, we engage and make a change.”
How about more real acting and less AI generated effects.
Netflix has led the hive mind into collapse.
The problem is the studios became obsessed with more money and global dominance. But they already had global appeal by making movies/shows for American audiences. Now they are chasing their tails trying to appeal to every market separately instead of making things work in the US.
Well its pretty obvious, whenever a good movie comes out, indie or no, nobody watches it. Whenever a shitty IP blockbuster comes out, everyone turns up in droves and then whines about it after when it made a billion on their money. Movies in pop culture are dead because general audiences have enough media to consume at home and only show up for brain dead spectacle action/ip/superhero slop
*lost