The Programmer's Fear of Missing the Masterpiece

A film programmer is chiefly responsible for selecting and curating the films that are screened at a cinema, or as part of a festival. Whilst film programmers are vitally important to sustaining a flourishing, dynamic film culture, they are often unacknowledged elements within this landscape. 

Programmers work hard to keep great films in circulation; they discover brilliant films that might have been forgotten or overlooked and give them a platform, and they also ensure that films are seen as they were intended to be seen. They are responsible for sustaining interest in key films, filmmakers, national cinemas, and ensuring that cinema’s historical movements do not fade into obscurity.

For the past seven years Mark Cosgrove, Watershed's Head of Programme, has had the challenging responsibility of selecting the films to be screened in the Brief Encounters competition.

In this talk, Mark gives an insight into the programmer's mind, an individual who harbours a perpetual anxiety at the prospect of overlooking a future classic. Two directors whose films did not make the final festival programme were invited to take part in the discussion surrounding the nature of programming.

Following screenings of the two unselected films, Mark Cosgrove, Artistic Director of Encounters and Watershed’s Head of Programme, openly discussed the practicalities, difficulties, and complexities of selecting, organising, and presenting a cinema programme with both the filmmakers and the audience.

Related Links:
Mapping the Renaissance in Filmmaking
Cultural Cinema Exhibition in the 21st Century