Australia has witnessed long-standing cuts in the arts and culture federal budget. Most recently, the disappearance of the arts portfolio into a "super-ministry" along with infrastructure, transport, regional development and communications further signals the lack of support, both ideologically through public rhetoric, and financially through (absent) support packages, the current federal government holds towards the arts and arts workers. This paper accounts for how such ideological fractures have underserved freelancers, casuals, temporary and part-time workers in the arts who missed out on the critical initial support packages, and how state governments were more willing to make up for this initial shortfall. This paper further accounts for how the federal government lacks the necessary understanding of working patterns of those engaged in creative occupations, and over emphasizes funding bailouts for primary industry. This also has broader implications for how women are disproportionately impacted by sectors the federal government chooses to support.

PurposeIn-person film festival experiences have faced uncertain futures since the spread of COVID-19. Snap-lockdowns, unclear and rapidly changing rules to public density allowances in theatres, distribution and challenges of “working-from-home” have become prominent issues to creative and cultural workers employed within the film festival ecosystem. The purpose of this paper, drawing from a series of interviews with film festival directors, organisers and workers within Australia, offers insight into the working lives of those employed within the film festival sector during 2020.Design/methodology/approachUsing the research team's existing professional networks and a targeted approach of participant recruitment, this paper draws upon interview data from 5 semi-structured interviews with participants located in various Australian capital cities, who were working in the film festival sector during 2020. Participants were all mid-career, having at least 5 years of employment experience within the film festival ecosystem (directors, programmers and content creators) as well as having experience in other adjacent cultural and creative work.FindingsThe results in this study highlight common concerns of the legacy precarity has on professional and creative practice for those engaged in creative and cultural work, but also of unusual and unexpected opportunities for creativity and new film festival delivery beyond the dominant mode of in-theatre only experience pre-COVID-19.Originality/valueThe originality of this study lies in its qualitative exploration of the various employment experiences of Australian film festival workers during COVID-19.

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