Next #NECS location revealed. #NECS2026 will take place in Montpellier, FR 17.-20.6.2026

Celebrate the publication of 'Shaping Film Festivals in a Changing World' w/ co-editors Dorota Ostrowska & Tamara Falicov, our own @maryzen.bsky.social and contributors at #SCMS2025! ⏲️TODAY at 5:30pm, 2 min from conference 📍Firelake Grill House, 221 N. Columbus Drive www.aup.nl/en/book/9789...

1. Major exclusive breaking news: Marco Rubio may have just banned trans foreigners seeking visas with correct gender markers from US Entry. A new cable, effective immediately, says visas must contain assigned sex at birth and should be rejected if they don't. Subscribe to support our journalism.

Germany is getting a new chancellor. Its current leader is heading out of power, but his party probably will stick around in a diminished capacity. Sunday’s election produced a few surprises and a lot of suspense. Here are five takeaways.

To answer some quick questions about my latest story: - It does not apply to the Visa Waiver Program as far as I can see - It does not impact American citizens - The ban exclusively impacts transgender foreigners seeking visas in the United States - It is far more extensive than reported elsewhere

Daily reminder. 🏳️‍⚧️

An alle cis Menschen, die mir folgen: die USA treiben die staatliche Auslöschung von trans* Personen voran, und ihr könnt sicher sein, dass dieselben Kräfte schon längst hier am Werk sind (wer erinnert sich noch an das Treffen der CSU-Delegation mit De Santis?) ->

Meanwhile, the US-based colleagues of the Film Festival Alliance (FFA) are running a Festival Worker Employment & Compensation Study. Here you get to the survey if you work at a film festival (in the US, but also abroad). #FilmFestivalLabor #FilmFestivalAlliance

German #FairFestivalAward 2025 was given out by Festival Labor @verdi-medien.bsky.social this week at the #Berlinale2025 based on a survey asking film festival workers to evaluate their film festivals as employers. Congrats Short FF HH. The larger report will be published shortly. #FilmFestivalLabor

Wann ist ein #Filmfestival fair? Wenn es so läuft wie hier: @verdi-medien.bsky.social ehrt Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg mit Fair Festival Award 2025. 🥳https://www.verdi.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/++co++70ba5558-ed1b-11ef-bbdf-890f1199ae9d

Meanwhile in NOR: "In 2022, ca 44% of PhD cand & 74% of postdoc fellows at NOR higher-ed institutions from abroad. [] law unlikely to strengthen Norwegian as scientific language. 3-month courses won’t provide proficiency needed “to partake in aca discussions or write academic texts in Norwegian”.

"Die SZ hat Wissenschaftler i verschiedenen Ländern z d aktuellen Entwicklungen id USA befragt. Unklarheit & Ungewissheit waren () Leitthemen id Antworten. Die immer neuen Restriktionen, alle abrupt verordnet, verunsichern d Wissenschafts-Community massiv." www.sueddeutsche.de/wissen/trump...

"Wir dürfen die EU-Forschungsförderung nicht den Wettbewerbspolitikern überlassen" Interview mit Georg Schütte über Sorgen um das #Forschungsrahmenprogramm, Macrons KI-Vorstoß, Europas #Innovationsrückstand – und Prioritäten für die nächste Bundesregierung. Im Blog: www.jmwiarda.de/https-www.jm...

I published this piece yesterday, and today JD Vance went to Munich (yes, Munich) and lectured German politicians about why they ought to break down the firewall that has kept the far-right out of German politics for decades, and work with the Holocaust-minimizing AfD. www.zeit.de/politik/ausl...

Gestern wurde der Gesetzentwurf zur Entkriminalisierung von Schwangerschaftsabbrüchen im Rechtsausschuss gestoppt und ist damit de facto gescheitert! Das obwohl 80 % der Deutschen wollen, dass selbstbestimmte Abbrüche aus dem Strafrecht verschwinden. Wir kämpfen weiter! #stimmefürfrauen

Der Täter war offenbar ein Rechtsterrorist, die Schule ein Ort an dem Eingewanderte schwedisch lernen können. Natürlich sagen dt Medien er hätte kein ideologisches Motiv gehabt. Es ist furchtbar. www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...

While I didn't know this happend today and so didn't join the protests in South Bend, I am happy to know people from ND went!

#GLAADinstitute alum Omar Noureldin gives a perspective on how important civil servants are to our lives, and a look at why purging the civil service, especially LGBTQ people, people of color, and people with disabilities, is going to hurt the USA.

Exactly. We are not hearing enough from University leaders in the US. This silent complicity is toxic - for academia, science, freedom.

Mississippi Senator Bradford Blackmon isn’t playin around. In answer to the GOP’s ridiculous “life begins at contraception” law, he’s introduced Senate Bill 2319 stating that “CONTRACEPTION BEGINS AT ERECTION” and it makes it illegal for a man to cum if he does not intend to fertilize an embryo.

Danke, Berlin!

Tesla Gigafactory, Berlin - right now! In cooperation with @ledbydonkeys.org

For those still looking to form a panel on #FilmFestivalResearch for #NECS2025, please see the detailed CfP for the pre-constituted panels in the FFR Workgroup here: www.filmfestivalresearch.org/index.php/cf...

My first article has been published! If you fancy a read on the history of Britain’s gay and lesbian film curation, and an interview with Richard Dyer on his groundbreaking season ‘Images of Homosexuality’, then click the link below… academic.oup.com/screen/artic...

Who is doing #FilmFestivalResearch and has arrived on Bluesky? @dburgess.bsky.social @nulladiessinelinea.bsky.social @jonpetrychyn.bsky.social @bestqualitycrab.bsky.social

DL for submitting to #NECS2025 conference in Lisbon, Portugal (18-21 June) is approaching (Jan. 31). Submit your paper proposal to [email protected] by Jan. 26 to be included in pre-constituted panel in #FilmFestivalReseach. More info about conference, CfP & updates, pls visit necs.org/conference.

it's already working Trump Wants Snitches to Report on DEI. There’s Just One Problem. newrepublic.com/post/190576/...

Here is a good tip for tactics, from resistance in 2023. #waytogo

The LONGEST RUNNING independent film festival in North America starts it's 50th season tonight, in Ann Arbor: aafilmfest.org/50/

Working on drugs today, 4 @paulita.bsky.social (you will like!) 🥨🥜

Der Kommunist der Herzen 🤡

"Die Ankündigung der Alternative für Deutschland durch ihre Kanzlerkandidatin Alice Weidel, Studiengänge zu gesellschaftlicher Diversität, wie beispielsweise Gender Studies & weitere, zu schließen & „diese Professoren rauszuschmeißen“, ->

Senate Democrats on Wednesday blocked a Republican bill that could subject some doctors who perform abortions to criminal penalties.

This is so sad

Donald Trump has imposed a communications blackout across America's federal health agencies, including the CDC, FDA, HHS, and NIH. These agencies have been instructed to halt all external communications, such as publishing scientific reports, updating websites, issuing health advisories. #cdnpoli

Genau darum geht's: "Wissenschaft, die befreiende, emanzipatorische und aufklärerische Ziele verfolgt, „steht nicht im Widerspruch zum Status als Wissenschaft.“ – im Gegenteil, sie erfüllt eine wesentliche Funktion in der Demokratie." #Wissenschaftsfreiheit

All NIH study sections canceled indefinitely. This will halt science and devastate research budgets in universities.

President Donald Trump issued a broad executive order ending antidiscrimination practices in federal hiring, reversing a nearly 60-year precedent and launching a significant step forward in his agenda to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in federal government.

#science - gotta love it

Trump White House's first trans executive order is out. I'll be reading over it here and going through line by line to help you make sense of it. You can find it here: www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Die tagesschau und ARD-Landesrundfunkanstalten verstärken den Kampf gegen Fake News. Bis Jahresende erhöht die tagesschau ihre Faktencheck-Kapazitäten. Anlass ist die Ankündigung von Meta, die Zusammenarbeit mit Faktencheckern zuächst in den USA einzustellen. www.ndr.de/der_ndr/pres...

👩‍🎓📢 📚 Right on time for the new semester this OA gem has dropped: "Shaping Film Festivals in a Changing World", edited by Dorota Ostrowska & Tamara Falicov and with contributions by many brilliant and dear colleagues. Check it out OA at library.oapen.org/handle/20.50...

Here is a glimpse of the worrying changes in (US and likely beyond) discourse. Even more time to educate.

Spoke with @inafried.bsky.social at @axios.com - "Meta itself is proactively stating that Meta allows LGBT people to be characterized as abnormal and mentally ill in a hate speech policy," Olson said. "It's a complete break with best practices in content moderation." www.axios.com/2025/01/09/m...

Welcome @thejenniferreeder.bsky.social to Bluesky! 'Night's End' has the craziest movie ending ever, and 'Knives and Skin' is the finest teen mystery soundtrack committed to film. Nobody is making cinema quite like her.

Elon Musk and MAGA are already disrupting the status quo in Europe, and the continent seems ill-prepared. A senior official from the first Trump administration, who is in line for an even more senior role in the second, was blunt in his assessment: Europe, he said, has no idea what is coming.

A nice take on “Visualization In/As Digital Media Studies” in the book Doing Digital Film History, by @bumatic.bsky.social and @skadiloist.bsky.social, doi.org/10.1515/9783...