Film heritage and neoliberalism

This paper analyses the impact of neoliberal policies on the film heritage sector at the European level. I first describe the specific debate to which this paper contributes, a conversation that deals with the relationship between neoliberalism and digital technology. With the aim of expanding the horizon of the debate beyond technology, I adopt an analytical framework that draws on the contribution of critical cultural policy scholars who have provided convincing accounts of neoliberalism in the cultural sector. Neoliberalism has had an impact on film heritage approximately in the same ways that it has on the cultural sector as a whole. In fact, economic instrumentalism, New Public Management and corporatisation – the three main features of neoliberal cultural policy – have found their ways into the film heritage sector. In spite of this, neoliberalism does not yet seem to have created a paradigmatic change, as the key features of the field persist. In the conclusion some potential ways forward are suggested.