Sustainable screenings : economic, touristic and cultural impact of audiovisual productions on the host locations in the post-lockdown era

In the last twenty years, the relationship between media production and places has been a key topic in the field of media studies. Despite that, in the post-lockdown world this relationship still needs to be properly investigated since nowadays it embodies new meanings that invite media scholars to redefine their understanding of how media may serve and/or impact places and vice versa. It is widely known that film and audiovisual shoots can have a positive impact on the host location economy: more tax revenues, new employment, facilities etc. Sometimes, film and audiovisual products stimulate tourism too, which implies once again economic benefits. In both cases, they feed local pride and contribute to redefine the image and status of the host places. In the framework of the post-pandemic recovery, these two capabilities are receiving even more attention than in the past: tourism, for instance, was one of the sectors that suffered at most due to the health emergency, and its relaunch is at the top of the agenda of many public institutions. Thus, the current scenario moves film and audiovisual production at the center of the action plans for the post-pandemic economy and society. However, all the current recovery policies base on the concept of sustainability, and this raises a question: how does film and audiovisual production meets the concept of sustainability? In the pandemic (or post-pandemic) world, the capability of film and audiovisual production to serve places has to be reshaped through the lens of sustainability and its three pillars: economic sustainability, environmental sustainability and social sustainability. This reconceptualization challenges the widely accepted idea of a win-win relationship between audiovisual production and places. In doing that, it invites to distinguish between good and bad practices, to investigate complex networks of stakeholders that pursue different goals, to adopt new research perspectives and research tools that allow media scholars to fruitfully address the most urgent issues of the political agenda. Of course, the post-pandemic scenario (as well as other global phenomena like the climate change) is challenging for film and media scholars: they are asked to expand their knowledge, to adopt new research methods and to establish collaborations. As Petr Szczpanick writes: “the readiness to work in cross-disciplinary teams and to respond to the practical needs of different stakeholders involved in screen media industries and cultures are perhaps the key lessons we could learn from the pandemic era, which so drastically placed a question mark on our role in society and the ability to survive as a research field”. This special issue of Comunicazioni sociali endorses Szczpanick’s invitation and places itself as starting point for new research paths. The six articles composing this is¬sue prove that the relationship between audiovisual production and sustainability in the post-pandemic era is multifaceted and cannot be fully understood through the traditional scholarship and research tools of the film and media studies community