This year’s Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event hosted an incisive conversation on the role of the international trade press. The panel, entitled “Breaking the Buzz: How Trade Magazines Shape Film Visibility”, brought together critics, journalists and publicists from leading outlets to unpack how industry coverage is generated, filtered and amplified in an increasingly crowded media landscape.

Moderated by Cineuropa’s Davide Abbatescianni, the discussion featured Amber Wilkinson (editor of Eye for Film and a regular critic for Screen International), Georg Szalai (Global Business Editor at The Hollywood Reporter), Carmen Gray (freelance critic and journalist writing for The Film Verdict, among others), Eda Koppel (editor at Baltic Film Magazine) and publicist Christian De Schutter, who opened the panel by looking back at their eclectic paths into the profession. As Wilkinson put it: “If you get 20 journalists and ask them how they got into the industry, you’ll probably get 20 different stories.”

Whereas some entered through political or business reporting, others transitioned from festival press work, criticism or national promotional agencies. But all agreed that today’s trade journalism operates with fewer resources, tighter timelines and an ever-expanding set of responsibilities.

The first “elephant in the room,” Abbatescianni noted, was whether trade outlets still hold the same power to influence a film’s trajectory. De Schutter argued that they remain “essential for the industry,” yet their shift towards freelancing and exclusive stories has reshaped coverage patterns. With shrinking budgets, “freelancers are no longer allowed to write that much about the films they see at festivals,” he explained.

For Szalai, one of the most striking changes is the pressure to link film coverage to trending global narratives: “In London, everything is filtered through a prism that The Hollywood Reporter understands and that maybe even consumers understand.” Hot topics - “AI… Trump… Ukraine… Gaza” - shape editorial expectations, even when writers try to anchor pieces in cinema rather than current affairs.

European trade magazines, several panellists noted, tend to resist this spiral. “Screen and Cineuropa tend not to follow that approach too strictly,” Abbatescianni agreed, though eye-catching titles and big names still matter.

For Wilkinson, however, the emphasis remains on discovery: “From a trade perspective, you’re looking for films that are ultimately going to reach an audience wider than that one festival… I feel there’s more freedom because I don't need to chase the topic of the day in quite the same way.”

Koppel, who oversees the region-focused Baltic Film Magazine, explained that the challenge for smaller industries is more structural: “It’s very difficult to get coverage, especially as our films rarely have world premieres in the big festivals… Getting coverage from trade magazines for small countries is complicated.” For this reason, the magazine prioritises depth over speed.

Wilkinson stressed the role of regional festivals like Tallinn in ensuring local cinema is written about: “Every region has fabulous cinema and we should be writing about it.”

The conversation soon turned to the realities of festival labour: the invisible infrastructure behind each and every review or news item. Szalai described the multi-tasking frenzy familiar to many: newsletters, interviews, late-night screeners and the ongoing chase for meeting slots. “It’s like you’re racing Usain Bolt in a sprint and starting 10 metres behind… You’re always behind, but I try not to be too behind.”

For freelancers, noted Gray, the main constant is “extreme precarity.” Festivals intensify the rhythm: “Time pressure is a big thing. You've got to organise your time to get everything in.”

Meanwhile, publicists face their own hurdles. De Schutter emphasised responsiveness and preparation to deliver press materials in a timely manner. For Wilkinson, “not knowing the sales agent before filing a review” remains a recurrent and stressful obstacle.

A recurring theme was the value of advance screeners. Gray stressed their importance: “I think screeners aren’t a question of laziness… I genuinely think they lead to better reviews. And you’re more likely to cover the film: if you’re at a festival and you hit your coverage quota, but then you walk into a cinema and discover an amazing film, you might not have any capacity left to write about it.” Wilkinson agreed: critics are fully capable of imagining the theatrical experience. “Sometimes people treat us as if we can’t ‘scale up’ from a laptop or a TV to a cinema screen. It’s our job to do that, to be open to that idea.”

On stills, Koppel and Gray raised another chronic issue: receiving either “too many stills” or none that reflect the film’s tone.

The panel closed with a look at social-media-driven criticism. While influencers do have reach, Abbatescianni questioned their added value: “A lot of what they do is reading the Wikipedia synopsis, while pictures appear on top, pointing at us, plus spoilers, lots of spoilers. What added value does that bring?” Wilkinson countered that, from a film’s perspective, “no publicity is bad publicity,” though she sees more potential in structured, topic-driven podcasts. Gray’s concern was broader: “I’m concerned about the erosion of the written word. This instant culture is getting further and further away from in-depth pieces.”

Across testimonies, the panel illuminated the delicate ecosystem connecting filmmakers, publicists, trades and festivals - an ecosystem strained by diminishing resources yet still central to the circulation of international cinema. Szalai summed it up with a small anecdote: “I wrote about an Estonian film here, Mo Papa [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], which I loved. A professor who taught the filmmaker told me, ‘Oh, you’re the guy from The Hollywood Reporter. I posted your piece on Facebook because I was so proud my student made such a great film and somebody wrote about it.’ I thought, ‘that was my win at the festival.’ Even if nobody clicked, it’s a win: getting someone excited about something good.”