Film Fest Gent enters new era with 50th edition and rebranding
Bring on the bold
Film Fest Gent is stepping into its fifth decade. Since 1974, the festival’s raison d’être has been to present bold cinema to an international and local audience in Belgium. Focusing on films with little to no chance on the mainstream cinema circuit - but films absolutely deserving of an audience - FFG celebrates its upcoming 50th edition with a new branding which fully supports the festival’s fearless identity, representing both its legacy and its ambitious vision for the future.
To develop a recognisable brand identity and language, Film Fest Gent partnered with Mutant, a creative agency based in Antwerp. At once timeless and contemporary, the new logo highlights FFG’s attitude toward daring cinema and is inspired by the rotating movement of a film roll. The many colours contained within it reflects the very diverse slate of films in the festival programme.
We approached the design - a bold and bright celebration of film - with a festival spirit in mind. Emphasising colour and motion felt true to the overall identity of the festival, making it stand out in a world beyond dimly lit cinema theatres.
For our rebranding, we did not take any chances. The 50th anniversary of Film Fest Gent makes us reflect on the impressive legacy of the past half century, but even more so on the future of the film festival. Today there is more film creation than ever. With the number of productions, the need for sharp curation also increases. So it will be extremely important that FFG continues to act as a guide and signpost for the seventh art, both for cinephiles and for a wide and diverse audience. That our new house style so powerfully embraces, depicts and literally sets all that in motion is something we are very happy about.
We are very excited about working with MUTANT. Their creatives depart very much from moving image, one of the basic principles of cinema. Rotating elements - a nod to the film reels of yesteryear - pay homage to our rich festival past while at the same time creating the dynamism we were looking for.
