On the fringes of the film industry. The impact of crowdfunding on artistic work

For French filmmakers working on the fringes of the film industry, crowdfunding has often been seen as a solution to a lack of resources. Young filmmakers have sometimes considered it as a new route into the ‘traditional’ circuit. This article analyses the impact of crowdfunding on the organization of artistic work, looking at the way in which it helps to keep players in marginal positions. The study is based on 20 interviews with directors and promoters of projects published between 2010 and 2019, aimed at financing feature-length fiction films. By describing the actual effects of crowdfunding on artistic activity, this work highlights a phenomenon that combines a mechanism of cumulative disadvantages with significant opportunity costs.