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PurposeIn-person film festival experiences have faced uncertain futures since the spread of COVID-19. Snap-lockdowns, unclear and rapidly changing rules to public density allowances in theatres, distribution and challenges of “working-from-home” have become prominent issues to creative and cultural workers employed within the film festival ecosystem. The purpose of this paper, drawing from a series of interviews with film festival directors, organisers and workers within Australia, offers insight into the working lives of those employed within the film festival sector during 2020.Design/methodology/approachUsing the research team's existing professional networks and a targeted approach of participant recruitment, this paper draws upon interview data from 5 semi-structured interviews with participants located in various Australian capital cities, who were working in the film festival sector during 2020. Participants were all mid-career, having at least 5 years of employment experience within the film festival ecosystem (directors, programmers and content creators) as well as having experience in other adjacent cultural and creative work.FindingsThe results in this study highlight common concerns of the legacy precarity has on professional and creative practice for those engaged in creative and cultural work, but also of unusual and unexpected opportunities for creativity and new film festival delivery beyond the dominant mode of in-theatre only experience pre-COVID-19.Originality/valueThe originality of this study lies in its qualitative exploration of the various employment experiences of Australian film festival workers during COVID-19.

This article argues that we are currently experiencing a renaissance of New Queer Cinema (NQC). The original NQC occurred in the early 1990s, which saw a wave of queer films that were successful on the mainstream international film festival circuit, at venues such as Cannes and Sundance. Queer film scholars, such as Michele Aaron and B. Ruby Rich, have argued that films like Paris is Burning (Livingston, 1991), Poison (Haynes, 1991) and Swoon (Kalin, 1992) were united by their sense of defiance. They represented the marginalized within the contemporary LGBT communities. This article looks at recent films such as Weekend (Haigh, 2011), Stranger by the Lake (Guiraudie, 2013), Appropriate Behaviour (Akhavan, 2014), Pariah (Rees, 2011) and the work of Xavier Dolan as being successful queer-themed films that meet the criteria outlined by scholars of NQC. Their success will be determined by their representation in both queer and nonqueer film festival circuits and beyond. They respond to the state of contemporary independent cinema and utilize film form to allow for the accessibility of their queer characters. In their own way, they are defiant against mainstream queer representations and demonstrate a resurgence of films that service a community that is in need of queer intellectual stimulation.

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Objective ENT is underrepresented in the curriculum, and this has been compounded by coronavirus disease 2019. Recent restructures have removed ENT placements from the curriculum. This lack of exposure needs to be addressed, and increased use of online learning represents an opportunity to facilitate this. This study aimed to evaluate whether online learning can effectively deliver undergraduate ENT teaching. Methods An online ENT module was created; content was structured on the Sheffield Medical School curriculum. Pre- and post-module tests and 5-point Likert scales were used to assess student knowledge and confidence, respectively. Results A total of 115 participants were recruited. Test scores improved by 29 per cent (p < 0.001) and confidence by 66 per cent. Anatomy and ENT conditions demonstrated significant improvement in confidence, with a lower confidence score for examination. Conclusion This study showed improved knowledge and confidence, whilst highlighting greater efficacy in content over practical skills teaching. Online learning is a validated educational tool; however, it should not be used as a replacement but as an adjunct to supplement learning.