By George Clooney,Todd Longwell

Copyright variety

The primary purpose of the Assn. of Film Commissioners Intl.’s AFCI Cineposium Cincinnati, which runs from Sept. 15-18, is to bring together more than 200 attendees from 35 counties around the globe for networking events, panel discussions and keynotes covering everything from leveraging the uniqueness of a location to brand partnerships, as well as live music performances and an evening headlined by George Clooney.

But the event is also a showcase for Cincinnati, which in recent years has hosted movies including “Nutcrackers,” starring Ben Stiller, and portions of “Superman.” The state of Ohio offers a 30% tax credit on cast and crew wages and other eligible in-state spending. Productions visiting the city can also take advantage of topographical features such as its wealth of Italianate architecture, which has made it an effective stand-in for 1950s New York in films such as “Carol.” The Cate Blanchett-starrer will have a 10th anniversary screening at the Cineposium with director Todd Haynes in attendance.

“We’re going to be in a different venue each day and each venue will reflect the topic of that day, and we hope to reflect the ethos of Cincinnati, which is a very art-forward city with a strong business community that embraces that,” notes Kristen Schlotman, president and CEO of Film Cincinnati. “We also want to arm people with more tools in their toolkit to take back to their region, their country, etc., and figure out better ways that they can have a meaningful impact on the creative economy.”

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the AFCI and the 48th edition of the Cineposium. The makeup of the attendees has changed a lot since the early days of the event, according to Linn Sitler, a onetime correspondent for the syndicated TV show “PM Magazine” who has been the film commissioner for the Memphis & Shelby County Film/TV Commission Foundation since 1987.

Back in the old days, “the film commissioners maybe also worked part time as a secretary at the tourism bureau,” says Sitler. “Now, you can find former studio executives as film commissioners.”

The last Cineposium was held in Limerick, Ireland, in May 2023. In the years since, the film and TV industry has been rocked by dual labor strikes and a production slowdown.

“If there was a theme [for Cinemposium Cincinnati], I’d call it resilience, because the programming focuses on exactly that — resilience in the face of adversity and resilience in this moment of unprecedented change,” says Claire Brooks, who was named executive director of the AFCI in June following a stint as director of production at Stephanie Allain’s Homegrown Pictures, where she produced the 2024 feature “Exhibiting Forgiveness.” “This event is about finding solutions for building the creative infrastructure that makes stories possible, in any medium, in every corner of this globe, now and in the future.”

Cineposium Cincinnati will be something of a homecoming for Clooney, who’ll be appearing in conversation on Sept. 15 at the MegaCorp Pavilion, where he’ll talk about movies, family and the future of storytelling. The actor spent a big chunk of formative years (1968-1974) 22 miles north of downtown Cincinnati in the city of Mason, while his father worked as a local news anchor and hosted the TV talker “The Nick Clooney Show.” Clooney returned in 2011 with his film “The Ides of March,” which shot at historic spots including Fountain Square.

“[Clooney] just seemed like the right person to open the conference with and welcome people from all over the world, because while he might be one of the biggest movie stars in the world, he happened to be from that neighborhood right there,” says Schlotman.