Who would have expected that within a few days of each other, IASB Chair Andreas Barckow and ISSB Chair Emmanual Faber would both have kicked off speeches by citing notable movies?

Interesting too that between them they covered almost the entire history of the cinema. First, here’s Faber:

• 98 years ago today, on 26 June 1925, Charlie Chaplin’s film Gold Rush was released.
• That movie poetically epitomises the limitations of the ruthless economics of Klondike during the rush for gold. Ruthless from an economic, social, human and environmental standpoint.

The speech ends: “On 26 June 2025—two years from now—when the first reports of companies disclosing to IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 start coming out following the 2024 effective date, will be the 100^th anniversary of Charlie Chaplin’s Gold Rush. He always insisted that this was the film he most wanted to be remembered for; Well, I hope by that date we can say, once and for all, we have departed from these past economics, in a collective journey towards better informed and resilient capital markets, towards more resilient economics, serving people and life better.”

In my experience, knowledge of classic cinema generally runs pretty shallow, so a lot of people may have been a bit bemused by all that. Barckow in contrast tickled some more recent memories

• How many of you have seen the film Everything Everywhere All at Once?
• For those who haven’t, this is the film that won seven awards at this year’s Oscars. It is (at some level) about the filing of a tax return. You may think that is a tenuous link to financial reporting, but bear with me.
• The surreal film crosses universes and the lead character is trying hard to juggle completing her tax return―and an aggressive tax auditor―with multiple challenges in her private life and in the multi-verse.
• Maybe one reason the film is so acclaimed is that its chaos and challenges resonate with us. We live in uncertain times with a lot of risk and a lot of scrutiny.  And―just like the movie character―we make decisions every day. Decisions that will define who we are in the future.

From there it’s an easy pivot to talk about economic uncertainty, how financial reporting responds to that, and so on. Those with long memories may remember the previous Chair, Hans Hoogervorst, getting a little attention for a popular music citation, but Barckow and Faber provide much more stimulating stuff. Well, readers familiar with my approach to such things won’t be surprised that I got in touch with my moles at the IASB and ISSB, who passed to me some previous drafts of the two speeches, with some rejected attempts to pin down that movie reference. Can you believe Emmanuel Faber seriously considered leading with this:

• 26 June 24 – one year from today – will be the 50th anniversary of the classic Emmanuelle, chronicling the erotic adventures of my female near-namesake. The film ran for over ten years in a cinema on the Champs-Elysees. Well, I hope we can one day claim to have achieved something with even more staying power than that. And with just as much sex appeal!

Interesting indeed. And Barckow’s knowledge of the Oscars doesn’t stop with the Daniels:

• How many of you have seen the film Women Talking?
• For those who haven’t, this is the film that won a screenplay Oscar this year. It is (at some level) about forecasting and sound record-keeping, as a group of women discusses, and a scribe records, the pros and cons of alternative possible plans.
• Maybe one reason the film is so acclaimed is that the seemingly endless tedium of the women talking resonates against the way we live our lives. Especially those of us who work in financial reporting and accounting. Just like the movie characters, we find ourselves trapped inside miserable conversations, with no real confidence that anything good will come of it. Or that our lives are worth living at all. Oh well, on to today’s agenda…

Or alternatively:

• How many of you have seen the film The Banshees of Inisherin?
• For those who haven’t, this is the film that was nominated for nine Oscars this year. It is (at some level) about the dark side of accounting and accountability, in that one of its characters threatens to cut off a finger whenever his wishes are disregarded.
• Maybe one reason the film is so acclaimed is that we all secretly wish for such a dramatic way of expressing discontent. Often at an IASB meeting I must express my disagreement with someone in blandly polite terms. What I sometimes truly long to do though is to dramatically cut off a finger and hurl it in that person’s boring face. Of course, one can only choose this form of protest a limited number of times, illustrating how high-quality accounting is always at a premium!

Personally, if I were to build an accounting speech around a movie, it would certainly be Woody Allen’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask). You’ll see how when the time comes…

The opinions expressed are solely those of the author.