Film festivals: origins and trajectories

Abstract

The study of film festivals has grown significantly in the last decade, partly in response to the rapid international proliferation of film festivals in the past 15 years. Since 2009, Dina Iordanova's Film Festival Yearbook anthologies have reoriented festival studies away from the Venice-Cannes-Berlin axis toward other countries, regions, and emphases. As a sign of the field's maturity, Iordanova's The Film Festival Reader (2013) reprints a number of canonical texts (Daniel Dayan's 'Looking for Sundance: The Social Construction of a Film Festival' , Julian Stringer's 'Regarding Film Festivals' , Thomas Elsaesser's 'Film Festival Networks: The New Topographies of Cinema in Europe' , etc.). Meanwhile, Marijke de Valck, Brendan Kredell, and Skadi Loist are assembling a textbook of new essays, Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method, Practice (forthcoming). But much research still tends to be about recent manifestations: about their functions as networks, their roles as alternative distribution and/or exhibition circuits, about their market sections, about particular institutional practices, such as programming, about festivals and activism, and so on. While not entirely absent (Wong 2011), historical concerns mostly contextualize more contemporary-focused analyses. This special issue on 'Film festivals: origins and trajectories' aims to bring historical concerns to the center of film festivals studies. Foregrounding the global dimensions of festivals, this issue brings together a number of in-depth historical studies of practices that have developed in vastly different parts of the world in the course of this almost century-long phenomenon. While shining light on lesser-known 'peripheries' of the festival circuit, this issue also outlines new approaches and methodologies for unearthing and discussing them. By bringing these case studies together, we seek to encourage a comparative exploration of the diversity of the festival phenomenon within distinct historical periods and sociopolitical systems. As such, this special issue ranges widely in both geography and historical periods. It covers topics from the prehistory of film festivals in Europe (Taillibert-Wäfler), to the recent growth of festivals in Chile (Peirano); from the pre-1966 phenomenon of 'Film Weeks' in the People's Republic of China (Ma) to the functions of a current Turkish mobile film festival (Odabasi); from the grassroots emergence of the Melbourne Film Festival in the 1950s (Stevens) to the colonial origins of the Hong Kong International Film Festival (Cheung); from the changing mission of the Yugoslav Documentary and Short Film Festival during and after socialism (Jelenković) to the ongoing role of the Lima Film Festival in developing a national film culture in Peru (Barrow); and from the fitful international trajectory of the Thessaloniki Film Festival since the 1960s (Papadimitriou) to the concept of 'festival memory' in relation to the recently defunct Brisbane International Film Festival (Van Hemert).

Film festivals: Metamorphosis of a research object and field / Les festivals de films : métamorphoses d’un objet et d’un champ d’études

“…Cette revalorisation d'un objet autrefois peu considéré (pour ne pas dire voire déconsidéré) reflète également les formidables changements -ou les métamorphosesqu'ont vécu les festivals de films eux-mêmes, en termes de fonction comme de portée, au cours de leur histoire entre-temps presque centenaire aux ramifications globales (Papadimitriou et Ruoff, 2016). On peut ainsi distinguer une première phase de création, en Europe, à commencer par Venise en 1932 et surtout dans l'après-guerre, avec des manifestations à caractère tant économique que politique, qui a duré jusque vers 1968.…”

“…This revaluation of a research topic that was once little considered (not to say discredited) also reflects the tremendous changes -or metamorphoses -experienced by film festivals themselves, in terms of both function and scope, in the course of their almost century-long history with global ramifications (Papadimitriou & Ruoff, 2016). We might, therefore, distinguish a first phase of creation, in Europe, beginning with Venice in 1932 and especially in the postwar period, with events of both an economic and political nature, which lasted until around 1968.…”

Camerimage, un festival único dedicado al arte de la fotografía cinematográfica

“…Con un enfoque histórico-teórico, De Valck (2007) ofrece las claves sobre el funcionamiento y los logros de los festivales de cine clásicos -Berlín, Cannes y Venecia-y trata de explicar las causas de la proliferación de los mismos. Porton (2009) plantea una visión panorámica del mundo de los festivales de cine, con contribuciones de teóricos como Bazin, pero también de programadores y de críticos cinematográficos. Por su parte, Wong (2011) ofrece un caso de estudio focalizado en el festival de cine de Hong Kong y expone cuestiones históricas, estructurales y prácticas, así como de la crítica y el negocio en torno a los mismos.…”

Queering New Cinema History: Affective Methodologies for Comparative History

“…15 What keeps these two literatures from overlapping more is the fact that film festival studies tends to focus on cinema within the present and from the perspective of being present, while New Cinema History often (but not always) focuses on the past. 16 Marijke de Valck notes that what often makes festivals so appealing to festival researchers is 'their complete embrace of the present moment. Festivals take place in the here and now.'…”