Theorising film festivals as distributors and investigating the post-festival distribution of Australian films

From the event to the everyday: distributor-driven film festivals

“…Palace’s public branding is that of a sophisticated, superior, selective and independent film company. As the Australian exhibition and distribution market has become increasingly monopolised (Carroll Harris, 2013: 9–10), the material constraints for the distribution of arthouse titles have grown stricter. Rather than forming their own discrete circuit, film festivals have become integrated into the yearly programming activities of the major chains, challenging the dominant theorisation of festivals as feeders to the theatrical circuit (Carroll Harris, 2017: 55–56).…”

“…As the Australian exhibition and distribution market has become increasingly monopolised (Carroll Harris, 2013: 9–10), the material constraints for the distribution of arthouse titles have grown stricter. Rather than forming their own discrete circuit, film festivals have become integrated into the yearly programming activities of the major chains, challenging the dominant theorisation of festivals as feeders to the theatrical circuit (Carroll Harris, 2017: 55–56). This is another way in which, as the distribution of arthouse films has waned through standard cinemas, it has partly diverted to film festivals.…”

“… 2. It should also be added that in its role as an exhibitor, Palace also allows external events such as the Greek Film Festival, Irish Film Festival and Antenna Documentary Film Festival to book its screens, as per the usual business arrangement of film festivals. This offers further evidence of festivals forming part of the business activities of exhibitors, rather than functioning as their own discrete part of the cinema ecology (Carroll Harris, 2017: 55–56). …”

“…The Australian festival tradition, Stevens writes, ‘defined by its interaction with audiences and its operation as a practice in film exhibition’ (p. 202). Building on work examining the economic drivers of festivals, and the new wave of festivals functioning as distributors (Carroll Harris, 2017), we contend that Palace Cinemas offer a noteworthy case study of a business practice that is situated between these business and audience models. These events reflect the previous practice of the distributor’s showcase rather than catering to specific frameworks of cinema or diaspora.…”