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The first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic had unprecedented implications for cultural sectors. With film festivals, music concerts and other cultural events being postponed or even cancelled, there was an urgency to respond to changing circumstances. Cultural events increasingly relied on hybrid or online formats to remain accessible for audiences. Because such formats caused controversy about programming and release strategies, they were easily conceived of as having a disruptive impact on cultural sectors. This paper puts such assumptions about disruption into question. It focuses on the film festival sector, which is increasingly invested in strategies of online accessibility and audience reach. The research is specifically based on the hybrid festival format. Drawing on case studies of hybrid film festivals such as London, Ghent and Rotterdam, it argues that their strategies and operations should be understood from the perspective of cultural change rather than disruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the challenges faced by film festivals, focusing on Sundance and Berlin, as they navigate financial, political, and cultural pressures. Topics include the impact of COVID-19 on festival attendance, the evolving role of festivals in a changing world, and the legacy of Sundance in championing independent films and documentaries.

The article offers information on the Rotterdam International Film Festival (IFFR) and its focus on new discoveries and avant-garde cinema under the direction of Vanja Kaludjercic and Clare Stewart. Topics include the festival's commitment to showcasing innovative films from around the world, its emphasis on animation and genre films, and the diverse program offered across its various sections.

Gender inequality in the film industry and the barriers women encounter are referred to as the "celluloid ceiling." To fully understand the structural and social causes of this phenomenon, comprehensive data collection and analysis are required. The current research aims to explore women's representation in student projects to examine how women studying in film schools encounter the celluloid ceiling before graduating and entering the workforce. For this purpose, 266 short films submitted over three years to a student film competition in Türkiye were investigated. The gender distribution in leadership positions, such as producing, directing, and screenwriting, as well as technical and acting roles, were examined. The study also looked at how having a woman in a leadership position in a film affected recruiting more women for positions behind the camera. The findings revealed that women are underrepresented behind the camera compared to men, and the proportion of women working behind the camera was higher when a female director or producer was present. A female director's or screenwriter's presence in a film also significantly affected passing the Bechdel-Wallace Test, an indicator of on-screen representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1953 and 1972 the International Labor Film Institute (ILFI), affiliated with yet organizationally separate from the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), spread knowledge about, and encouraged the use of, films among Western trade unionists. Holding five formal film festivals, the ILFI also engaged in the collection and distribution of information about films and filmstrips on trade union topics, themes, and successes. Yet compared to other ICFTU forums, ICFTU and ILFI officials were relatively muted on Cold War issues when it came to film activities. When they did discuss such topics, they evidenced a level of uncertainty and confusion regarding how intensely to engage anti-communist messaging in the area of labor films, indicating a concern over how to strike the correct balance between showcasing topics solely focused on labor and engaging Cold War themes. Studying the ILFI and Western labor's relationship to the medium of film thus reveals both an anxiety among Western labor leaders during the early and middle years of the Cold War over how best to weigh their desire to help workers with their goal of appearing sufficiently anti-communist as well as another way the vagueness of the ICFTU's slogan of 'free trade unionism' impacted the ICFTU's activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Film festivals are a key component in the global film industry in terms of trendsetting, publicity, trade, and collaboration. We present an unprecedented analysis of the international film festival circuit, which has so far remained relatively understudied quantitatively, partly due to the limited availability of suitable data sets. We use large-scale data from the Cinando platform of the Cannes Film Market, widely used by industry professionals. We explicitly model festival events as a global network connected by shared films and quantify festivals as aggregates of the metadata of their showcased films. Importantly, we argue against using simple count distributions for discrete labels such as language or production country, as such categories are typically not equidistant. Rather, we propose embedding them in continuous latent vector spaces. We demonstrate how these "festival embeddings" provide insight into changes in programmed content over time, predict festival connections, and can be used to measure diversity in film festival programming across various cultural, social, and geographical variables—which all constitute an aspect of public value creation by film festivals. Our results provide a novel mapping of the film festival circuit between 2009–2021 (616 festivals, 31,989 unique films), highlighting festival types that occupy specific niches, diverse series, and those that evolve over time. We also discuss how these quantitative findings fit into media studies and research on public value creation by cultural industries. With festivals occupying a central position in the film industry, investigations into the data they generate hold opportunities for researchers to better understand industry dynamics and cultural impact, and for organizers, policymakers, and industry actors to make more informed, data-driven decisions. We hope our proposed methodological approach to festival data paves way for more comprehensive film festival studies and large-scale quantitative cultural event analytics in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, born on May 4, 1984, in Llodio, Álava, is a film director, screenwriter, and producer from the Basque Country, Spain. Her works include the documentary "Voces de papel" (2016) and the short film "Cuerdas" (2022). However, it is her first feature film, "20,000 species of bees" (2023), that earned widespread acclaim and won awards at various film festivals. This film delves into the challenges faced by a family with a transgender girl, drawing inspiration from the tragic story of Ekai Lersundi. Urresola's aspiration was to evoke empathy for the struggles of transgender individuals, fueled by the hope for societal change. The film's compelling narrative revolves around 8‐year‐old Cocó's journey of self‐discovery, challenging societal expectations and prompting his mother, Ane, to confront her own doubts and fears during a transformative summer spent with family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on defining New Thai Cinema as a cinematic movement through the filmographies of four main directors: Nonzee Nimibutr, Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Wisit Sasanatieng, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. It reports that these directors' works reflect different themes, genres, and styles while opposing dominant conceptions and advocating for freedom of expression in Thailand, ultimately changing the history of Thai cinema.

The article informs about the turmoil faced by the Busan International Film Festival, detailing the power struggle and controversies leading up to the appointment of Nam Dong-chul as acting festival director. Topics include the festival's vulnerability to government control, its history of conflicts and instability, and the potential impact of reduced funding on Korea's film festival landscape.

Palestinian filmmakers are largely dependent on foreign funding for production and on foreign festivals for publicity. Making a Palestinian film can seem as "impossible" as remaining Palestinian amid fragmenting effects of occupation/war and peace accords. Against such pressures, Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir tells stories with protagonists, who, for foreign funders, can seem like "unruly subjects" for remaining Palestinian. As a consequence, her films themselves can seem like "unruly subjects" to industry film critics. Her films like twenty impossibles (ka'inana ashrun mustaheel, 2003), Salt of This Sea (Milh Hadha al-Bahr, 2008), When I Saw You (Lamma Shoftak, 2012), and Wajib (2017) tell stories about Palestinians debating each other (rather than Israelis via US negotiators) during key moments in Palestinian history, including the Nakba (1948), the Naksa (1967), the Oslo Accords (1993), and Al-Aqsa or second Intifada (2000–05). Jacir's protagonists refuse the limiting choices on offer. They demand to be recognized as Palestinian, as does Jacir as a Palestinian filmmaker against the efforts of Western industry critics, festivals, and funders to label her as an "Arab woman filmmaker," often carrying colonial assumptions of "oppressed" or "exceptional" women throughout Southwest Asia ("the Middle East"). Her films do more than offer a glimpse of everyday life to "humanize" Palestinians; they are "unruly subjects" that unsettle assumptions to reframe the debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is an important economic phenomenon in both developed and developing countries. Event tourism, specifically centered on cultural activities, is a niche market that has been gaining importance and has been researched for the last thirty years. There is remarkable agreement in the scientific literature that cultural events have a significant positive impact on the deseasonalization and rejuvenation of a tourist destination while promoting local culture. Among the most popular cultural events in the world, film festivals constitute a distinct modality. This article is focused on contrasting two festival experiences with different levels of consolidation, San Sebastian (Spain) and Fajr (Iran), analyzing their main features and differences from a tourism point of view. The first one has achieved worldwide prestige; while the second one is still in a consolidation phase, in an institutional and socioeconomic context comparable to the one the Spanish festival went through several decades ago. The article tries to point out the main shortcomings and challenges that the Fajr Festival must face, especially in the coordination of the venues and the corresponding sectors of the festival, in order to advance towards a high-level event with a touristic value that can benefit the locals and open the doors towards international tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Queer African Cinemas" by Lindsey B. Green-Simms is a book that explores and advances queer African scholarship by introducing concepts like Afri-queer fugitivity, critical resilience, and spectraphilic pleasure. The book analyzes a wide range of African queer cinema, examining how films depict the experiences of queer Africans and the resistance they face. It explores different regional and national contexts, such as Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Uganda, and discusses the portrayal of queer characters and themes within these films. The book's rigorous analysis and interdisciplinary approach make it a valuable resource for research in African queer studies and transnational Black studies. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the Beyond the Blue Sky Queer Film Festival that was held in Mongolia.

This document is a collection of abstracts from the Asian Journal of Ophthalmology, focusing on various presentations and surgical techniques in the field of ophthalmology. The abstracts cover a range of topics including missing iStents during re-threading, Excimer laser trabeculostomy for glaucoma, management of complex cases involving secondary glaucoma and traumatic cataract, challenges in cataract surgery for nanophthalmic eyes, AGV slicing as an option for failed Ahmed Glaucoma Valves, management of postoperative complications following ICL implantation, dual surgical approach for combined mechanism glaucoma and cataract, and the potential of MIGS techniques to rejuvenate trabeculectomy blebs. These abstracts provide valuable insights for researchers and practitioners in the field of ophthalmology. [Extracted from the article]

This article delves into the history of home video culture and screen translation in the late Soviet Union, focusing on the popularity of pirated VHS tapes and their impact on film distribution. It challenges traditional narratives of the transition from film to video and argues that translation played a fundamental role in shaping the Soviet video order. The text also explores the challenges faced by the state-controlled video industry and the rise of informal video markets. It discusses the impact of video consumption, particularly foreign films, and the controversies surrounding voice-over translation, including errors, failures, and the use of obscene language. The article concludes by highlighting the enduring legacy and cultural significance of VHS translations in the former Soviet region. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines the impact of digital technologies on the film industry in Iran. It discusses how the Iranian state exercises control over the industry, affecting the use and distribution of digital technologies. While some argue that digital technologies have empowered independent filmmakers and dissenting voices, others point out the continued constraints imposed by the state and the division within the industry. The article analyzes the power dynamics within the Iranian film industry using Pierre Bourdieu's theories of capital. It also explores the advantages that state-sponsored filmmakers have over independent filmmakers, including greater financial resources and access to high-end production equipment. The article highlights the state's use of digital technologies to produce films that promote its ideologies and counter Western cultural influence. It also discusses the impact of global power dynamics on the stratification of the film industry. [Extracted from the article]

Diachronic pragmatics is a subfield of historical pragmatics. It studies the developments of patterns of language use across time. In the past, such investigations were based on written data, but recently new sources have become available that provide more direct access to the spoken language of the (mostly recent) past. This Virtual Special Issue combines four articles that provide new perspectives on the study of diachronic pragmatic changes of spoken English. They explore a range of data sources that have recently become available. They include recordings of presidential press conferences and of Prime Minister's Question Time, spontaneous interactions in natural settings (London-Lund Corpus) and fictional interactions produced for the movie screen (Movie Corpus). The timelines covered by these investigations range from one to about four generations. In this introduction, we position this Virtual Special Issue in the context of diachronic pragmatics. We briefly introduce some of the newly available data sources for the diachronic investigation of spoken English. We talk about the possible time depth of diachronic pragmatics and what this means for observing language change on the level of pragmatics, and finally we give an outline of the four papers in this Virtual Special Issue. • Diachronic pragmatics provides a framework for recent change of spoken English. • New resources offer fresh insights into diachronic developments of spoken English. • Diachronic change of pragmatic entities is observable within one or two generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subtitles, as the most common form of audiovisual translation, allow international viewers from all backgrounds to access, comprehend, enjoy, interpret, and remember audiovisual products. However, if not performed properly, they may occasionally restrict the viewer's interpretive options, resulting in the loss of many literary or dramatic features of the original films. Focusing on the emotion words/expressions as a distinctive feature of drama, the current study evaluated the quality of the English subtitles of five top Persian drama films. Johnson-Laird [Johnson-Laird, Philip Nicholas, and Keith Oatley. 1989. "The Language of Emotions: An Analysis of a Semantic Field." Cognition & Emotion 3 (2): 81–123. doi:] list was used to identify the emotion words/expressions in the corpus. Pedersen's [Pedersen, Jan. 2017. "The FAR Model: Assessing Quality in Interlingual Subtitling." Journal of Specialised Translation 28: 210–229] FAR model was employed to evaluate the emotion words/expressions as used in the English subtitles. The results of the study showed that, although the films were subtitled for international film festivals, about four-fifth of subtitles were erroneous of a serious type. The findings reveal that a crucial aspect of maintaining the emotional burden of the genre of drama in translation, particularly subtitling, is conveying equivalently the emotion words/expressions. The findings will be of use not only to researchers and students but also to future audiovisual translators/subtitlers seeking further knowledge in the transfer of emotive language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incremental structural adjustments define attempts to advance representational diversity in Hollywood. This essay considers U.S. media industry events as catalysts for change. Using the 2020 Austin Film Festival and Writers Conference as a case study, I examine how attendees platformed the topic of inclusion after summer protests reignited calls for equity throughout media industries. Participant observation across the festival's virtual spaces locates my critical deconstruction of four panels wherein representation of historically underrepresented groups, including Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC), was a focal point. Although the festival did not overtly engage with the political moment, it platformed people who did. Conversations on craft fed into a ubiquitous conference concern with "truth" in storytelling, foregrounding sociohistorical contexts and individual specificities when representing diverse experiences, and highlighting positionality when empowering writers to tell their stories. Despite the constraints of dominant production norms, events enable underrepresented groups and their allies to shape industry discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation is centred on film festivals within Spain that take the rural world as their reference. A panoramic approach to an emerging trend is presented in the study. The concept of the "social function" is of central importance to the analytical perspective that is adopted, to understand what added value these sorts of festivals specializing in rural topics can contribute, especially in relation to the current challenges of rural depopulation. Qualitative methods are mainly used, based on semi-structured interviews with the people who direct and manage these sorts of events, with the support of digital documents downloaded from web-pages and searches for the digital footprint of rural film festivals on websites and social media. Promoting and financing a rural film festival is, at the very least, both a social and an organizational challenge, but our study distances itself from an economic viewpoint that might measure the success of a festival in terms of marketing, to contemplate its "social profitability." From this perspective, we ask ourselves through which channels and to what extent are rural film festivals linked into the community. The results showed that, despite the vulnerability of the sector, these festivals represent an opportunity for links with the local area, social cohesiveness, and the revitalization of socio-cultural activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1972, the Japanese entertainment listings magazine Pia was established, providing information on film screenings, theatre and concert events happening in Tokyo each month. It quickly cultivated an engaged readership of teenagers and young adults. Among this readership were participants of a burgeoning nationwide phenomenon of do-it-yourself film production, referred to in Japanese as jishu seisaku eiga (meaning 'self-made films'), which typically saw young, aspiring filmmakers produce short and feature-length narrative works using 8 mm (and sometimes 16 mm) film cameras. This article contextualises the emergence of Pia magazine and its role in centralising and providing opportunities to Japan's growing 'self-made' filmmaking community throughout the 1970s, 1980s and beyond. This can be viewed on two fronts: firstly, from within the pages of the magazine itself and its strategies to stimulate reader-to-cinema engagement; and, secondly, through the magazine's organisation of an annual self-made film screening event in the late 1970s that would come to be known as the Pia Film Festival (PFF). PFF remains an essential national showcase for new Japanese filmmakers to this day, but, more importantly, it would herald its own system of independent film production in the form of the PFF Scholarship. This article concludes with a discussion about the PFF Scholarship, and its importance at a time when early career filmmakers were struggling within the Japanese film industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we offer a new concept of the "queer creative city", through a critical examination of how a regional queer Bengali film culture has emerged in Kolkata as a result of the convergence of certain urban policies, queer political organising and cultural activism. We explore two queer film festivals in Kolkata – the Siddharth Gautam Film Festival and Dialogues, both having a very significant impact in transforming LGBTQ + lives in Kolkata. Through archival research, autoethnography and conducting extensive interviews with organising committees, venue sponsors and owners, and viewers, we show how these film festivals and a pre-existing Bengali film culture engendered the emergence of a prolific creative queer city, which became a site of resistance, and community building that created a solid base for queer counterpublics. Queer film festivals, we argue, are critical sites for charting the dynamics of the public sphere in contemporary India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which editor discusses the challenges facing the film industry. Topics include streaming platforms, labor strikes, and the evolving nature of film festivals.

I explore how film censorship has increasingly shaped film production and circulation at film festivals, public screenings, and theatrical releases in post‐2000 Turkey. I argue that film censorship in Turkey now works through two levels. First, through direct intervention, whereby state institutions continue to censor film production. Although the renaming of control commissions from previous decades via the 2004 "Cinema Law" creates the illusion that censorship boards have been abolished, fieldwork data proves otherwise. Secondly, state institutions designate various non‐state actors as proxies of the state and grant them well‐calculated power to employ on their behalf when necessary. I draw upon fieldwork data and case studies to analyze how the political climate in Turkey has suppressed cultural production, freedom of expression, and political resistance to the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government both through bans on artistic expression and processes of delegitimization, targeting, threats, and violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the qualities and affordances of the remaining World War II bunkers still found along Europe's Western coastline. Drawing on ethnographic and historical material from a Danish section of the line, and on my involvement in establishing an alternative film festival among these ruins, I explore the bunkers as 'invasive' materialities, that is, externally imposed structures, still conceived in various ways as foreign, intrusive or out of place. The bunkers continue to disturb the status quo, prompting different kinds of responses – of opposition and consternation but also certain kinds of allure and fascination. With the film festival as the main case, I trace the bunkers as products of various kinds of collaboration and as natural-cultural amalgams around which questions of protection, ownership, and rights come to matter, socially and materially. I argue that an 'invasive' analytics may further our understanding of the different relationships and agencies involved in these dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jia Tan's book, "Digital Masquerade: Feminist Rights and Queer Media in China," provides a comprehensive analysis of queer and feminist cultures in contemporary China within the context of increasing restrictions on activism and the prevalence of digital media. Tan explores the concept of digital masquerade, which refers to the collective and performative mode of rights claiming by sexual and gender minority subjects in China. The book challenges Western critiques of liberal feminism and homonormativity/homonationalism by highlighting the unique meanings and uses of activism and representation in the Chinese context. Through case studies, Tan examines various forms of digital masquerade, including online activism, the appropriation of rights discourses, community-based queer digital filmmaking, transnational queer film festival networks, and platformized representations of female homoeroticism in social app videos. The book concludes with a pessimistic outlook on the shrinking space for feminist and queer activism in China. Overall, "Digital Masquerade" offers valuable insights into the cultural politics of gender and sexuality in contemporary China. [Extracted from the article]

This article is an introduction to the scholarly world of Irish film and media, written in memory of Martin McLoone, a prominent figure in the field. Martin was known for his unconventional approach to research and teaching, as well as his involvement in the creative sector and public engagement. He made significant contributions to Irish cinema and media through his edited collections and monographs, which are widely recognized in the field. Martin was also a mentor to many scholars and colleagues, known for his humanity, compassion, and integrity. The article also includes reviews of recent publications in Irish cinema, media, broadcasting, and music, highlighting their importance and connection to Martin's work. [Extracted from the article]

Based on content analysis (in the context of the historical, socio-cultural and political situation, etc.) of texts published during the "stagnant" period of the Soviet Screen magazine (1969-1985), the authors came to the following conclusions. Of the wide range of Hollywood and British films, Soviet film distribution in the period we analyzed included mainly films with an acute social message, critically showing Western realities. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that these films received maximum support in the Soviet Screen; articles by Soviet film critics emphasized the "progressive anti-bourgeois significance" of these films. It is very significant that, even when reviewing American films, which seemed to be completely far from politics, the reviewers of Soviet Screen demonstrated ideological approaches. Of course, among the reviews of American and British films in Soviet Screen, there also appeared texts that were devoid of a direct appeal to politics. "Apoliticalism" was especially evident in reviews devoted to film adaptations of classical works, which often took place in the 19th century and earlier. Frankly entertaining Hollywood and British films were released into Soviet distribution in the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s quite rarely. And here, Soviet Screen reviewers often sought to distance themselves from edifying political and ideological assessments, concentrating on a professional analysis of the artistic quality of this or that entertaining film. In Italian and French cinema, the Soviet Screen consistently gave preference to political films that "expose capitalist reality." Of course, Soviet Screen, as before, could not ignore the works of Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Michelangelo Antonioni, Francois Truffaut and other outstanding masters of cinema. But here, too, the magazine's reviewers assessed their work mainly within the framework of Marxist ideological principles, on the basis of which even the films of such recognized masters as Federico Fellini were criticized. The sharp rejection of Soviet Screen reviewers was often caused by entertainment films with the participation of Jean-Paul Belmondo, which were reproached for promoting "supermanhood" and violence. The Soviet Screen's reviews of famous French and Italian comedies were more benevolent, but overall rather skeptical. Of course, the range of Western films, for one reason or another, did not reach the Soviet mass audience, was much wider than film distribution. And year after year, the editors of the magazine selected examples for criticism of bourgeois society and imperialism: films of an anti-communist and anti-Soviet orientation, as well as films "glorifying the American military" and "whitewashing the Nazis". The openly entertaining part of Western film production has traditionally been viewed by the magazine mainly in a sharply negative light. Soviet Screen did not ignore the topic of film sex, popular in the West in the 1970s. Of course, articles were published about films of this kind, condemning the "decomposition of the morals of bourgeois society." In articles in Soviet Screen about international film festivals and the current repertoire of Western national cinemas and weeks of foreign cinema in the USSR, there was also a clear division of Western cinema into "progressive" and "bourgeois". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carroll notes that Suzuki draws on both non-diegetic and diegetic music to, "repeatedly trick the audience about the film music's source" (p. 132). As a member of the Nikkatsu factory, Suzuki made both A and B films and was employed as a director of program pictures, 'that were neither designed to be particularly prestigious for the studio nor assumed to be major box office draws' (p. 69). Based on a confluence of events at the tail end of the 1990s and into the mid-2000s, lesser-known Japanese director Seijun Suzuki became voguish for Westerners. [Extracted from the article]

In its third year of existence, Pleibéricos, an online platform focused on launching and promoting new books in the field of Iberian ṣtudies, held an event at the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute in Madrid on 24 October 2022. The aim of this first in-person meeting was to start conversations with other initiatives in the field that, like Pleibéricos, were founded during the COVID-19 pandemic or that had to move their operations online or adopt a hybrid format during that time. The founders and coordinators of the following six platforms talked about their projects: the online research seminar series Polibéricos, Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival (ESFF – to represent hybrid formats in the creative sector), the Spanish-language podcast New Books Network and the conferences Conversations on Iberian Studies: Challenges and Opportunities (CISCO) and Association for Contemporary Iberian Studies (ACIS). They placed special emphasis on the advantages and challenges of the online and hybrid formats and how to incorporate these new experiences, technologies and skills into a post-pandemic context. The event concluded with a roundtable discussion and some concluding remarks by a guest respondent. This meeting was made possible with the support of a Hispanex grant awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses multiple film festivals held during the winter season of 2023, including prominent events such as the Sundance, Rotterdam, and Berlin Festivals.

Ken Plummer's life work has had a major impact on the development of the sociology of sexuality. While being firmly rooted in and committed to the traditions of pragmatism and symbolic interactionism – which chimes nicely with his philosophical stance of critical humanism – Ken Plummer openly engaged in a critical dialogue with many theoretical perspectives. This renders his work a rich resource for researchers working on sexualities from within different paradigms. This paper engages in a critical appraisal of some of Plummer's most significant concepts through autobiographical reflection on my personal experience of working with Ken Plummer as a PhD student, further tracing the influence his work has had on my own writing on consensual non-monogamies, LGBTQIA + activism and queer film festivals. Using autoethnography and memory work, the essay highlights the powerful potential residing in Plummer's path-breaking contributions to social constructionism (script theory and narrative power), methodology (personal documents), narrative sociology (sexual stories), critical humanism (dialogical ethics and cosmopolitan sexualities) and political sociology (intra-movement conflict, intimate citizenship, counterpublics and age standpoints). The essay argues that these ideas – and Plummer's overall legacy as a scholar and theorist – bear a strong significance for future research in sexuality studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the scholarship on queer spaces and queer film festivals by offering an approach that critically analyses white normativity within the queer film festival, scrutinising both who shapes these spaces and for whom they are shaped. Situating queer film festivals as political sites of counterpublics that enable potential resistance and solidarity against dominant heteronormativity and cisnormativity, this article examines whiteness and white privilege within those spaces, using London's 2018 BFI Flare: LGBTQ+ Film Festival as a case study. In-depth discourse analysis of Flare's 2018 festival documents and ephemera informs the article's argument. Building upon intersectional and postcolonial feminist work on spaces and diversity politics, this piece contends that current Western queer film festivals, such as Flare, are spaces embedded in homonationalist discourse that replicate historical in/exclusion and construct racialised arenas. In this way, they perform "feel good" diversity while lacking an interrogation of normative whiteness, able-bodiedness, and cis male gayness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graça considers that beyond a simple binary opposition between Portuguese and Hollywood Film one would have to also consider the larger divide between European and American film in broad terms. In many ways, this chapter stands in for the book as a whole inasmuch as the question of the failure (or "Unsuccess" in Graça's terms) of Portuguese Cinema to impose itself, either in terms of audience or economic profitability, as the two usually go hand in hand, can be said to be the driving force of the book. For one, it surprises that a book devoted to cinema, especially a cinema that can freely be considered as semi-peripheral, does not include any stills from the various films discussed. [Extracted from the article]

Hagan delves into the artistic and creative possibilities that emerge when dance and film converge and explores the various ways in which the physicality of dance can be harnessed and elevated through the cinematic medium. Unlocking the Beauty of Screendance: A Journey through History, Curatorial Practice, and Personal Reflections: Screendance from Film to Festival: Celebration and Curatorial Practice By Cara Hagan. One of the most compelling aspects of this chapter is Hagan's meticulous research and analysis of artists who paved the way for screendance. [Extracted from the article]

Fandry (2013) is the first feature film written and directed by Nagraj Manjule. The film received a national award for the best debut director and several accolades in national and international film festivals. This paper offers introductory remarks on the representation of the de-notified tribe- Kaikadi in the film Fandry (2013). It starts with the observation about the social location of de-notified tribes and stigmatization around these communities and how Fandry as a film becomes a vehicle of resistance and formation of defiant identity. I also offer a critical reading of contemporary scholarship on Fandry, which overlooks the de-notified tribe identity and appropriates the struggle in the film with the larger Dalit struggle and caste issues. While the Dalit framework forms the background of the film, I argue that Manjule, through his film Fandry, is asserting personhood by bringing in lived experiences in his cinematic narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the symbiotic relationship between international film festivals and contemporary Hindi cinema. The years post 2010 have witnessed an increase in showcasing of Hindi cinema at international film festivals. Unlike earlier Indian cinema that has been celebrated at global platforms, the Hindi cinema under discussion situates itself at a juncture between the commercial and the art. In fact, a number of mainstream filmmakers who attempt unconventional themes, are exploring international film festivals as suitable avenues to reach a larger audience and to forge newer alliances. The primary theoretical framework of this research will draw upon Marijke's proposition that film festivals are 'sites of cultural legitimisation' (77); along with, as an entry point, Pierre Bourdieu's understanding of the festival space as an active site for the generation of economic and cultural capital. In addition, the study also investigates how Hindi filmmakers use this platform to market cinema and reach an international audience. This paper attempts to evaluate the above dynamics through the prism of three representative cinematic texts: Masaan (Dir. Ghaywan), Newton (Dir. Masurkar) and Gully Boy (Dir. Akhtar). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a complex plot involving closeted gay councilmen, countless emotional conflicts, and a series of violent disputes, the film establishes a disjunctive tone that is significant in that it marked a shift away from the largely realist political critiques offered by an earlier AIDS cinema.[34] "As most AIDS stories have [so far] been serious dramas by and about white gay men", a contemporaneous reviewer noted, "it's refreshing to see a political satire that not only revolves around men of color, but also refuses to label them as victims." While Chocolate Babies was initially deemed a success following its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February 1997, receiving positive reviews and a number of accolades from the queer events and film festivals it was screened at over the next two years, little has been made of the implications and resonances of its radical resistant vision.[5] In a number of taxonomic articles on AIDS-attendant cinema at the turn of the twenty-first century, for instance, the film is only fleetingly cited, mostly forgotten amid extended discussions of more familiar titles. Chocolate Babies, the advertisement goes on to conclude, "packs a super-powered punch."[4] Yet despite such praise, Winter's film remains something of an outlier to the numerous canons of queer cinema formed during the 1990s and thereafter. Acknowledging what Bradley-Perrin has called the "self-serving reciprocity between pharmaceutical companies and mainstream AIDS organizations", cinema here offers a window onto various alternative political horizons.[33] QUEER CONJUNCTURES, OR BLACK FAGGOTS AND THEIR POLITICAL AGENDAS If one film is to emblematize this shifting sphere of cinematic-activist relations, however, it is undoubtedly Winter's Chocolate Babies. [Extracted from the article]

10 Film screenings in a film auditorium in US art museums date to the early 1900s, but the MMCA Film and Video auditorium was founded in 2013. Despite the shrinking space for independent cinema during the COVID-19 pandemic, several queer Korean films have found screening opportunities in both local and global over-the-top (OTT) video streaming services, including Netflix, Wavve, Watcha, and GagaOOLala. [Extracted from the article]

The short film is one of the unique fields of cinema art, which does not exceed 30 minutes and conveys its story to the audience in a short time consistently. There are fictional, animated, experimental and documentary genres of short film. Among the general problems encountered in short film festivals and competitions are issues such as putting short films and short filmmakers in the background and not opening enough space for them. In addition, industry components need to clear up the confusion about the definition of short film and its self-sufficiency. In this study, based on the opinions of the directors who produced short films, such problems were discussed and discussed, while the positive reflections of short films and short film festivals on the sector were tried to be revealed. It is thought that the evaluation of the subjective perspectives of successful short film directors will be effective in the contribution of the study to the literature. In this study, a literature study was conducted on the interviews given by short film directors who have been successful in various domestic and foreign festivals in recent years. As a data collection tool, the opinions of the directors were obtained by using the interviews made before. The data were analyzed using the descriptive analysis method. In addition to positive situations such as short films open up space for amateur filmmakers, the awards won enable new productions, festivals create a meeting point in the sectoral and professional sense, short film producers are registered thanks to festivals, as well as ensuring the continuity of the festivals, increasing national and local support, paying the royalties of the festivals. Suggestions such as establishing institutions only for short films, increasing the quality of viewing conditions in the halls where short films will be shown were also included in the study. Thanks to this study, the sectoral situation of the short film and the perspective of the festivals on the short film were tried to be revealed for the first time through the eyes of the short filmmakers. The study will form the basis for new research on short films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]