Search

Due to the current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, we need to reassess film culture and the film industry as we have known it so far. The postponement and cancellation of major spring festivals in 2020 had a far-reverberating knock-on effect throughout the festival circuit and highlighted the entanglement of events and industry mechanisms based on regular rhythms, networks, and cascades. The canceled festival premieres left filmmakers, producers, and sales agents in limbo: subsequent festival participations, coordinated national distribution strategies, and theatrical releases were already being planned. Without a premiere, the entire circuit was disrupted. The value chain, based on the hierarchically structured sequence of certain festivals and markets, came to a standstill. With the usual windowed sequence unable to start, it was unclear what further distribution chains should look like. The disruption of the usual festival circulation structures has thus served as an accelerator for structural and cultural shifts. This article looks at the impact of this disruption on various stakeholders within the industry, thinking through the mechanisms of the festival ecosystem while highlighting the specific problems faced by different players and the resulting renegotiation of strategies and power dynamics, accounting for new emerging structures.

This article traces the history of queer film festivals, from their beginnings to the present day, while offering socio-political and cultural reasons for a range of trends in festival name, locati...

Gender inequality in the screen industries has become a heated topic in Germany in the last couple of years. Several studies conducted in Germany have looked at gender in creative roles of film production (Prommer and Loist in Who Directs German Feature Films? Gender Report: 2009–2013. Institut fur Medienforschung, Universitat Rostock, Rostock, 2015; Where Are the Women Directors? 2016; Hochfeld et al. in Gender und Film: Rahmenbedingungen und Ursachen der Geschlechterverteilung von Filmschaffenden in Schlusselpositionen in Deutschland, 2017), in on-screen representation (Prommer and Linke in Audiovisuelle Diversitat? Geschlechterdarstellungen in Film und Fernsehen in Deutschland, 2017), and the connection between these (Prommer in Effizienz in der Filmforderung des Bundes nach Geschlecht, 2018). These studies show that despite receiving less public funds, working with lower budgets, and having smaller releases, films by women directors are often more successful artistically (Prommer and Loist in Who Directs German Feature Films? Gender Report: 2009–2013. Institut fur Medienforschung, Universitat Rostock, Rostock, 2015; Where Are the Women Directors? 2016), show higher return of investment (Sun in Study: Films Directed by Women Receive 63 Percent Less Distribution Than Male-Helmed Movies, 2016), and are more efficiently using public funding (Prommer in Effizienz in der Filmforderung des Bundes nach Geschlecht, 2018). The lack of female talent, an often-used argument to justify the gender imbalance, thus can’t be a problem of quality (Loist in Navigationen 18:135–158, 2018). Nevertheless, this continues to be the key argument in film production, as voiced for instance by Carola Wille, head of the public broadcast station MDR, stating that production decisions, e.g., about who directs, are only made with regard to “quality.” This somehow implies that women cannot deliver the same “quality” of films as men. Based on detailed quantitative research, analyzing comparative industry data, such as national funding, box office revenues, and gender of creative positions this chapter takes a closer look at this argument. German film industry data shows that industry structures fail to sustain female directors’ careers. The talent exists. Yet with a significant drop from the proportion of women graduating from film schools and entering the film industry (44%) to the overall proportion of female directors working in the industry (24%), women’s creative potential and perspectives do not get a chance to develop projects shown on cinema screens (Hochfeld et al. in Gender und Film: Rahmenbedingungen und Ursachen der Geschlechterverteilung von Filmschaffenden in Schlusselpositionen in Deutschland, 2017). Despite ample research and evidence, to date there have been hardly any concrete measures to address gender inequality in the German film industry. The first measure is a 50% quota in the film funding juries, while a quota for production funding has vehemently been argued against.

Activities at A-festivals such as Cannes show how much influence festivals have on the exploitation chain of films. A festival premiere promises to generate buzz through the attendance of the press and sales to distributors; this is followed by further festival screenings, a distribution strategy, and theatrical release. This article looks at the circulation of films through the festival network and uses approaches from film festival research and media industry studies, which favor the term circulation over distribution, to suggest that we use the concept of «circulation power». These considerations are supported by initial results from the empirical research project «Film Circulation in the International Festival Network»., Aktivitäten bei A-Festivals wie Cannes zeigen, wie stark inzwischen der Einfluss von Festivals auf die Auswertungskette von Filmen ist. Eine Festivalpremiere verspricht Aufmerksamkeit durch Presse und Verkäufe an Verleiher_innen; es folgen weitere Festivalteilnahmen, abgestimmte Verleihstrategien und Kinostarts. Dieser Beitrag betrachtet die Zirkulation von Filmen durch das Festivalnetzwerk und bezieht sich dabei auf Ansätze aus Filmfestivalforschung sowie Media Industries Studies, die den Begriff Zirkulation gegenüber dem der Distribution favorisieren, und schlägt vor, das Konzept der «Zirkulationskraft» nutzbar zu machen. Gestützt werden diese Überlegungen durch erste Ergebnisse aus dem empirischen Forschungsprojekt «Filmzirkulation im internationalen Festivalnetzwerk».

This chapter traces discussions about methodology in Film Festival Studies across several years of conference workshops and develops a schema of positionality and involvement in film festival research. The key issue is the positioning of “academy” and “industry” to each another. Three different relations have emerged, which vary in degree of distance and involvement and which predetermine challenges and proposed methods of film festival research: (1) festivals and research are seen as distinct realms where communication across the divide brings mutual benefits; (2) the researcher moves closer to the object and becomes (temporarily) involved in its processes; and (3) the distance between researcher and festival activity is diminishing further, for example, when the researcher occupies an insider position or when a former festival organizer acts as researcher.

The first edition of the Antalya Golden Orange International Film Festival was launched fifty years ago in 1964, at a time when the international success of the director Metin Erksan ignited national support for the creation of a Turkish film festival. Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival has primarily been a national film festival, despite occasional claims to internationality. The history of the festival is also tainted by political aspirations. Antalya’s rivalry with the Golden Boll Film Festival in neighboring Adana provides an interesting case study for understanding the ways in which tensions between political parties and municipalities may affect film festival organisation.

Alternative Film/Video Belgrade began as a festival of Yugoslav alternative film and video production, with the aim to document and define trends in film theory as well as to identify the values and new creative possibilities in the field. The themes of the festival often set a mandate for exploring various aspects of the term ‘alternative’. This term has been included as the name of the festival since its founding in 1982. In this aspect, ‘alternative’ included many kinds of alternative modes – from experimental, art, short, and radical film, to film reflection and other forms.

Subverting the usual touristic signifiers of Scottishness – tartanry, whisky, and so on – THE ANGELS‘ SHARE (Loach, 2012) follows four young people from Glasgow’s impoverished East End as they embark on what might be considered a victimless crime in the north of Scotland. Predominantly comic in tone, the film was shot in 2011 and received its world premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. I attended the festival as part of a research project tracking the film’s journey from initial concept and screenplay through the production process and into exhibition, distribution, and reception.

The ubiquity of gender-bending and sexually ambiguous imagery in the media seems to herald a post-gay era. But are LGBT/Q identities and representation politics really a thing of the past? Inspection of the circulation patterns of LGBT/Q images on a global scale suggests a more nuanced story. Taking the lead from distribution and film festival studies, in this essay I sketch out how LGBT/Q images travel around the world. The festival network was always an alternative channel to mainstream work. Therefore, I pay particular attention to the international film festival circuit with its art film bias, on one hand, and activist festivals, such as LGBT/Q film festivals and their LGBT/Q-themed films, on the other. Utilizing Lisa Henderson’s notion of “queer relay” I argue that the relationship between the queer film ecosystem and the larger art film circuit is highly ambivalent. The deployed art film strategies reveal that we have not yet arrived at actual acceptance and universality in a post-gay, post-identitarian world. However, the positions on the side of distinction and cultural capital do not just lean towards exploitation of queer subcultural productions by neoliberal forces but offer also a relay position that accounts for queer agency in the wider cultural arena.

In medial bestimmten Gesellschaften stehen »Medien« und »Gender« in interdependenten Beziehungen. Die damit einhergehenden Dynamiken werden von den Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften einerseits sowie von den Gender- und Queer Studies andererseits erforscht. In einem transdisziplinären Brückenschlag werden in diesem Band unterschiedliche Theorien und Methoden vorgestellt, angewandt und kritisiert. Die Beiträger_innen analysieren, wie sich Konzepte von Geschlecht und Sexualität in aktuellen Medienprodukten, medialen Kontexten und Aneignungsprozessen manifestieren.

In struggles for political and cultural recognition many Indigenous groups employ visual media to make their concerns heard. Amongst these various channels for media activism are Indigenous film festivals which, in the words of festival coordinator Amalia Cόrdova, work to convey ‘a sense of solidarity with Indigenous struggles’. Cόrdova’s essay on Indigenous film festivals appears in the collection Film Festivals and Activism (2012). In the introduction to the collection co-editor Leshu Torchin writes about activist festivals as testimonial encounters or fields of witnessing where the films offer testimony and the audiences serve as witnessing publics, ‘viewers [who] take responsibility for what they have seen and become ready to respond’. To better understand how Indigenous film festivals embody these activist imperatives as eco-activism I consider the case of the 2011 Native American Film and Video Festival (NAFVF) with its special eco-themed focus Mother Earth in Crisis. In my analysis of NAFVF I consider both the testimonies of the films and the festival context in which they are placed; by doing so I add to the growing scholarship in ecocinema studies which within the last ten years has become a legitimate and crucial aspect of ecocriticism’s purview – though surprisingly, with little attention devoted to film festivals. Through this analysis, by articulating what I term the oblique testimony, I argue that Indigenous film festivals are often strongly reflective of the environmental concerns and hopes of Native peoples and suggest ecological engagements that place them in the terrain of environmental film festivals. [excerpt]

The Festival of Central and Eastern European Film Wiesbaden, also known as ‘goEast’, is a key event on the German film festival calendar. This is perhaps in no small part due to the fact that the festival is organised by the Deutsches Filminstitut, also because it enjoys a dedicated following among enthusiasts of the larger, general festival community. GoEast is structured by a modestly-sized feature film competition section which also includes documentaries. The total number of titles in this section in 2013 was 17. There are a number of smaller special programs at the festival, including a retrospective homage to a master cineaste and a multi-part symposium.

There are 11 days in September when the world’s cinematic community turns to Canada for the glitz and glamour of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The streets are flooded with both lay and professional attendees taking in movies, meetings, and the charms of this North American metropolis. However, while there are thousands of people attending the festival, they are a small portion of the millions of people who can now access the glamour of the festival through countless virtual venues online. Whether it is a popular media outlet that posts reviews and tweets headlines to its followers or an individual film fan who posts a picture of himself on the red carpet for all his friends and family to envy, online platforms and social media have had a major impact on festival structure and experience.

Seit der Durchfuhrung der ersten Filmfestivals in den 1930er Jahren hat sich der Festival-Sektor vergrosert und ausdifferenziert. Die ersten Festivals entstanden als politische Schaukasten nationaler Filmk unst. Aufgrund neuer politischer und kunstlerischer Anforderungen anderten sich deren Struktur sowie die Filmauswahl1. In den letzten Jahrzehnten hat sich eine Vielzahl an spezialisierten Festivals entwickelt, die jahrlich diene uesten Produktionen einer bestimmten Filmgattung (etwa Dokumentar-, Kurz- oder Animationsfilme) oder eines bestimmten Genres (beispielsweise Horror- oder Fantasy-Filme) zeigen. Auch zielgruppenbezogene Festivals wie Kinderfilmfeste konnten sich mittlerweile etablieren. Im Zuge verschiedener identitatsbezogener Bewegungen haben sich auch eine Reihe sogenannter Minoritatenfestivals (etwa Judische Filmfeste, Festivals zum Thema Behinderung) gegrundet. Hierunter fallt — systematisch betrachtet — auch die Vielzahl an schwul-lesbi schen beziehungsweise queeren Filmfestivals, von denen es derzeit weltweit schatzungsweise 175 gibt (Kay 2007: 10).