The film festival as an industry node

Abstract

In recent years, an increasing number of film festivals have engaged closely with film production and distribution. This engagement has been realized via a variety of festival-specific models, such as talent campuses, pitching sessions, project funding, distribution labels, streaming platforms, and so on. Thus, the film festival (which, as I have argued elsewhere, has essentially been an exhibition vehicle) is transforming from primarily a display site of completed films into an important factor that often triggers the very cycle of a film’s conception, financing, development, production, and circulation. This short essay outlines the changing status of the film festival as a cluster of creativity and commerce and as a node in more general transnational infrastructures. It comments on the status of scholarship and sets out priorities for research.