In the last few year, research on film festivals has taken off and it is save to say the field of Film Festival Studies is in formation.
The following groupings of texts attest to this. There is a growing number of key texts appearing that theorize film festivals and their study (see section “1.1 a) Film Festival Theory”). Discussions in the field have lead to reports and responses to the research presented (see section “1.1 b) Reports and Responses to Film Festival Studies”) and reviews of seminal publications are appearing (see section “1.1 c) Book Reviews”).
1.1.1) Film Festival Theory
1.1.2) Reports and Responses to Film Festival Studies
1.1.3) Book Reviews
1.1.4) Bibliographies
1.1.5) Film Festival Pedagogy
1.1.6) Film Festival Datasets
Amiot Guillouet, Julie, Pietsie Feenstra, and Julie Savelli, eds. 2024. Films, festivals et mondes contemporains: Pour une anthropologie du visuel. Film cultures vol. 12. Lausanne: Peter Lang.
Chadha, Siddharth. 2021. Curating Precarity: Swedish Queer Film Festivals as Micro-Activism. Uppsala Studies in Media and Communication 16. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.
Dabak Özdemir, Burcu. 2024. Experiencing National Culture Abroad: The Study of Turkish Film Festivals in Germany. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
de Valck, Marijke, and Antoine Damiens, eds. 2023. Rethinking Film Festivals in the Pandemic Era and After. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Erkılıç, Hakan, ed. 2022. Film Festivalleri E-Kitabi 1: 10-11 Kasim 2021, Ankara. With the assistance of S. Dikkol. Ankara: De Ki Basim Yayim. [Film Festivals E-Book 1]. Accessed August 06, 2022.
Erkılıç, Hakan. 2022. “Sunuş: Film Festivalleri Çalışmaları Ve Türkiye.” In Film Festivalleri E-Kitabi 1: 10-11 Kasim 2021, Ankara, edited by Hakan Erkılıç, 7–70. Ankara: De Ki Basim Yayim. [Presentation: Film Festival Studies and Turkey].
Goh, Teck Fann. 2024. Japanese Film Festivals in the Asia-Pacific: Cultural Diplomacy, Practices and Audiences. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Heath, Theresa. 2025. Queer Film Festivals and Urban Space: Reclaiming the City. Abingdon, Oxon, New York, NY: Routledge.
Hollmann, Dianora. 2025. “La Dimensione Trasformativa Dei Film Festival: Un Approccio Ecosistemico Al Caso Europeo.” [The Transformative Dimension of Film Festivals: An Ecosystemic Approach to the European Case]. PhD Thesis, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia.
Lankford, Elsa, and Laura Vazquez. 2020. “Introduction to Special Issue: Film and Media Festivals in Academia.” Journal of Film & Video 72 (1-2): 3–4. https://doi.org/10.5406/jfilmvideo.72.1-2.0003.
Lankford, Elsa, and Laura Vazquez. 2020. “Media Arts Festivals: Scholarship and Artistry in Practice.” Journal of Film & Video 72 (1-2): 5–20. https://doi.org/10.5406/jfilmvideo.72.1-2.0005.
Ostrowska, Dorota. 2010. “Film Festival Workshop, St Andrew’s University, Scotland, 4 April 2009.” Conference Report. Screen 51 (1): 79–81.
Peirano, Maria Paz, and Aida Vallejo. 2021. “El Estudio De Festivales De Cine: Aproximaciones Metodológicas.” REBECA 10 (2): 21–46. https://doi.org/10.22475/rebeca.v10n2.821.
Peralta García, Lidia, and Lhoussain Simour, eds. 2025. Migration Film Festivals: Social Functions, Expectations and Challenges. Framing Film Festivals. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan Cham.
Piredda, Maria Francesca. 2022. I Festival Del Cinema in Italia: Forme E Pratiche Dalle Origini Al Covid-19 [Film Festivals in Italy. Forms and Practices from Their Origins to COVID-19]. Roma: Carocci Editore.
Rueda, Amanda, ed. 2024. Festivals et dynamiques cinématographiques transnationales. Champs visuels. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Sendra, Estrella, and Sheila Petty, eds. 2025. “Moving Beyond the (De)Colonial Container: The Work of Film Festivals.” Special issue, Alphaville, no. 28. https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.28.
Tsai, Beth. 2023. Taiwan New Cinema at Film Festivals. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Valent, Alexandra. 2018. “Kinosterben Und Festival-Boom: Zur Geschichte Zweier Gegenläufiger Phänomene in Wien.” [The Death of Cinema and Festival-Boom. On the History of two Opposing Phenomena in Vienna]. Maske und Kothurn 64 (3): 87–96.
Vallejo, Aida, and Ezra Winton, eds. 2020. Documentary Film Festivals Vol. 1: Methods, History, Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Vallejo, Aida, and Ezra Winton, eds. 2020. Documentary Film Festivals Vol. 2: Changes, Challenges, Professional Perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Vogel, Ann. 2023. Cinema and the Festivalization of Capitalism: The Experience-Makers. Leiden: Brill.
(Last updated: 16. May 2025)