2. Festival Time: Awards, Juries and Critics

The exceptional temporal frame of festivals has been theorized extensively from an anthropological and sociological perspective. In the introduction to Time Out of Time: Essays on the Festival, Alessandro Falassi describes how “festival time imposes itself as an autonomous duration, not so much to be perceived and measured in days or hours, but to be divided internally by what happens within it from its beginning to its end” (Falassi 1987: 4, section 1.3). In addition, film festival research has addressed the defining temporal characteristics that are more specific to film festivals, such as festivals’ use of exceptional temporality to add value and set agendas (Elsaesser 2005, De Valck 2007, both section 1.1), as well as the festival calendar, which defines the relation of festivals to one another, their position in the circuit, and sets the expiration date at a one-year maximum. More specifically, our understanding of the way these characteristics shape film festivals needs to be advanced with close analyses of festival prizes, festival juries and the role of critics. The articles in this category flesh out some of the main concerns, such as the subjective nature of evaluations (Helmke 2005; Pride 2002), the effects of awards on distribution (Dodds/Holbrook 1998), and the correlation between taste and mediation in high art (Shrum 1996).

Baschiera, Stefano, and Francesco Di Chiara. “‘The European Parliament Projecting Cultural Diversity Across Europe’: European Quality Films and the Lux Prize.” Studies in European Cinema, vol. 15, 2-3, 2018, pp. 235–54. doi:10.1080/17411548.2018.1442619.

Damiens, Antoine. “Queer Cannes: On the Development of LGBTQ Awards at a-List Festivals.” A Festival Report. Synoptique, vol. 3, no. 2, 2015, pp. 93–100. synoptiqueblog.files.wordpress.com​/​2018/​07/​7-​antoine-​damiens-​queer-​cannes-​on-​the-​development-​of-​lgbtq-​awards-​at-​a-​list-​festivals.pdf.

de Valck, Marijke, and Mimi Soeteman. “’And the Winner is…’: What Happens Behind the Scenes of Film Festival Competitions.” International Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 13, no. 3, 2010, pp. 290–307.

Dodds, John C., and Morris B. Holbrook. “What’s an Oscar Worth? An Empirical Estimation of the Effects of Nominations and Awards on Movie Distribution and Revenues.” Current Research in Film: Audiences, Economics and Law, vol. 4, 1998, pp. 72–88.

Harbord, Janet. “Film Festivals – Time – Event.” Film Festival Yearbook 1: The Festival Circuit, edited by Dina Iordanova and Ragan Rhyne, St Andrews Film Studies, 2009, pp. 40–46.

Helmke, Julia. Kirche, Film und Festivals: Geschichte sowie Bewertungskriterien evangelischer und ökumenischer Juryarbeit in den Jahren 1948 bis 1988, CPV Christliche-Publizistik-Verl., 2005 11, www.worldcat.org​/​oclc/​76120510.

Loist, Skadi. “Queer Film and the Film Festival Circuit.” Curator’s Note. In Media Res, no. 14.9.2010, 2010, mediacommons.org​/​imr/​2010/​09/​08/​queer-​film-​and-​film-​festival-​circuit.

Menarini, Roy. “In Conversation with Ian Christie.” Cinergie: Il cinema e le altre arti, no. 6, 2014, pp. 54–56. www.cinergie.it​/​?​p=​4975.

Mezias, Stephen; Strandgaard Pedersen, Jesper; Kim, Ji-Hyun; Svejenova, Silviya; Mazza, Carmelo. Transforming Film Product Identities: The Status Effects of European Premier Film Festivals, 1996–2005.” Negotiating Values in the Creative Industries: Fairs, Festivals and Competitive Events, edited by Brian Moeran and Jesper Strandgaard Pedersen, Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 169–96.

Nuchelmans, André. “De Loden Last Van Het Gouden Kalf: Het Belang Van Filmprijzen Voor Regisseur En Acteur.” [The Golden Calf’s Lead Burden. The importance of film awards for director and actor]. Boekman, no. 60, 2004, pp. 115–20.

Pride, Ray. “The Prize Patrol: The Inexact Science of Festival Juries and Critics Awards.” The Independent: Film and Video Monthly, vol. 25, no. 1, 2002, pp. 26–29.

Ranvaud, Don. “Don Ranvaud and Festivals.” Filmnews, vol. 15, no. 9, 1985, pp. 10–11.

Rosenbaum, Jonathan. “Trafficking in Movies (Festival-Hopping in the Nineties).” Movie Wars: How Hollywood and the Media Conspire to Limit What Films We Can See, edited by Jonathan Rosenbaum, 1st ed., A Cappella, 2000, pp. 143–73.

Scott, Robert Dawson. “Bridging the Cultural Gap: How Arts Journalists Decide What Gets onto the Arts and Entertainment Pages.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 41, no. 1, 1999, pp. 46–55.

Shrum, Wesley Monroe Jr. Fringe and Fortune: The Role of Critics in High and Popular Art, Princeton Univ. Press, 1996.

Stringer, Julian. “Japan 1951-1970: National Cinema as Cultural Currency.” Tamkang Review, vol. 33, no. 2, 2002, pp. 31–53.

(Last updated: 20 July 2021)