Although film festivals’ core business is screening films, many festivals also facilitate “the business” of cinema. Arguably, the big international film festivals – Cannes, Berlin, Toronto etc. – owe a great deal of their prestigious and influential position in the festival network to the success of their market activities and services for the industry. Art cinema, world cinema and independent cinema increasingly depend on the nodes of the festival network for financing, sales, promotion and traffic (Biskind 2004; Perren 2001). But even medium-sized and small (international) festivals can play important roles in national or regional industries, offering, for instance, networking opportunities for professionals, training for filmmakers and/or entry points into the transnational flows that define today’s film culture.
In the subcategories listed below a variety of publications is collected. The diversity of audiences addressed by these works – academic, professional and institutional/governmental – points at a widespread recognition of the vital role film festivals play in media industries worldwide.
5.1 Markets and Funds
5.2 Distribution
5.3 Service Guides for Professionals
5.4 Studies / Reports Related to Film Festival Research
5.5 Festivals as Organizations
Aydemir, Aylin Pınar. 2022. “Yeni Dönem, Yeni Festivaller?” In Film Festivalleri E-Kitabi 1: 10-11 Kasim 2021, Ankara, edited by Hakan Erkılıç, 315–30. Ankara: De Ki Basim Yayim. [New Era, New Festivals?].
Aydın, Tuncer Mert. 2022. “Covid-19 Pandemisi Sürecinde Almanya Ve Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nde Ulusötesi Türk Film Festivallerinin Yapısı.” In Film Festivalleri E-Kitabi 1: 10-11 Kasim 2021, Ankara, edited by Hakan Erkılıç, 99–118. Ankara: De Ki Basim Yayim. [The Structure of Transnational Turkish Film Festivals in Germany and the United States of America during the Covid-19 Pandemic].
Binark, Mutlu. 2022. “Pandemi Döneminde Güney Kore’de Sinema Endüstrisi Ve Film Festivalleri: Seyirciyle Sinema Salonunda Buluşma Yolları.” In Film Festivalleri E-Kitabi 1: 10-11 Kasim 2021, Ankara, edited by Hakan Erkılıç, 119–48. Ankara: De Ki Basim Yayim. [Film Industry and Film Festivals in South Korea during the Pandemic: Ways to Meet with the Audience in the Movie Theater].
Burgess, Diane. 2023. “From Showcase to Lightbox: Programming the National on the Festival Circuit.” In Canadian Cinema in the New Millennium, edited by Lee Carruthers and Charles Tepperman, 370–94. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Cordoba, Cyril. 2022. “From the Grand Hotel to the Piazza Grande: The Locarno Film Festival’s Quest for Legitimacy (1946-77).” JFS 4 (1): 23–46. https://doi.org/10.33823/jfs.2022.4.1.104.
de Valck, Marijke, and Ger Zielinski. 2023. “Greening Film Festivals.” In Rethinking Film Festivals in the Pandemic Era and After, edited by Marijke de Valck and Antoine Damiens, 307–28. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hongisto, Ilona. 2022. “’in Europe, No One Was Paying Attention’: Honeyland on the Festival Circuit.” In Honeyland: A Docalogue, edited by Jaimie Baron and Kristen Fuhs, ##. New York: Routledge.
Jermyn, Deborah, and Nuala O’Sullivan. 2023. “’and I Just Thought, “I’m Not Having It. I’m Going to Set up My Own Festival”‘: Curating and Celebrating Older Women in the Women over Fifty Film Festival.” In Women, Ageing and the Screen Industries, edited by Susan Liddy, 221–37. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Limov, Brad. 2023. “Platforming Inclusion at U.S. Media Industry Events: Confronting Hollywood’s Lack of Representational Diversity.” Critical Studies in Media Communication, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2023.2245440.
Loist, Skadi. 2023. “Stopping the Flow: Film Circulation in the Festival Ecosystem at a Moment of Disruption.” In Rethinking Film Festivals in the Pandemic Era and After, edited by Marijke de Valck and Antoine Damiens, 17–40. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Peirano, María Paz. 2020. “Learning to Be ‘Global’: Chilean Filmmakers at International Film Festivals.” In Chilean Cinema in the Twenty-First-Century World, edited by Vania Barraza and Carl Fischer, 33–49. Contemporary film and media series. Detroit, Baltimore, MD: Wayne State University Press.
Richards, Stuart, and Jessica Pacella. 2022. “’We Need to Keep Making Stuff, Regardless of What the Situation Is’: Creativity and the Film Festival Sector During COVID-19.” AAM ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/AAM-11-2021-0061.
Sheikh, Khurram Nawaz. 2021. “The Local at a Global Scale: The Role of the Film Talents Workshop in Shaping Emerging Film Talents Workshop in Shaping Emerging Film Cultures of Pakistan.” Masterarbeit, Media School, Indiana University. Accessed October 07, 2021. https://www.proquest.com/openview/f2967b9dba2aa520c0168ef99223654d/1.pdf?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y.
Smith, Haydn, and Ian Haydn Smith, eds. 2012. International Film Guide 2012: The Definitive Annual Review of World Cinema. 48th edition. London: Wallflower. Accessed February 06, 2024. https://archive.org/details/internationalfil0000unse_b7g9.
Teslíková, Alice. 2020. “Management Fyzického a Online Filmového Festivalu: [Management of Physical and Online Film Festival].” Masterarbeit, Faculty of Business Administration, Wirtschaftsuniversität Prag. Accessed June 25, 2021. https://theses.cz/id/8l7kaj/75212_tesa01.pdf.
Vallejo, Aida. 2016. “Of Calendars and Industries: IDFA and CPH:DOX.” NECSUS 1 (5): 245–54. https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/3336.
Vallejo, Aida. 2017. “L’impact Économique Des Festivals De Cinéma: Entre La Communauté Cinéphile Et L’industrie Audiovisuelle.” [The Economic Impact of Film Festivals: Between the Cinephile Community and the Audiovisual Industry]. Les cahiers de Champs Visuels (14/15): 61–98.
Vallejo, Aida. 2020. “IDFA’s Industry Model: Fostering Global Documentary Production and Distribution.” In Documentary Film Festivals Vol. 2: Changes, Challenges, Professional Perspectives, edited by Aida Vallejo and Ezra Winton, 23–53. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Vogel, Ann. 2023. Cinema and the Festivalization of Capitalism: The Experience-Makers. Leiden: Brill.
(Last updated: 11. April 2024)