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 & Circulation
5.3 Service Guides for Professionals
5.4 Studies / Reports Related to Film Festival Research
5.5 Festival (as) Organization
5.5.1 Festival Labor
5.5.2 Diversity in the Festival Sector
5.5.3 Sustainability in the Festival Sector
5.6 Film Festivals and Policy
5.7 Event Management
Aveh, M. Africanus. 2020. “FESPACO: Promoting African Film Development and Scholarship.” Black Camera: The New Series 12 (1): 117–28. https://doi.org/10.2979/blackcamera.12.1.09.
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.
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.
Farrar, Ruth. 2021. “Creating Impact Through Participatory Action Research: A Film Festival Framework Case Study.” Research for All 5 (1): 118–33. https://doi.org/10.14324/RFA.05.1.10.
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.
Jurado Martín, Montserrat. 2022. “Credibilidad En Juego: Análisis De Las Bases a Concurso De Los Festivales De Cine Online.” [Credibility at stake: Analysis of the contest rules of online film festivals.]. Hist. Comun. Soc. 27 (2): 533–45. https://doi.org/10.5209/hics.80771.
Jurado-Martín, Montserrat. 2024. “The Reception of Artificial Intelligence at Film Festivals.” In Revolutionizing Communication: The Role of Artificial Intelligence, edited by Raquel V. B. Rojas and Francisco-Julián Martínez-Cano, 161–72. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Kılıç Adilçe, Bahar, and Isil Coklar Okutkan. 2023. “First Encounter with the Celluloid Ceiling: Female Representation at a Student Film Festival in Türkiye.” Feminist Media Studies 24 (4): 898–916. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2023.2258297.
Limov, Brad. 2023. “Platforming Inclusion at U.S. Media Industry Events: Confronting Hollywood’s Lack of Representational Diversity.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 40 (4): 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2023.2245440.
Limov, Brad. 2024. “Media Industry Events as Platforms for Social Justice: Moving from Inspiration to Impact in Creative Production.” PhD Thesis, Journalism and Media, The University of Texas at Austin.
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.
Onwuliri, Edmund Chukwuma, and Barth Oshionebo. 2023. “Towards the Development of a Sustainable Documentary Film Culture in Nigeria: A Study of IRepresent (IREP) Documentary Film Festival.” Advanced Journal of Theatre and Film Studies (AJTFS) 1 (2). https://doi.org/10.57040/ajtfs.v1i2.540.
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.
Puccia, Angelo, L. Javier Cabeza-Ramírez, Manuel Márquez de los Santos, and Miguel González-Mohíno. 2025. “Bridging Cultural Capital: Youth-Driven Communication as a Catalyst for Well-Being in Film Festival Participation.” Social Sciences 14 (1): 26. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14010026.
Thévenin, Olivier. 2024. “Retour sur l’expérience de la Quinzaine des réalisateurs: le festival comme objet de connaissance socio-anthropologique.” [A look back at the Directors’ Fortnight experience: The festival as an object of socio-anthropological knowledge]. In Films, festivals et mondes contemporains: Pour une anthropologie du visuel, edited by Julie Amiot Guillouet, Pietsie Feenstra, and Julie Savelli, 75–95. Film cultures vol. 12. Lausanne: Peter Lang.
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.
Zerbib, Olivier. 2024. “Les Festivals De Cinéma Comme Agences D’appariement: Distribuer, Exploiter, Programmer.” [Film Festivals as Matching Agencies: Distribution, Exhibition, Screening]. Terrains & travaux N° 44 (1): 79–97. https://doi.org/10.3917/tt.044.0079.
(Last updated: 16. May 2025)