This new subsection collects works that deal with organizational aspects of film festivals. These entries pick up on the blind spot of questions concerning the organization and stakeholders behind the events and analyze issues of institutional backgrounds, funding, employment and industry patterns, missions statements and agendas. These questions are fundamental for an analysis of how festivals fit into the film industry, creative industries and the circulation of cinema. The specific institutional background and founding history gives insight into the workings and agendas of the respective festivals. For instance, festivals founded by municipal and state institutions to further political and diplomatic goals – here Cannes and Berlin immediately come to mind – work on a different agenda and with very different employment and funding structures than, say, minority festivals founded by activists (be it queer film festivals or diasporic ones).
While cultural festivals have been discussed in sociology, management and tourism studies, pieces specifically focusing on the organizational aspect of film festivals are still few. Kai Reichel-Heldt (2007) looked at the differences in organization and funding structures for the Berlinale and smaller German film festivals, and Ruby Cheung (2010) charted funding models for themed film festivals in the UK. Ragan Rhyne (2009) has analyzed film festivals as part of a cultural industry and charted the stakeholders influencing festival structures. Coming from the management angle, Charles-Clemens Rüling (2009) analyzed festivals as field-configuring events.
Cheung, Ruby (2010). “Funding Models of Themed Film Festivals.” Film Festival Yearbook 2: Film Festivals and Imagined Communities. Eds. Dina Iordanova with Ruby Cheung. St. Andrews: St. Andrews Film Studies. pp. 74–103.
Gamson, Joshua (1996). “The Organizational Shaping of Collective Identity: The Case of Lesbian and Gay Film Festivals in New York.” Sociological Forum 11:2 (1996): 231–261.
Lang, Iain, Simon Clode, and Ann Vogel (2006). “2006 Survey of Film Festivals World-Wide.” Unpublished Study. Exeter: University of Exeter.
Loist, Skadi (2011). “Precarious Cultural Work: About the Organization of (Queer) Film Festivals.” Screen 52:2 (2011): 268–273.
Ooi, Can-Seng, and Jesper Strandgaard Pedersen (2010). “City Branding and Film Festivals: Re-Evaluating Stakeholder’s Relations.” Place Branding and Public Diplomacy 6:4 (2010): 316–332.
Reichel-Heldt, Kai (2007). Filmfestivals in Deutschland: Zwischen kulturpolitischen Idealen und wirtschaftspolitischen Realitäten. Frankfurt am Main: Lang.
Rhyne, Ragan (2009). “Film Festival Circuits and Stakeholders.” Film Festival Yearbook 1: The Festival Circuit. Eds. Dina Iordanova with Ragan Rhyne. St. Andrews: St. Andrews Film Studies. pp. 9–39.
Rüling, Charles-Clemens (2009). “Festivals as Field-Configuring Events: The Annecy International Animated Film Festival and Market.” Film Festival Yearbook 1: The Festival Circuit. Eds. Dina Iordanova with Ragan Rhyne. St. Andrews: St. Andrews Film Studies. pp. 49–66.
Rüling, Charles-Clemens, and Jesper Strandgaard Pedersen (2010). “Film Festival Research from an Organizational Studies Perspective.” Scandinavian Journal of Management 26:3 (2010): 318–323.
Rüling, Charles-Clemens (2011). “Field-Configuring Events: Institutionalization and Maintenance in an Animation Film Festival.” Negotiating Values in the Creative Industries: Fairs, Festivals and Competitive Events. Eds. Brian Moeran, and Jesper Strandgaard Pedersen. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 197–223.
Strandgaard Pedersen, Jesper, and Carmelo Mazza (2011). “International Film Festivals: For the Benefit of Whom?” Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research 3 (2011): 139–165. <http://www.cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/v3/a12/>. (16 Jun. 2011)
(Last updated: 12 January 2012)