Film festivals and their socio-cultural contexts (deadline: July 15, 2020)

2020-03-15

Since the end of the 1990s and through the 2000s, film festivals have proliferated globally, adjusting to new trends in film exhibition in a context of growing specialisation of media industries and urban development. In order to better understand these cultural phenomena, the emerging field of film festival studies has developed rapidly (De Valck 2007, Iordanova 2009-2014, Wong 2011, De Valck, Kredell and Loist 2016; De Valck and Falicov 2015), expanding its scope to new methodological approaches and disciplines, such as urban studies, sociology or anthropology, to name but a few. The focus on socio-cultural contexts of this special issue aims to follow the path of pioneer works about festival audiences (Ethis 2001), festival engagement and participants’ discourses (Bazin 1955, Dayan 2000, Leão, 2007, 2007/2008), labour conditions (Loist 2011), or political/activist practices (Tascón 2017).

As the field of film festival studies evolves, new regions and research traditions are expanding the geographical scope and linguistic approaches to film festival research. Innovative examples include special issues in journals from Czech Republic (Iluminace, Bláhová 2014) or Spain (Secuencias, Vallejo 2014). This special issue of Aniki. Portuguese Journal of the Moving Image aims to contribute to this decentralisation of film festival studies, highlighting the importance of the socio-cultural contexts created around film festivals from two different angles: the first refers to the cultural contexts that facilitated the creation of film festivals in the age of growing specialisation (professional networks, historical contexts, urban development); and the second addresses the festival as an active agent that creates new socio-cultural contexts, bolstering audience engagement of different types (political activism, new cinephilia(s), film movements, and so on). What is the festivals’ place and contribution to a particular cultural realm? Which kind of audience experiences have they built and how? What is their contribution to the local film industry? And to urban development? What are their political implications and their relationship with governmental institutions?

We are especially interested in papers that address underexplored areas of film festival studies, including, but not limited to, audience research, film history and curatorial practices; as well as under-researched festivals and geo-cultural spaces.

Thematic axes:

Submissions may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • Film history and film festivals
  • Audience research
  • Characteristics and dynamics of cultural work at film festivals
  • Film festivals as networking spaces
  • Social impact of film festivals, community building and activism
  • Film festivals and politics
  • Urban studies and film festivals
  • Programming policies and curatorial practices
  • Film festivals and national cinemas or film movements
  • Non-hegemonic languages and cultures and film festivals 

Bibliographic references:

BAZIN, André (1955 [2009]). “The Festival Viewed as a Religious order” in Richard PORTON (ed.), Dekalog 3: On Film Festivals. London: Wallflower Press, pp. 13-10. Original Version in French: «Du festival considéré comme un ordre» (Les Cahiers du cinéma, june 1955), pp. 54-56.

BLÁHOVÁ, Jindřiška (2014) (ed.) Iluminace. Journal of Film Theory, History, and Aesthetics (special issue on film festivals), Vol. 26, nº1.

DAYAN, Daniel. 2000. “Looking for Sundance: The Social Construction of a Film Festival,” in Ib BONDEBJERG (ed.). Moving Images, Culture and the Mind. Luton: University of Luton Press, pp. 43-52.

DE VALCK, Marijke. 2007. Film Festivals. From European Geopolitics to Global Cinephilia. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

DE VALCK, Marijke, and FALICOV, Tamara. 2015- (general editors). Framing Film Festivals series. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

DE VALCK, Marijke, KREDELL, Brendan, and LOIST, Skadi (2016). Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method, Practice. London, New York: Routledge.

ETHIS, Emmanuel (dir.). (2001). Aux marches du palais, le festival de Cannes sous le regard des sciences sociales. Paris: La Documentation française.

IORDANOVA, Dina (general editor). 2009-2014. Film Festival Yearbook series. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.

LEÃO, Tânia (2007). “O(s) Público(s) do Fantasporto: Perfis-tipo de Modalidades de Apropriação Ritualista do Festival Internacional de Cinema do Porto”. Trajectos, 11, pp. 31-44.

LEÃO, Tânia (2007/2008). “O Fantástico em Análise. Algumas Notas Sobre o estudo Compreensivo da 23.ª Edição do Fantasporto”. Sociologia - Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, Vol. 17/18, pp. 81-109.

LOIST, Skadi. 2011. “Precarious Cultural Work: About the organization of (Queer) Film Festivals”. Screen, 52:2, pp. 268-273.

TAILLIBERT, Christel (2009). Tribulations Festivalières. Les Festivals de Cinéma et Audiovisuel en France. Paris: L’Harmattan.

TASCÓN, Sonia. 2015. Human Rights Film Festivals: Activism in Context. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

VALLEJO, Aida (ed.) 2014. Secuencias. Revista de Historia del cine , 39, first semester. Special issue on film festivals (in Spanish). “Presentación”, pp.7-9.

WONG, Cindy Hing-Yuk. 2011. Film Festivals. Culture, People, and Power on the Global Screen. London: Rutgers University Press.

 

This Thematic Dossier is coordinated by Aida Vallejo (University of the Basque Country) and Tânia Leão (University of Porto - Institute of Sociology).

Aida Vallejo is a film historian and social anthropologist who works as an Associate Professor at the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, where she teaches documentary film theory and practice. She holds a PhD in History of Cinema by Autonomous University of Madrid with a study of documentary film festivals in Europe, and a MA on theory and practice of documentary film by Autonomous University of Barcelona. Aida is the founder and coordinator of the Documentary Work-group of the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS). She has published extensively on film festivals and ethnography of the media, documentary and narratology. She is co-editor of Film Festivals and Anthropology (with María Paz Peirano) and the two volumes of the Framing Film Festival Series of Palgrave MacMillan: Documentary Film Festivals Vol. 1: Methods, History, Politics; and Documentary Film Festivals Vol. 2: Changes, Challenges, Professional Perspectives. In Spanish, she edited a special issue on film festivals in Secuencias. Revista de Historia del Cine. She was the principal investigator of the research project IkerFESTS, which maps film festivals in the Basque region. She has carried out fieldwork at several international festivals, mainly across Europe.

Tânia Leão is a sociologist, with a master in Communication, Culture and Information Technologies from ISCTE-IUL (Instituto Universitário de Lisboa) and a PhD in Sociology from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra. She has had a long time interest in Portuguese film festivals as an object of study. At first, she focused on audiences and cinematographic reception. Later on, she became interested in the multiplicity of dimensions that shape festivals and the experience of being a participant in those contexts. She is the author of a PhD thesis entitled Portuguese Film Festivals’ Audiences: A Comparative Study (2019). She was a member of the Portuguese Observatory of Cultural Activities (OAC) and is currently an integrated researcher of the research subgroup on Artistic Creation, Cultural Practices and Policies in the Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto (IS-UP). Member of the Portuguese Association of Sociology (APS), where she dynamizes the thematic section of 'Art, Culture and Communication', she has published work in the areas of sociology of culture, cultural and leisure practices, education and qualitative methodologies. She also collaborates with some of the main Portuguese film festivals (where she has a particular interest in programming and in educational services).

The deadline for submitting articles is July 15, 2020.

All articles received will be subject to a blind peer selection and review process.

Before submitting your full article, see here the Section Policies, Instructions for Authors and the Peer Review Policy here.

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