A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors.[1]
Films may be of recent date and depending upon the festival's focus, can include international and domestic releases. Some film festivals focus on a specific filmmaker, genre of film, such as horror films, or subject matter. Several film festivals focus solely on presenting short films of a defined maximum length. Film festivals are typically annual events. Some film historians, including Jerry Beck,[2] do not consider film festivals as official releases of the film.
The oldest film festival in the world is the Venice Film Festival.[3] The most prestigious film festivals in the world, known as the "Big Five", are (listed chronologically according to the date of foundation): Venice, Cannes, Berlin (the original Big Three), Toronto, and Sundance.[4][5]
History
The Venice Film Festival, the oldest film festival in the world and one of the most prestigious and publicized
North America's first and longest-running short film festival is the Yorkton Film Festival, established in 1947.[7][8] The first film festival in the United States was the Columbus International Film & Video Festival, also known as The Chris Awards, held in 1953. According to the Film Arts Foundation in San Francisco, "The Chris Awards (is) one of the most prestigious documentaries, educational, business and informational competitions in the U.S.; (it is) the oldest of its kind in North America and celebrating its 54th year". It was followed four years later by the San Francisco International Film Festival, held in March 1957, which emphasized feature-length dramatic films. The festival played a major role in introducing foreign films to American audiences. Films in the first year included Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali.
Film Funding competitions such as Writers and Filmmakers were introduced when the cost of production could be lowered significantly, and internet technology allowed for the collaboration of film production.
Film festivals have evolved significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic. Many festivals opted for virtual or hybrid festivals. The film industry, which was already in upheaval due to streaming options, has faced another major shift, and movies showcased at festivals have an even shorter runway to online launches.
The Toronto International Film Festival is the most popular festival in North America.[9]Time wrote it had "grown from its place as the most influential fall film festival to the most influential film festival, period".[9]
The Seattle International Film Festival is credited as being the largest film festival in the United States, regularly showing over 400 films in a month across the city.[10][11]
Ann Arbor Film Festival started in 1963. It is the oldest continually operated experimental film festival in North America and has become one of the premier film festivals for independent and, primarily, experimental filmmakers to showcase work.[13]
Tribeca Festival, one of the most prestigious in North America, ranks first worldwide in terms of audience attendance and 11th in terms of media attendance.[21]
The San Francisco International Film Festival, founded by Irving "Bud" Levin in 1957, is the oldest continuous annual film festival in the United States. It highlights current trends in international filmmaking and video production with an emphasis on work that has not yet secured U.S. distribution.[22]
The Newport Beach Film Festival, founded by Gregg Schwenk in 1999, has emerged as the largest international cinema event in coastal Southern California, attracting over 56,000 attendees to Orange County, CA. The Festival partners with over 40 non-profit organizations and pairs each with a film that aligns with their mission. The films featured include World, North America, U.S. and West Coast premieres as well as the International Spotlight Series which celebrates foreign language films.
The Vancouver International Film Festival, founded in 1958, is one of the largest film festivals in North America. It focuses on East Asian films, Canadian films, and nonfiction films. In 2016, there was an audience of 133,000 and 324 films.
The Toronto International Film Festival, founded by Bill Marshall, Henk Van der Kolk, and Dusty Cohl,[23] is one of North America's most important film festivals, and is the most widely attended.[24]
The Chicago International Film Festival, founded in 1964, is North America’s longest-running competitive film festival. The 60th Chicago International Film Festival, scheduled during the month of October, will host over 40,000 attendees from around the world. The Festival's program, screening 175+ films from more than 50 countries, is presented in sections including the International Competition, New Directors Competition, Documentary, Black Perspectives, City & State, and Special Presentations.
The Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF), founded in 1977, is largest film festival in Ohio and among the longest-running in the United States.[25] The film festival is held at the Playhouse Square, which are a series of elegant theaters built in the early 1920s, and the largest performing arts center in the United States outside of New York City (only Lincoln Center is larger).[26]
The Ottawa Canadian Film Festival, abbreviated OCanFilmFest, was co-founded by Ottawa-based filmmakers Jith Paul, Ed Kucerak, and Blair Campbell in 2015. It features films of various durations and genres from filmmakers across Canada.
The Sundance Film Festival founded by Sterling Van Wagenen (then head of Wildwood, Robert Redford's company), John Earle, and Cirina Hampton Catania (both serving on the Utah Film Commission at the time) is a significant festival for independent film.
The Woodstock Film Festival was launched in 2000 by filmmakers Meira Blaustein and Laurent Rejto to bring high-quality, independent films to the Hudson Valley region of New York. In 2010, Indiewire named the Woodstock Film Festival among the top 50 independent film festivals worldwide.[27][28]
Toronto's Hot Docs, founded by filmmaker Paul Jay, is a North American documentary film festival. Toronto has the largest number of film festivals in the world,[33] ranging from cultural, independent, and historic films.
The Seattle International Film Festival, which screens 270 features and approximately 150 short films, is the largest American film festival in terms of the number of feature productions.[11]
For Spanish-speaking countries, the Dominican International Film Festival occurs annually in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. As well as the Havana Film Festival was founded in 1979 and is the oldest continuous annual film festival in the Caribbean. Its focus is on Latin American cinema.[39]
The Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, founded in 2006, is dedicated to screening the newest films from the English-, Spanish, French- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean and the region's diaspora. It also seeks to facilitate the growth of Caribbean cinema by offering a wide-ranging industry programme and networking opportunities.[40]
Various regional festivals occur in various countries. The Austin Film Festival is accredited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which makes all its jury-award-winning narrative short and animated short films eligible for an Academy Award.
There are several significant film festivals held regularly in Africa. The Cairo International Film Festival in Cairo was established in 1976, the biannual Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) in Burkina Faso was established in 1969 and accepts competition-only films by African filmmakers and chiefly produced in Africa. The annual Durban International Film Festival in South Africa and Zanzibar International Film Festival in Tanzania have grown in importance for the film and entertainment industry, as they often screen the African premieres of many international films. The Nairobi Film Festival (NBO), which was established in 2016 with a special focus on screening exceptional films from around the world that are rarely presented in Nairobi's mainstream cinema and spotlighting the best Kenyan films, has also been growing in popularity over the years and has improved the cinema-going culture in Kenya.[42]
The Sahara International Film Festival, held annually in the Sahrawi refugee camps in western Algeria near the border of Western Sahara, is notable as the only film festival in the world to take place in a refugee camp. The festival aims to provide cultural entertainment and educational opportunities to refugees and raise awareness of the plight of the Sahrawi people, who have been exiled from their native Western Sahara for more than three decades.
YathaKatha International Film & Literature Festival (YKIFLF) is an annual film & literature festival in Mumbai showcasing literature collaboration in cinema via various constructive discussions and forums. 3rd edition of the festival was held from 28 November-1 December, 2024 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.[48][49][50][51]
Although there are notable for-profit festivals such as SXSW, most festivals operate on a nonprofit membership-based model, with a combination of ticket sales, membership fees, and corporate sponsorship constituting the majority of revenue. Unlike other arts nonprofits (performing arts, museums, etc.), film festivals typically receive few donations from the general public and are occasionally organized as nonprofit business associations instead of public charities. Film industry members often have significant curatorial input, and corporate sponsors are given opportunities to promote their brand to festival audiences in exchange for cash contributions. Private parties, usually to raise investments for film projects, constitute significant "fringe" events. More prominent festivals maintain year-round staff frequently engaging in community and charitable projects outside the festival season.
On the other hand, some festivals—usually those accepting fewer films and perhaps not attracting as many big names in their audiences as do Sundance and Telluride, require no entry fee. Many smaller film festivals in the United States, such as the Stony Brook Film Festival on Long Island, the Northwest Filmmakers' Festival, and the Sicilian Film Festival in Miami), are examples.
Several film festival submission portal websites exist to streamline filmmakers' entries into multiple festivals. They provide databases of festival calls for entry and offer filmmakers a convenient "describe once, submit many" service.
Screening out of competition
The core tradition of film festivals is competition, or judging which films most deserve various forms of recognition. Some festivals, such as the famous Cannes Film Festival, may screen films that are considered close to competition-quality without being included in the competition; the films are said to be screened "out of competition".
The Cannes Film Festival, until 2003 called the International Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around the world. Founded in 1946, the invitation-only festival is held annually at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès. The festival was formally accredited by the FIAPF in 1951.
The Telluride Film Festival (TFF) is a film festival held annually in Telluride, Colorado, during Labor Day weekend. The 51st edition took place on August 30–September 4, 2024.
Eric Khoo Kim Hai is a Singaporean film director and producer who is often credited for the revival of the Singapore modern film industry.
Christian Frei is a Swiss filmmaker and film producer. He is mostly known for his films War Photographer (2001), The Giant Buddhas (2005) and Space Tourists (2009).
Andrea Patricia Arnold OBE is an English filmmaker and former actress. She won an Academy Award for her short film Wasp in 2005. Her feature films include Red Road (2006), Fish Tank (2009), and American Honey (2016), all of which have won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Arnold has also directed four episodes of the Amazon Prime Video series Transparent, as well as all seven episodes of the second season of the HBO series Big Little Lies. Her documentary Cow premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and played at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival.
Sara Miller Driver is an American independent filmmaker and actress from Westfield, New Jersey. A participant in the independent film scene that flourished in lower Manhattan from the late 1970s through the 1990s, she gained initial recognition as producer of two early films by Jim Jarmusch, Permanent Vacation (1980) and Stranger Than Paradise (1984). Driver has directed two feature films, Sleepwalk (1986) and When Pigs Fly (1993), as well as a notable short film, You Are Not I (1981), and a documentary, Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat (2017), on the young artist's pre-fame life in the burgeoning downtown New York arts scene before the city's massive changes through the 1980s. She served on the juries of various film festivals throughout the 2000s.
Lucy Walker is an English film director. She has directed the feature documentaries Devil's Playground (2002), Blindsight (2006), Waste Land (2010), Countdown to Zero (2010), The Crash Reel (2013), Buena Vista Social Club: Adios (2017), Bring Your Own Brigade (2021), and Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa (2023). She has also directed the short films The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (2011) and The Lion's Mouth Opens (2014). Waste Land was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Annemarie Jacir is a Palestinian filmmaker, writer, and producer.
Dusty Mancinelli is a Canadian independent filmmaker from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Several of his films have been shown at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and other notable film festivals worldwide, winning numerous awards. Since 2017, he has collaborated with Madeleine Sims-Fewer. Their debut feature film Violation was shown at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival and 2021 Sundance Film Festival.
Withoutabox was a website founded in January 2000 by David Straus, Joe Neulight and Charles Neulight which allowed independent filmmakers to self-distribute their films. The first product launched was the International Film Festival Submission system. Withoutabox worked with film festivals and filmmakers all over the world. In January 2008, Withoutabox was acquired by IMDb, a subsidiary of Amazon.
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival takes place every January in Park City, Utah; Salt Lake City, Utah; and at Sundance Resort, and acts as a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films, both feature films and short films, and a group of out-of-competition sections, including NEXT, New Frontier, Spotlight, Midnight, Sundance Kids, From the Collection, Premieres, and Documentary Premieres. Many films premiering at Sundance have gone on to be nominated and win Oscars such as Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Joana Vicente is a Portuguese independent movie producer and executive. A prominent figure in the New York film industry, Vicente has produced over forty films with her producing partner and husband Jason Kliot. In 1999 Vicente and Kliot produced Tony Bui's feature debut, Three Seasons, which took the three top awards at the Sundance Film Festival, including the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize. Vicente and Kliot have since worked with directors such as Steven Soderbergh, Brian De Palma, Hal Hartley, Nicole Holofcener, Jim Jarmusch, and Alex Gibney.
Ritesh Batra is an Indian film director and screenwriter. Batra's Hindi-language debut feature film The Lunchbox premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and won the Rail d’Or. Batra also won the Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best First Feature Film in 2014. The Lunchbox was the highest-grossing foreign film in North America, Europe and Australia for 2014 grossing over US$25 Million. The film was also nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language in 2015.
Radu Jude is a Romanian film director and screenwriter.
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi is an American documentary filmmaker. She was the director, along with her husband, Jimmy Chin, for the film Free Solo, which won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film profiled Alex Honnold and his free solo climb of El Capitan in June 2017. Their first scripted film venture was Nyad, a biopic chronicling Diana Nyad's quest to be the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida.
The Cinema of Manipur is the film industry based in Manipur, India. It includes not only Meitei language movies but all the films made in different languages of the different communities in Manipur. The Manipuri film industry was born when Matamgi Manipur by Debkumar Bose was released on 9 April 1972. From Aribam Syam Sharma's Paokhum Ama and M.A. Singh's Langlen Thadoi to Oken Amakcham's Lammei and Haobam Paban Kumar's Loktak Lairembee and many others, Manipuri cinema, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022, has grown in both its form and culture.
Alireza Ghasemi is an Iranian screenwriter, film director and producer. notably directing In the Land of Brothers, for which he won the Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
The Truffle Hunters is a 2020 documentary film directed and produced by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw. It follows a group of aging men hunting in the woods, for a prized quarry, the Alba truffle. Luca Guadagnino serves as an executive producer under his Frenesy Film Company banner.
Scythia Films Inc. is a leading Canadian independent entertainment company founded by Daniel Bekerman in 2008, and based in Toronto.
Logan George is an American film director, writer, and editor. George works exclusively with his partner, Celine Held, as a co-writer and co-director. His debut feature film Topside premiered at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. His short film work has been nominated for the Short Film Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, and has premiered at Sundance Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival.
↑ "Playhouse Square". Cleveland Historical. Cleveland State University. Retrieved July 1, 2023. By the turn of the twenty-first century, all of the original theaters were again hosting performances, constituting the nation's second largest performing arts complex after New York's Lincoln Center.
Kenneth, Turan (2002). Sundance to Sarajevo: Film Festivals and the World They Made. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN0-520-21867-1. OCLC47667292.
Watson, Nigel (2003). "The Sense and Sensationalism of Film Festivals". talkingpix.co.uk. Talking Pictures, Nigel Watson. Retrieved 22 November 2023. I was surprised to learn that there are 3,500 film festivals a year, so it will not be long before you can choose between ten festivals a day.
"Top 3 Film festivals". festival-history.com. My Festival-history. 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2023. American top 3 film festivals: Sundance, Tribeca and Telluride festivals.
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