FILM FESTIVALS INDUSTRY
Film festivals are almost as old as cinema itself. Back in 1932, when Venice Film Festival took place for the first time in Europe, silent cinema was just being undermined by the perfection of the audio amplifier tube and the introduction of the Vitaphone system. As Mark Cousins suggests, the international context of early cinema –previously guaranteed by the absence of language barriers- had to find a new way to ensure that ‘the birth of cinema was truly international and the films of the first decades were going to be shown all over the world’ (2006:18). Back then, no one probably thought that the rapid expansion of film festivals during the XX century would provide such a relevant environment for both the culture and business of cinema. In fact, nowadays film festivals can be found pretty much everywhere in the world. They have become an interactive hub that facilitate the widening of access for audiences and community, and simultaneously, an active platform for film professionals to market their products, ‘allowing the maximum number of people to fulfil their creative potential’ (Garnham, 2005:27)
Addressing the role of film festivals in our contemporary film industry, this essay will argue that such organizations have become an active space for the business of cinema in three interrelated ways: It stands as an alternative distribution channel for the non-mainstream sector and the local film industry; it is a place for film professionals to network and increase their social and cultural capital on the field; and it is also a site widening the access for audiences and communities to watch films that otherwise would be more difficult to see. Focusing on Santiago International Film Festival (SANFIC) and its relevance for the Chilean film Industry, this article will further suggest that far from being a mere exhibitor medium, Film Festivals have become an active player for the film community as a whole.
festivals as a key partner to strengthen a more cultural cinema – world cinema, art house, independent and experimental cinema- that relies heavily on alternative distribution channels to promote, finance, traffic and sale its releases (Biskind, 2004). As stated by Macdonald: ‘the main thing that attracts filmmakers and film suppliers to a festival is the promise of increasing their chances for success in the theatrical marketplace’ (In Gaydos, 1998: 35). The intense market activity held by many international film festivals is indicative of this phenomenon. SANFIC in Chile for example, offers various prospects for new talents to niche their endeavours. As read from its mission statement, SANFIC aims ‘to promote and support crafts of new generations of Latin American filmmakers (...) and to develop in the long term, the industry of Latin American cinema’ (SANFIC). This festival features relevant activities to promote the local sector. One of SANFIC Industry main platforms is Sanfic Net, the Audiovisual Industry Market funded by the Fondo de Fomento Audiovisual Support Programme, hosting every year a wide variety of international film professionals whose presence have contributed to expand the market possibilities of new talents in the wider international circuit. From business matchmaking, training activities and audiovisual laboratories to workshops, meetings and alliances with international film institutes, Sanfic Industry has offered valuable tools for many Latin American film professionals to expand their capabilities and to strengthen their projects.
‘film homogenisation’s thread’. According to Robertson, new modes of distribution and global technologies have lead to an increase of more local cultural products than ever before. So, if film is being caught up in the global culture, then film is simultaneously grounded in its local and specific reality. Therefore, we believe that rather than a clash between singularity and transnationality, Film Festivals offer valuable opportunities to develop a more authentic or –paraphrasing Robertson- a more ‘glocal’ cinema than ever before, especially today when there are film festivals highlighting every kind of films and for every kind of taste.
Such events have also become an interesting site to look at while thinking about audiences and communities. Film festivals not only provide a chance to see something first or something that cinema goers might not find along the commercial cinema sector; they also offer an environment for film community to gather with like-minded viewers and members of a particular identity group. These could arguably be one of the reasons why film festivals have been so successful in the last decades. As suggested by de Valk and Skadi: ‘While cinema attendance has declined over the years, film festival attendance is reported as going up’ (2009:13). Through its different sections, SANFIC programme has supplied Santiago with a wide variety of films. These include, among others, international and national premieres, new talents section, world visions, documentaries and short film screenings. Simultaneously, SANFIC public programme has also involved special activities that are beneficial for the general attendee. By conducting public talks, workshops and special projections for popular neighbourhoods, such cultural event has stepped forward to become a more interactive platform for the local audience.
cinema. And it is such unity melting audiences and film professionals, the local and the transnational, the aesthetics and the market for film that has always made of cinema a phenomenon that is both, a cultural expression as well as an industrial endeavour.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bachmann, Gideon (2000). Insight into the Growing Festival Influence: Fest Vet Discusses Wholesale and Retail Events. Variety: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117785609.html
Biskind, Peter (2004). Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of the Independent Film. Simon & Schuster. New York.
Connolly, Neil. & Dillon, Maretta. (2001). Developing Cultural Cinema in Ireland. Arts Council of Ireland. Dublin: 1-80.
Cousins, Mark (2006). The Story of Film. Pavilion Books. London: 512.
Creed, Barbara (2003) The global self and the new reality. In, Media and Matrix: sexing the new reality. ISBN: 1-865089265
De Valck, Marijke. & Skadi Loist (2009). Film Festival Studies: An Overview of a Burgeoning Field. Film Festival Yearbook 1: The Festival Circuit.
Feddersen, Andres (2012) Nuevo Cine Chileno: Y ahora, quien podrá difundirlo. La Panera, No. 26. Santiago: 20-2.
Garnham, Nicholas (2005). From Cultural to Creative Industries: An analysis of the implications of the ‘creative industries’ approach to arts and media policy making in the United Kingdom. International Journal of Cultural Policy: 15-29.
Gaydos, Steven (1998) The Variety guide to film festivals: the ultimate insider's guide to film festivals around the world. Berkley Publication. New York.
Kong, Lily. (2005) The Sociability of Cultural Industries: Hong Kong’s Cultural Policy and Film Industry. International Journal of Culture: 537-554.
O’Regan, Tom. (1996). A National Cinema: Australian National Cinema. Routledge. London: 45-76.
Rograd, Pascal. (2008). Cultural Policies in France. French coalition for cultural diversity. Paris: 1-64.
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