[ecrea] CFP: Special Issue Studies in Australasian Cinema

Studies in Australasian Cinema

ISSN: 1750-3175 (Print), 1750-3183 (Online)

http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsau20#.UvBos7SmSx8

Themed Issue 8.3: Distribution & Festivals (Nov-Dec 2014)

Abstracts of 300 words by April 30, 2014
Article submission deadline for 8.3: August 30, 2014

Edited by Greg Dolgopolov (UNSW), Kirsten Stevens (Monash) and Lauren 
Carroll Harris (UNSW).

Email inquiries and submissions for 8.3 to: (gregd /at/ unsw.edu.au)

Cinema distribution in Australasia is in crisis. Too many films are 
produced with substantial government investment in development and 
production but scant attention to distribution. Predictably they bomb at 
the box office and rarely find their audience. Australian cinema in 
particular appears largely bereft of innovative distribution ideas of 
how to meaningfully connect with audiences without a massive advertising 
budget. At the same time, film festivals in Australia are growing 
exponentially and films are frequently sold out amidst positive buzz. 
Hence, there is an audience for Australian/ Australasian screen content 
but it cannot be understood in extant framings of the commercial 
audience-production relationship.

This issue of Studies in Australasian Cinema suggests the need for a 
conceptual focus on the impact of distribution on lived film culture in 
Australasia today, around the three broad areas of screen business and 
policy, festival and exhibition, and audiences and production. Such a 
wide-ranging approach encourages a comprehensive look at the expanded 
role of distribution, not cast simply as a discrete sector or series of 
commercial exchanges, allowing scholars to recast current trajectories 
in film studies through the lens of distribution and film festival 
study. The goal is to show how the exertion of the distribution sector 
in festival and ongoing exhibition venues is critical in maintaining 
film’s presence or exclusion in popular culture. Currently, research 
into film distribution is not fully connected with questions of how 
audiences are constructed and the formative links between exhibition and 
distribution circuits and film production. This is the limited way of 
thinking we want to challenge.

Questions might include but are not limited to: What is the impact of 
Adelaide Film Festival’s production branch? What types of screen 
projects and cultures are new digital models of distribution like 
YouTube and VOD currently advancing and producing? In this digital 
sphere, crowd funding is most commonly thought of as a new financing 
model, but how does it affect distribution and what kinds of projects 
and genres are most clearly benefiting? What is the relationship between 
film festivals, policy and distribution? And what is the future of film 
festivals and distribution in Australia?

Email inquiries and submissions for 8.3 to: (gregd /at/ unsw.edu.au)

All general questions regarding Studies in Australasian Cinema should be 
emailed to: (anthony.lambert /at/ mq.edu.au)


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