[Commlist] CFP Reframing Film Festivals: Histories, Economies, Cultures International Film Studies Conference

*Call for Papers*

*/Reframing Film Festivals: Histories, Economies, Cultures/*

*International Film Studies Conference*


Venice, 11-12 February, 2020

Bari, 25-26 March, 2020

*Abstract Proposal Deadline:* 15 October 2019

*Confirmed Keynote Speakers:*

Gian Piero Brunetta, Università degli Studi di Padova

Gianni Canova, IULM Libera Università di Lingue e Comunicazione

Marijke de Valck, Utrecht University

Jean-Michel Frodon, Sciences-Po Paris

Dina Iordanova, University of St Andrews

Roy Menarini, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna

Dorota Ostrowska, Birkbeck, University of London


Throughout the 2000s the number of film festivals has increased all over 
the world at a tremendous pace. In 2019 FilmFreeway lists about eight 
thousand festivals as currently active, about twice the amount of less 
than a decade ago. Various factors prompted such a terrific growth, such 
as: festivals orchestrating the (trans)national production and 
distribution of cinema (Acciari and Menarini 2014; Iordanova 2015; Loist 
2014; Wong 2011); festivals pivotally stimulating the touristic and 
economic development of their hosting community (Ercolano, Gaeta and 
Parenti 2017; Fischer 2013; Moretti and Zirpoli 2016); festivals acting 
as cultural arbiters of taste and quality (Bills 1994; Di Chiara and Re 
2011; Sassatelli 2011); etc. The scale of festivals today has not passed 
unnoticed, contributing to the emergence of a specific area of scholarly 
interest. In the last decade, the field of film festival studies has 
gained strength and status, focusing entirely on understanding the 
functions, the history and the role of film festivals (de Valck 2007; 
Elsaesser 2005; Iordanova 2013).

/Reframing Film Festivals: Histories, Economies and Cultures /– the 
conference organised by the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the 
Aldo Moro University of Bari, in collaboration with the the Apulia Film 
Commission, the Consulta Universitaria Cinema, and the Associazione 
Italiana per le Ricerche di Storia del Cinema – seeks to contribute to 
this field of research through a series of roundtables and debates 
involving film critics, practitioners and scholars. In particular, the 
conference is aimed at (re)framing the understanding of these 
institutions and their nature by proposing three approaches, different 
but interweaved:

-A historiographical approach, one set to explore the ways film 
festivals contribute to shape the writing of film (and media)//history, 
moulding the canon formation and informing aesthetic hierarchies.

-A culturalist approach, one set to investigate how film festivals, by 
championing certain discourses /of/ and /on/ cinema and media, 
contribute to articulate and re-position specific national, cultural, 
gender identities.

-An economic approach, one set to analyse the process by which film 
festivals add value within the film industry as much as to local 
touristic economies.

In this vein, /Reframing Film Festivals: Histories, Economies, Cultures 
/seeks to foster an interdisciplinary and intersectional reading of film 
festivals, here conceived as a historiographic “dispositive”, as 
cultural formations and as financial institutions. Within a single and 
cohesive research framework, the Ca’ Foscari strand will be devoted to 
the critical-historic and historiographic dimension of film festivals, 
while at the University of Bari the focus will be placed on their 
cultural and economic dimension.

             Therefore submissions, with both an empirical and/or a 
theoretical approach, are welcomed across a range of topics including, 
but not limited to:

-The festival-form: histories and theories

-Film festivals and historiographic paradigms

-Film festivals, aesthetic regimes and taste cultures

-Micro-histories of film festivals

-Politics of selection and programming in film festivals

-Festival films/films for festivals

-Artistic directors, jury members, selection boards

-Editorial outputs of film festivals

-The audiences of film festivals

-Film festivals, cinephilia and criticism

-Film festivals and national identities

-Film festivals and geopolitics

-Film festivals, ethnocentrism, exoticism

-Film festivals and cultural consumption

-Film festivals and gender

-Film festivals and race

-Thematic and retrospective film festivals

-Archival film festival and contemporary historiography

-TV and web festivals

-Virtual reality festivals

-“Small” film festivals: roles and functions

-Film festivals and LGBTQI+ cultures

-Erotic and pornographic film festivals

-The films festivals’ circuit and the global film market

-Film festivals: transnational distribution and production

-Film festivals and film funds

-Film festivals and digital platforms

-Business models of film festivals

-Film festivals and economic satellite activities

-Film festivals and (cine)tourism

-Film festivals and the fashion industry

-Film festivals and celebrity culture

-Fundraising for film festivals

-Film festivals and sponsorship

We welcome proposals from scholars, film critics and film festival 
practitioners for traditional 20-minute individual presentations and 
panel proposals. The deadline for the submissions is* 15 October 2019 
*and interested contributors should send a 300-500 word abstract and a 
short biographical note at the following email address: 
(reframingfilmfestival /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(reframingfilmfestival /at/ gmail.com)>. The accepted proposals will be 
notified by *31 October 2019. The languages of the conference are 
Italian and English.*

**

*Organized by:* Marco Dalla Gassa (University Ca’ Foscari, Venezia), 
Federico Zecca, Angela Bianca Saponari (University of Bari “Aldo Moro”), 
Andrea Gelardi (University of St Andrews).

**

*References*

Abis, Mario, and Canova, Gianni (2014) /I festival del cinema: Quando la 
cultura rende/, Monza: Johan & Levi.

Acciari, Monica, and Menarini, Roy (eds.) (2014) “Geopolitical 
Strategies in Film Festivals between Activism and Cinephilia”, 
/Cinergie: Il cinema e le altre arti/, 6, 
https://cinergie.unibo.it/article/view/6991/6725.

de Valck, Marijke (2007) /Film Festivals: From European Geopolitics to 
Global Cinephilia/,//Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Di Chiara, Francesco and Re, Valentina (2011) “Film Festival/Film 
History: The Impact of Film Festivals on Cinema Historiography. Il 
Cinema Ritrovato and Beyond”, /Cinémas: Revue d’Études 
Cinématographiques/, Vol. 21 (2–3), pp. 131-151.

Elsaesser, Thomas (2005) “Film Festival Networks the New Topographies of 
Cinema in Europe”, /European Cinema: Face to Face with Hollywood/, 
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 82–107.

Ercolano, Salvatore, Gaeta, Giuseppe Lucio and Parenti, Benedetta (2017) 
“Individual Motivations and Thematically-Oriented Film Festival 
Attendance: An Empirical Study Based on Spectators of the Artecinema 
International Documentary Festival in Naples (Italy)”, /Quality and 
Quantity/, Vol. 51 (2), pp. 709–727.

Fischer, Alex (2013) /Sustainable Projections. Concepts in Film Festival 
Management/. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.

Iordanova, Dina (ed.) (2013) /The Film Festival Reader/, St Andrews: St 
Andrews Film Studies.

Iordanova, Dina (2015) “The Film Festival as an Industry Node”, /Media 
Industries Journal/, Vol. 1 (3), pp. 7–11.

Loist, Skadi (2014) “The Film Festival Circuit. Networks, Hierarchies, 
and Circulation”, in: de Valck, Marijke, Kredell, Brendan, and Loist, 
Skadi (eds.) /Film Festivals. History, Theory, Method, Practice/, London 
and New York: Routledge, pp. 49–43.

Moretti, Anna and Zirpoli, Francesco (2016) “A Dynamic Theory of Network 
Failure: The Case of the Venice Film Festival and the Local Hospitality 
System”, /Organization Studies/, Vol. 37 (5), pp. 607–633.

Nichols, Bill (1994) “Discovering Form, Inferring Meaning: New Cinemas 
and the Film Festival Circuit”, /Film Quarterly/, Vol. 47 (3), pp. 16–30.

Ongaro, Daniele (2005) /Lo Schermo Diffuso: Cento Anni di Festival 
Cinematografici in Italia/, Bologna: Libreria Universitaria Tinnarelli.

Sassatelli, Monica (2011) “Urban Festivals and the Cultural Public 
Sphere”, in: Delanty, Gerard, Giorgi, Liana, and Sassatelli, Monica 
(eds.) /Festivals and the Cultural Public Sphere/, London: Routledge, 
pp. 108–123.

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


















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