An Overview of the History of Film Festivals

In the film industry, festivals at which films are screened, judged, and evaluated and their producers, directors, and casts acknowledged with prestigious awards, have become increasingly commonplace in recent decades. There are few countries with a thriving film industry that do not sponsor one or more such festivals and many major cities or other locales have come to the realization that festivals of this type attract tourists, journalists, and filmgoers willing to spend at times substantial sums of money in pursuit of their interests (Cowie S13). This brief essay will examine the at times turbulent history of film festivals, demonstrating that as such festivals have proliferated, their have also begun to differentiate and to address either niche markets, genres, or constituencies.

The best-known film festival in the world is the Cannes Film Festival, first held in 1936. The oldest festival, according to Todd McCarthy (S3), was held in Venice in 1932; as Mussolini and the Nazis came to dominate the event, the Venice Festival jury exhibited its rejection of war and awarded top prize to Jean Renoir's pacifist-minded La Grande Illusion in 1938. The French, partly from aesthetic and partly from political motives, decided to counter Venice with their own event celebrating international cinema. Debate as to its location û both Cannes and Biarritz were proposed û was resolved when the Cannes city fathers agreed to construct a P

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biggest competitive event in Europe, also experienced some bumpy times, leaving Cannes indisputably alone at the top of the heap" (McCarthy S5). Pratley (S14) maintains that the 1970s also saw renewed political tensions that disrupted the Cannes festival and led some cities, including New York, to create their own competitive film festivals. Florence also holds a film festival as does Tel Aviv, which annually produces the Annual Festival of Student Cinema (Dayan 41). Toronto, as well as Montreal, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and a number of European and Asian cities also hold annual film festivals (Roman 9). Among the festivals that are still most important are the Berlinae, a film festival held in Berlin that had a cache as a buffer between East and West during the Cold War (Cowie 2 43). A recent and extremely popular and influential film festival is held under the auspices of Robert Redford in Sundance, Utah. According to Dayan (47), the Sundance is a festival that was designed to highlight the works of independent filmmakers and younger directors and producers who do not work within the mainstream studio tradition. Sundance is seen as a quintessentially American film festival at which so-called "outlaw" f
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1632
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)