In 2020, a lot of film festivals were cancelled or postponed to 2021. Others were organised in person (following the security measures imposed in each country regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, reducing the number of people in a closed space). Most festivals opted for online or hybrid options. Some festivals chose to use online platforms, turning […]
The One World Human Rights Documentary Film Festival (One World), which takes place in March, opens the Czech festival season. Since its inception in 1999, initiated by a human rights campaigner Igor Blaževič, this has become a reputable event and one of the major European human rights film festivals. In terms of the total number […]
The year 2020 was marked by Covid-19 health emergencies disrupting lives and societies on a global scale. No country or sector of our everyday life has been left unscathed by these unprecedented levels of sudden change and urgent adaptation that we all have experienced in different ways. Creative sectors also needed to quickly adapt and […]
It has been a decade since the streets of Saint-Louis have been hosting the only international documentary film festival in Senegal. Travelling speakers and local griots[1] enthusiastically announce the arrival of the Festival International du Film Documentaire de Saint-Louis, also known as Stlouis’DOCS, gathering around 10,000 people for the past few years. The 11th edition […]
Amidst violent police killings of people of colour, a global health pandemic, and a grassroots surge in activism calling for social justice in the US and abroad, the Boston Latino International Film Festival (BLIFF) was more crucial than ever in 2020. Launching virtually from 23-27 September 2020, the community festival continued with its nearly twenty-year […]
Le Festival international de cinéma Vues d’Afrique is North America’s largest and longest-running African film festival. Established in Montreal in 1984, it has been held annually ever since. Its 36th edition was set to open on 17 April and run until 26 April, when, just a few weeks before the opening, festival organisers had to […]
Since March 2020 Covid-19 has led to a wave of cancellations in the event industry.[1] The Mobile World Congress of Barcelona, the world tourism exhibitions in Berlin and Shanghai, and the International Trade Fair for Wire and Cable in Dusseldorf, for example, were cancelled. The impact on tourism worldwide is far-reaching and has been a […]
In Turkey Covid-19 poses a particularly significant threat to the fragile existence of alternative exhibition networks, such as arthouse cinemas, film collectives, and small-size film festivals. The future of film exhibition and production has been among the hot topics in the wake of the lockdown.[1] The role of film festivals in the public sphere, as […]
In the wake of Covid-19, watch parties and watch-alongs have become increasingly popular forms of audience engagement, providing communal viewing experiences. As singular events or film series they have made use of streaming platforms such as Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Twitter, or Instagram. For film festivals, which are currently facing the challenge to go hybrid […]
When a major festival such as South by Southwest (SXSW) is postponed, cancelled, or otherwise altered, the effects are widespread and impact upon those connected with the event in various ways. Given the speed at which the COVID-19 pandemic spread in early March 2020, and how close that was to the planned dates for SXSW, […]
I grew up in San Luis Obispo, a small town on the Central Coast of California, nestled equidistant between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Now a seasoned traveler and Brooklyn-based filmmaker, I look at San Luis Obispo as the small town that could not contain my curiosity and was not prepared to show me the […]
Film festivals cannot always claim to practice what they preach. Even some of the best-intentioned festivals often hit a wall: while attempting to exhibit politically subversive films, organisers also have to respond to diverse – and even conflicting – voices. Responding to the demands of local communities, audiences, filmmakers, and sponsors leads to compromises and […]
In this review I discuss the recent embracement of VR by film festivals. In less than a half a decade VR emerged as a central phenomenon in the global film festival circuit, turning from a technological gadget in its initial development stages to a prominent visual exhibition form. In 2014, only few film festivals were […]
Regina is a relatively small Canadian city with around 215,000 inhabitants in the province of Saskatchewan. It is also home to one of the most experimental LGBTQ+ film festivals in Canada. Queer City Cinema was founded in 1996 by multimedia artist and executive artistic director Gary Varro. In 2001, the festival started going on tour […]
In ELEKTRA’s own words, the digital art festival has been ‘helping audiences explore the diversity of performance practices, particularly audiovisual and robotics, since 1999’ and takes place over six days and nights in selected venues across Montreal. While the festival has become an important place to experience digital art in Montreal, it also functions as […]
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Martine Beugnet
University of Paris 7 Diderot
Greg de Cuir Jr
University of Arts Belgrade
Malte Hagener
Philipps-University Marburg
Skadi Loist
Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf
Toni Pape
University of Amsterdam
Francesco Pitassio
University of Udine
Belén Vidal
King’s College London