What were the key insights about staging film festivals in Australia you took away from Richard Sowada’s guest lecture, and from attending a film festival screening in Melbourne?

There are always some film festivals took place all over the world every year. But I have to admit that I never really understood the film festival and how the film festival works before taking this course. I have never calculated the time, energy and money that needed to hold a film festival. When guest lecturer Richard Sowada described the process he was participate in when getting the Revelation Perth International Film Festival up and running back in 1997, I feel a little surprised and shocked. Spending a lot of money, time and effort on holding
a film festival may not necessarily yield a corresponding return. On the contrary, all the disbursement may be in vain. “Film festival have become an essential part of global film culture. By studying them, we can learn not only about festivals, but about film, film history, industry, and much more” (Valck, 2016, Pg. 9). According to my previous experience in the Shanghai International Film Festival，I can not only see the chinese film but also other countries’ film in it. And I think that this film festival is one of the important and large festival in the world. I am sorry that I did not have the opportunity to attend any Film Festival in melbourne before writing this reflection, but I think the film festivals in different countries always have their similarities. In the film festivals, there will always be some film for audience to watch. In the chinese one, before the movie, there was a grand red carpet ceremony, and the stars that appeared in the red carpet ceremony had a certain popularity. Participating in the red carpet ceremony is a recognition of a star’s achievements and has a certain propaganda effect, this is reason why that so many stars are very willing to take part in the annual red carpet ceremony. In my opinion, one of the most influence of the film festival is that can make audience know more about the film which they do not interested in before. This is where festival culture finds its strength in that “the best thing about film festivals is that they provide the opportunity for audiences to see films that, otherwise, they cannot see” (Peranson, 2008, Pg. 38). Of course, the significance of the festival is not only this, but also the economic effects and cultural communication effects that it brings to the country, the festival of the film itself – it brings together outstanding films and filmmakers, rewarding both excellence and communication. Communicate and promote the development of film ideas and art. Even though staging film festivals something I had never considered, I still imagined that what kind of film festival that I want to make and achieve a plenty of Richards valuable suggestions. Innovation, determination and consistency are key elements in succeeding in any career, holding a film festival must also need these things. In other words, a good film festival must be able to lead the future direction of the film. The film festival is oriented to the past and the present, and it should face the future. The most impressed part for me in the film festival was the part of the historical film review. In this section, there are many movies I have seen since I was a child. If people do not participate in the film festival, they may not watch it again. I believe many people are like me. This not only allows many people to look back on history of some film, but also proves that those movies will not be forgotten. Although holding a film festival is not an easy thing for me, I still want to try my best to do one during the process of this course.

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And what were your key takeaways about international film festival culture, present and past, from viewing Film Spa?

After the second week of study, I have a deeper understanding of how to organize a film festival and the meaning of holding a film festival. After watching the film spa, I knew that almost international film festival was started after the second world war. Film Spa recorded the history, change point and growth of KVIFF. I do not know what is KVIFF film festival until I watched the film spa. Through the documentary, I knew that the first KVIFF film festival was organized by some film lovers, and that was a non-competition festival. What it need to be prepared for a film festival is shown in the Miroslav Janek’s 2015 documentary Film Spa. This documentary told us how the KVIFF film festival developed during these years, the reason why this festival could receive such status all around the world and why they spend a lot on inviting celebrities, funs and budding cinephiles to the festival. I think this kind of festival is not only a festival but also a community. In the community, people gathered and enjoyed the film, food and various activities at the same time. “It is growth that typically marks success and grants access to greater resources and fosters increased organisational sustainability” (Valck, Kredell, Loist; 2016; Pg. 2) and growth is something that works hand in hand with innovation. The political influences on film festivals is also shown in the documentary. It was clearly illustrated in the film that, for a long period of time, KVIFF was under strict control of USSR. “Despite the festival operating perforce under the sway of Soviet propagandists for many long years…” (Howard, 2015). Due to this, every part of the festival is limited. For example, USSR used the festival to promote the spread of communist propaganda and make the festival into a celebration for their political achievement. Furthermore, I found that almost every film festival serves another purpose other than simply showing a movie, such as Melbourne Queer Film Festival promotes support for LGBTQ community. Also, as the birthplace of Chinese film, Shanghai itself has a profound film culture. The shanghai international film festival has an important role in exploring the cultural heritage of the city and improving the city’s cultural level. I think it is a very interesting phenomenon to use the film festival to express some topics and opinions. You won’t think too much about your principles when you attend a film festival. Contrary to this, you may be curious about new things and want to know more about them. Finally, I just think film festival can not only make different countries’ culture combined and communicate with each other, but also it can promote some changes in the area of politics.
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References:
Marijke de Valck, “Introduction: What is a film festival? How to study festivals and why you should (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” in Marijke de Valck, Brendan Kredell and Skadi Loist (eds), Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method, Practice, Routledge, New York, 2016, pp. 1-11.
Mark Peranson, “First You Get the Power, Then You Get the Money: Two Models of Film Festivals (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.“, Cinéaste, 1 July 2008, Vol.33(3), pp. 37-43.