Assignment 1- Reflections of Film Festival Culture

Student Name: Yating Shi

Student Number: s3614117

Reflection 1

From the guest lecture by Richard Sowada, I have a preliminary idea of a film festival. Richard put forward many planning and opinions about how to organize a film festival. What impressed me most was that Richard showed us a machine of roll film that given me enough curiosity about the history and evolution of movies. And up to now, roll film is still used on a small scale in movies, even though it may not become the mainstream film format because of its tedious operation process and high technical threshold shooting, but high-quality images captured by film cameras also become its advantage. Richard also discussed the important influence of future trends and technological advances on the cultural prosperity and development of film festivals. He also mentioned that what we think is important today may become irrelevant in the future, which means the rapid development of an era. Although holding a film festival sounds like a long way off to me, his valuable tips still have a great impact on me.

According to Marijke (2016), when people talk about “film festival”, red carpets, paparazzi, open-air screenings, a bustling crowd that fills the theaters first be reflected in people’s mind. These are the most iconic things at the festival. For lots of foreign film festival, size may be one of the signs of maturity. Thus, government and private sponsors have invested heavily in many activities, and have set up new film funds and markets to compete for global rights, such as in the international film festival in Busan (1996) and Beijing (2011) in Asia and Dubai (2004) and so on. At the same time, these major festivals advertise themselves as ‘international’ activities, which means that they cater not only to domestic or local audiences but to attract international tourists, so subtitling films in international spoken languages such as English and French; operating industry and press offices; networking opportunities and social events and so on become an extra service for holding international film festivals. As a result, these film festivals are more dependent on financial support from various stakeholders.

On the contrary, Kirsten (2016) pointed out that at the end of the 1950s, Australia had established two locally important film festivals which are Melbourne(MFF) and Sydney(SFF) film festival. Firstly, these activities organized by film society members and non-professional film workers. Secondly, MMF and SFF have developed its own character in the first decade, and their development is obviously different from that of European festival traditions. European events are known for their participation in national politics, celebrities, and international relations, but Australia’s festivals are far away from the European politics and the need for glamour and international appeal and lack the support of local industries and any size. More importantly, Australian festivals have developed their own ideologies and structures which based on the wishes of those who organized activities, the needs of participants. Finally, the more generally film festivals in Australia will develop their own film festival templates in a hands-on way and on behalf of grass-roots communities, rather the international situation.

Reflection 2

Last week I went to the Chinese Koala Film Festival with my friend. I think film festivals are very meaningful for movies. We can see that there are many people from different countries who love movies and have their own opinion about movies. When you watch a movie at a film festival, you have a different feeling than when you watch it at home or in the cinema, it is amazing. Because of the reason I chose this studio, when I attended this festival, I am not just going to watch movies, I would think about who the target audience of this festival is and what its overall layout and size are. It’s also one of the reasons why I’m willing to attend the film festival.

The film spa shows us the history and development of The Karlovy Vary Film Festival (KVIFF). Let us know KVIFF is one of the oldest film festivals in the world. After the end of World War 2 in 1946, a group of people who were enthusiastic about the film industry founded the KVIFF in Mariánské Lázně and Karlovy Vary. However, in February 1948, the Czechoslovak Communist Party took power in Czechoslovakia, and the film festival was started by the Czechoslovak National Film Ministry which means after the Czech Republic took office, the film festival largely needed to serve communist propaganda. Under the strict control of the Soviet Union, the International Film Festival became a celebration (Howard 2015). Until after the velvet revolution of 1989, this situation had completely changed. And in the following years, the quality of the participating films has been increasing and the style has become more diversified. These have enhanced the image of the KVIFF and established its status as an excellent film festival in the world. Film Spa uses a lot of black and white archive videos and records a lot of interviews with directors which attracts us very much. The documentary offered even more insights into the talent and culture that it generates. KVIFF attracts talented people from all over the world who contribute to the festival and even make many advertisements to promote it. It’s amazing and incredible to see The Karlovy Vary Film Festival go from humble to prosperous.

From the guest lecture by Richard and Film Spa, I had quickly learned a lot about the history and development of the festival. This two-week experience has provided me with a wealth of information and ideas about film festivals. From seeing the history of a KVIFF and Richard’s attitude towards the festival enlarged my understanding of the film festival.

REFERENCES:

“Enthusiastic Amateurs: Origins of Australia’s Film Festival Movement” in Kirsten Stevens, Australian Film Festivals: Audience, Place and Exhibition Culture., Palgrave Macmillan US, New York, 2016, pp. 17-46.

Film Spa 2015, DVD, Evolution Films, Czechia, directed by Miroslav Janek.

Howard C. 2015. ‘Local and/or General… Of Time and Place at the 50th Karlovy Vary and 6th Odessa International Film Festival’, Senses Of Cinema, no. 76.

Marijke de Valck, “Introduction: What is a film festival? How to study festivals and why you should.” in Marijke de Valck, Brendan Kredell and Skadi Loist (eds), Film Festivals: History, Theory, Method, Practice, Routledge, New York, 2016, pp. 1-11.