Diversifying International Film Festival

Every year festivals such as the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Sundance, Toronto, and so on must curate a program to entertain people of both the industry and the public.  This becomes more challenging as more and more niche film festivals are created that each focus on a particular portion of life or culture.  In doing so, curators must look beyond their own feelings and responses, and critically think what the varied audience would enjoy.  In 2016, the Edinburgh International Film Festival program featured films from every major genre and some that broke the genre barriers.  However, there appeared to be a lower number of films from countries in Africa and South America.  The artistic director of the EIFF, Mark Adams, stated that he recognized this lack, but that the absence of such films was not for a lack of trying and that previous years have been different, citing the “Focus on Mexico” strand during the EIFF.  The recognition in itself hints at good curatorial senses, however to call a festival international it must have films from not only every genre, but films from many locations.  As Mark Adams said during an informal meeting, programmers and curators must place aside their cultural experiences and develop a program that does not reflect the culture of the programmer, but the culture of the many locations where films are made so the audience can learn and become a more varied crowd.

Amassing films for a film festival remains to be a mysterious process which does not allow for a wide variety of films between festivals.  Mark Adams of the EIFF estimates that only twenty percent of items shown during the festival came through the three thousand item long submission pile, and those selections were primarily in the shorts and animation categories — categories of smaller teams and budgets.  Film submissions are further sorted to fit into programs.  He said that each film is graded by two different judges to balance perspectives. The other films have either been tracked from production or are similar to one of the deals made at Sundance, which has become known for their late night movie deals made at bars.  In “Film Festivals: a view from the inside,” Hannah Mcgill argues that since film festivals share works, there are only “a certain number of truly impactful works in a given year.”[1]  Therefore it would seem that a film once making the circuit could be screened at many places throughout the world.  On the other hand the diversity of the films could decrease as newer films could come out, but the programmers could ignore the film because it was not included at a previous festival.

Regardless, for a program to call itself truly international, the “diversity requires an active approach” as Mark Haslam noted in his 2004 article on the “Cornerstones of Curation and Programming.”[2]  The methods of talking to international agents, attending festivals, chatting with old connections in itself is active, but not enough as it can lead to regions of the world being absent, such as in the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival the comparative lack of films from Africa or South America was noticeable when searching by region.   By selecting films using these methods, if a region’s films are missed by sales agents and critics at the beginning of the festival season the absence could occur throughout the rest of the festivals if the programmers are not active enough.

Singling films out to create a particular strand of either foreign or national cinema genre creates an “othering” effect on the films in the program.  Almost every international film festival has a national cinema strand for either other countries or their own.  In “Film Festivals, Programming, and the Building of a National Cinema” Liz Czach discusses the creation of the national cinema and pros and cons with that format.  The national cinema allows for films shot in the home country to get first dibs and attend the film festival.  However, when the focus is on another country Czach states that the film could be “seen as conforming to a political or national agenda and thus as being judged not solely on the merits of quality.”[3]  As such the films may not receive as much attention, so while focusing on other countries and national cinema it can also lead to the misunderstandment of the culture.  Contrarily the EIFF’s focus on Scottish films allows for large viewings of Scotland-made films which could potentially go on to other festivals and provides a platform for films that would not naturally be placed in cinemas.  Czach uses the example of TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) to discuss the successfulness of such a tactic with Canadian films, which helped grow the Canadian film industry.  However this would be a learning experience, but not nearly as regimented and forced.

Film festival programs can be made for commercial success to the public or to display artistic and culturally varied films, but festivals rarely do both.  Mcgill, who was the artistic director for the 2007 to 2010 EIFF festival, said as the director for EIFF she rated success on the “happy filmmakers we had encouraged and the audiences who had responded with glee.”  McGill did not worry about commercial success like other industry people who attended the EIFF.  Apparently, curators must strive for either public or industry appeal.  The Sundance director also argued that he curated for public enjoyment, and contrarily the closed setup of Cannes is purely for the industry.

These international and culturally varied festivals allow for their programs to be diverse by focusing on the art and entertainment rather than the profitability.  While there might be some years where the diversity is not there, it is not due to restrictions placed by the festivals.  Reasons for less varied films could be the lack of funds for the festivals to obtain movies, maybe a cultural disconnect during the searching process, or a country’s lack of a national film body.  Because no matter how aware the selectors are of the cultural differences organizing an international program with clashing ideas can be difficult to look past.  For a festival to call itself truly international it must faces these challenges and work harder to represent the world in more than just the name, but also the films the festivals show.

[1] McGill, Hannah. “Film Festivals: A View from the Inside.” Screen, vol. 52, no. 2, 2011., pp. 280-285. Page 281.

[2] HASLAM, MARK. “VISION, AUTHORITY, CONTEXT: Cornerstones of Curation and Programming.” The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists, vol. 4, no. 1, 2004., pp. 48-59.doi:10.1353/mov.2004.0010.  Page52 .

[3] CZACH, LIZ. “FILM FESTIVALS, PROGRAMMING, AND THE BUILDING OF A NATIONAL CINEMA.” The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists, vol. 4, no. 1, 2004., pp. 76-88.doi:10.1353/mov.2004.0004.  Page 84.

[4] Mcgill, 284.

[5] Ibid, 283-284.