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Abstract
This dissertation proposes an art world approach to the phenomenon of international film festivals. Drawing upon current approaches in historical reception studies, it argues that the film festival today constitutes one of the key institutions through which contemporary world cinema is circulated and understood. The project seeks to expose some of the organizational logics of such events by considering the film festival as a particular kind of external agency that creates meaning around film texts. By summarizing the results of primary research on a variety of film festivals, in particular those held annually in London and Nottingham, the dissertation analyzes the rhetoric of such events, or the language through which they speak to the outside world. More specifically, the project presents discussion of five key areas: the institutional nature of film festivals; the circulation of ideas concerning national cinemas on the festival circuit; the establishment of city identities through globalized festivals; the “festival film” as a genre; and the constitution of festival communities in whose names such events are ostensibly held. The conclusion reached is that film festivals today are multi-dimensional phenomena which enable and encourage the international traffic in cinema on diverse yet complexly inter-related levels.
