Talk:Film festival

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[edit] List of film festivals

Fantasporto Film Festival, Oporto, Portugal http://www.caleida.pt/fantasporto/

I'm moving the list of film festivals to List of film festivals, since it's more appropriate there. This page would rather need a general introduction on (the history of) film festivals in general, IMHO, but I'm not specialized enough to write that... Spinster 21:26, 28 Jan 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Moscow Film Fest

Im not sure - if the MIFF is one of the oldest. According official site there was some fest in 1935, but than 24 YEARS NOTHING. It shouldn´t be considered as the continuation of that festival. It looks more like some kind of marketing - the organizers (during the Soviet rule in the eastern block) found there was SOME festival in the city of Moscow in 1935 and so they said - the one in 1959 is a continuation (but what continuation after 24 years and after just one event?). I think it´s just classical Soviet propaganda of that times - used in today´s marketing.

Following your logic, the Venice Film Festival, which also was suspended in the 1940s, is a "classical Mussolini propaganda of that times - used in today's marketing". What a trash. --Ghirlandajo 09:58, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
you don´t undestand the text I wrote??? The comparison with the Venice Festival is absolute STUPID.
No need to shout there. --Ghirlandajo 12:32, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Removal of Sacramento from "A List" fests

I agree. It shouldn't be there. Vivaverdi 15:57, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What to include in the general description of festivals

I've put in a sub-heading to suggest that the festivals referred to are notable in some way. for that reason, I have removed Chicago, a worthy but "general" Festival which is no more distinguished than most others in many cities of the world where major new international films are presented.

There is no point in everyone adding an account of their favourite city's festival to an ever-lengthening list.....

SO- I'd propose that: details of specific fests be limited only to those which are unique or distinctive in some defined manner e.g. Women of Color; Student fest, etc.

Vivaverdi 23:20, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Added St. Sebastian to "A list"

According to their site [1]:

In 1957 the festival was granted "A" status and the Shell awarded in the main categories turned to gold.

It's an A veteran. --Sugaar 12:27, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Added Mar Del Plata to "A list"

According to film's description page [2]:

...the festival is granted a 'Category A', the highest class assigned by FIAPF..

DiegoGLagash 16:02, 13 January 2007 (GMT-3)

[edit] "A" Festivals

I think this section is inaccurate as it conflates two separate definitions of what an "A" festival is.

Firstly (and, I believe, the original definition), an A festival is the informal name of the formal designation by FIAPF for a festival of a "Competitive Feature Film Festival" (other FIAPF categories are Competitive Specialised Feature Film Festival, Non-competitive Feature Film Festival, and Documentary and Short Feature Film Festival). Currently, festivals in this category are Berlin, Mar del Plata, Cannes, Shanghai, Moscow, Karlovy Vary, Locarno, Montreal, Venice, San Sebastian, Tokyo and Cairo. Whilst this list includes some of the world's most prestigious festivals, it should be noted that not all large festivals are accredited with FIAPF (including Sundance, Toronto and Rotterdam). FIAPF accredition places strict conditions on what films a festival can, or more to the point can't, show (so a film doesn't play in competition in two A festivals), how long a festival runs, when a festival is held (so no two A festivals overlap) and various other stringent conditions about how the festival is run (I think, for example, there are rules about what kind of insurance a festival has). As a result, many festivals, even large and prestigious ones, prefer the flexibility of being outside the FIAPF system. Just to confuse matters, FIAPF itself doesn't use the term "A Festival" in any context and I don't think ever has.

The second definition is just loosely any big, well-regarded festival.

Note that the two definitions partially contradict each other in that not all FIAPF "A" festivals are particularly well-regarded globally and even regionally may not be the most important festival (for example, Cairo).

--AndrewJamesHorton 16:03, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ivy Film Festival

Can we check the claim that it's the largest student film fest in North America? Campus Movie Fest [3] is based in the US and claims to be the world's largest. Additionally, it also said "only student-run film festival in the world", which is false - Student Films Across America is student-run. I removed that part. 24.59.112.218 21:59, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Application dates and festival dates

Can we add the application deadline dates and the festival dates for all the festivals? Most people interested in info on festivals are filmmakers, not tourists, so the critical dates of the festivals are important. Robert Elliott 15:58, 26 May 2007 (UTC)


[edit] NOTABLE Festival?? "The Digital Video Festival?" NO!

They are placed in a category that does not exist with any sort of notoriety whatsoever. And then they are placed again under the "Independent films in Hollywood..."

I wonder who posted these edits? The actions of this festival online (and offline) seem more and more shady as time passes. Anyone agree, at least, that this is not a NOTABLE festival? If so, please make the correction (I'm anonymous, no username, so I'm hoping someone with accountability will step up to the plate for this one).

Thanks! I don't want people thinking this festival is notable and important (and further waste $40-50 submission fees). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.6.239.17 (talk) 03:46, 9 September 2007 (UTC)


Similarly: NC Film Festival may or may not be notable, but "Now Casting, the premiere casting resource for actors and actresses" sounds like obvious self promotion? 62.244.190.66 10:56, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A -list festivals

I provided a reference for this and corrected the list. The reference I used is a 2001 Variety article, which is good because it provides some good context and shows what acceptance the categorization has in the industry, but it's 6 years old so something more up-to-date would be good for the actual list itself. I couldn't find anything on FIAPF's website. -- SiobhanHansa 11:27, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Cool. I always wondered how the film festivals are classed. Recently I came across this article in which the Film Development Council of the Philippines assigns classifications to film festivals and uses the rankings as a basis for how much money it gives films that appear in the various festivals. I'm not sure about some of their choices (there's at least one confusing contradiction with a "New York" festival listed in both the first and second tiers), or whether they are even relevant, but at least it is a reference. — WiseKwai 15:44, 14 September 2007 (UTC)
I guess the question we need to consider here is how well regarded is the Film Development Council of the Philippines (or any other body that puts out a list) and does their classification system have any significant weight? I think the FIAPF one is a little over stated since (as someone further up this page points out) many prestigious festivals aren't even classified under their system (and the whole A-list terminology is kind of iffy). But it does have some impact on major filmmakers and industry experts. Getting several different well respected lists together might be a good idea, but mainly I think the "notable festivals" section is a bit of an original research mess and spam magnet! -- SiobhanHansa 16:09, 14 September 2007 (UTC)
I agree with the OR/spam comment - it would be best to make the article structured to talk as generally as possible about festivals with as little reference to specific ones, aside from incontrovertably major ones like Cannes and Sundance. We can always link to a list page for festivals that have article pages here. Girolamo Savonarola 17:17, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

To expand on SiobhanHansa's point above, the "A-list" terminology appears to come solely from Variety, a film industry trade journal that is notorious for creating its own arcane vocabulary for describing things. Try reading some of Variety's articles sometime, and see if you don't come away a little perplexed as to what they are writing about. "A-list" is not a term used by the FIAPF at all. According to the FIAPF's annual listing of accredited festivals, there are "Competitive Feature Film Festivals" (the so-called "A-list"), "Competitive Specialised Feature Film Festivals" (the second tier, if you will), "Non-Competitive Feature Film Festivals" and "Non-Competitive Documentary and Short Film Festivals". From what I can gather, none of these classifications actually denote any sort of prestige - the only prestige within the FIAPF system is accreditation itself. And, as is noted above, there are some festivals that are unquestionably prestigious yet haven't ever opted for FIAPF accreditation. The flipside of that is: Is FIAPF accreditation necessarily prestigious? — WiseKwai 12:02, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

It may still be possible to pull a useful and less subjective list through some selected criteria, though. For instance, there are only a handful that large Hollywood films tend to prefer to premiere at. I don't really have any concrete recommendations, and I agree that the term is too POV at the moment to stand as is, but I also believe that most people would agree that a small number of festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, Venice, etc (I could go on, but that's kinda the point, innit?) clearly are considered more prestigous. Girolamo Savonarola 12:54, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
I think that's true - but hard (which isn't to say we shouldn't do it). I think one of the biggest difficulties we will have is in seeing this from a truely international perspective. Looking at more than the Hollywood perspective will be important to providing a balanced article, but at the same time we need to guard against the sort of I like it behavior that has got the list into the place it is now, and against pressure to provide minority points of view with equal footing. Not sure how to do that well. Perhaps we could start by trying to agree on deleting half of the current list. A conversation like that might help us develop a framework without risking much in terms of hurting the list as it stands. -- SiobhanHansa 15:07, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
I used the Variety article as a source for the FIAPF "A-list" instead of something straight from FIAPF because it both provided a link for the A-list terminology and also a third party (Variety's) opinion on the importance of the list. I don't think it's entirely fair to dismiss the listing as unprestigious - Most of the festivals aren't as well covered in the mainstream press as Sundance and Cannes, but my understanding is that they have significant economic impact (and maybe I've misunderstood this) - leading to distribution in regions that Sundance etc. don't. But it does seem overblown as it's listed. It's at the top and the terminology is far too similar to the whole star "A-list" thing (which it isn't at-all equivalent to). Also the number of clearly minor festivals in the list below masquerading as prestigious make the A-list terminology even more unreasonably prominent. But if these were the only festivals named as prestigious - I think that would be entirely inappropriate too. -- SiobhanHansa 15:07, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
Prestigious was my term in the context of this discussion; I have no intention of it being included in the article, as it would be POV. While I agree with you that different festivals serve similar functions in more obscure markets, I don't think it's unfair to make distinction of some of these "A" festivals - their very prestige makes them a target for most international filmmakers, period. A look at their programming (collectively) should display a decent amount of diversity. But the Hollywood factor is a feedback mechanism of a sort - Hollywood filmmakers (usually more of an indie or auteur bent) want to send their films bc some of these festivals are prestigious (and to state it cynically, have prestigious awards that they want). This then makes these festivals more prestigious by the participation of Hollywood, which makes them want to send their films...and so on. It's not unrealistic to take that into account. Girolamo Savonarola 15:37, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
I agree for the most part - I don't mean to suggest that the Hollywood angle isn't incredibly important and wouldn't be one of if not the primary angle. I just think we sometimes forget in the West that there are still huge markets for film that do not look to the same circuit - they are also important in their spheres, and those spheres are not small. My understanding is that film-making for non-western mass distribution is poorly served by the Cannes/Sundance et al. bracket. I don't know how to evaluate this fairly, or even where to look for sources outside the western perspective, I'm just throwing up a caution. -- SiobhanHansa 16:08, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
Local festivals will serve local markets, that's for certain. But for large-scale distribution of both American and non-American films, those films need to travel outside their home regions. I'm not denying that there has been and probably still is some underlying systemic bias, but that has been greatly reduced in recent years, and one can easily find cinema from any continent amongst the films being shown at these bigger fests. They may not be as well publicized as the latest Hollywood films, for example, but that doesn't negate the fact that they are part of the programs for these festivals. In fact, many of the filmmakers considered the "greatest" of their country, such as Kurosawa and Satyajit Ray, had far more favorable reception abroad than at home. Girolamo Savonarola 19:58, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Film festival task force

A task force has been created for film festivals. If you're interested, you can sign up at the task force page, Wikipedia:WikiProject Films/Film festivals task force. Please feel free to contribute. — WiseKwai 02:39, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

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