Universal Film Magazine - Issue 8 - www.ufmag.biz

Universal FilmIssue 8 - 2013FILM FESTIVALS A BIT OF HISTORY!A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movietheaters or screening venues - From Wikipedia.Probablythe best-known and most noteworthyfilm festival in the world is the Cannes Film Festival.Other important and prestigious film festivalsinclude that held in Berlin and Venice (oldest filmfestival).The first major film festival was held in Venice in 1932;the other major and oldest film festivals of the worldare: Cannes Film Festival (1946), Festival del film Locarno(1946), Karlovy Vary International Film Festival(1946), Edinburgh International Film Festival (1947),Melbourne International Film Festival (1951), BerlinInternational Film Festival (1951) and Toronto InternationalFilm Festival (1976).The Edinburgh International Film Festival in the UK was establishedin 1947 and is the longest continually running filmfestival in the world. The first North American high film festivalwas the Columbus International Film & Video Festival, alsoknown as The Chris Awards, held in 1953. According to theFilm Arts Foundation in San Francisco, “The Chris Awards (is)one of the most prestigious documentary, educational, businessand informational competitions in the U.S; (it is) the oldestof its kind in North America and celebrating its 54th year.”It was followed four years later by the San Francisco InternationalFilm Festival held in March 1957 whose emphasis wason feature-length dramatic films. The festival played a majorrole in introducing foreign films to American audiences.Among the films shown in its founding year were Akira Kurosawa’sThrone of Blood and Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali.Today there are thousands of film festivals around the world,ranging from high profile festivals such as Sundance Film Festivaland Slamdance Film Festival (Park City, UT) to horror festivalssuch as Terror Film Festival, Philadelphia, PADigital feature film distribution began in 2005, along with theThe first majorfilm festivalwas held inVenice in1932arrival of the world’s first online film festival, the GreenCineOnline Film Festival, sponsored by DivX.Most film festivals require filmmakers to pay an entry feeto have their works considered for screening. This is especiallycommonplace among larger film festivals, such as theCannes Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival,Sundance Film Festival, South by Southwest and evensmaller “boutique” festivals such as the Miami InternationalFilm Festival and the British Urban Film Festivalin London.However, not all film festivals require an entry fee. RotterdamFilm Festival and Mumbai Film Festival (www.mumbaifilmfest.com) in India, for example, does not chargean entry fee to submit work. There are also many smaller filmfestivals in the United States, such as the Stony Brook FilmFestival in Long Island, New York, the Northwest Filmmakers’Festival, or the Sicilian Film Festival in Miami, Florida, whichdo not charge entry fees; however, acceptance of films is usuallymore limited, and such film festivals do not necessarilyattract big names in their audiences like Sundance and Telluridedo.In some cases, such as the Portland International Film Festival,there is an entry fee, but it is waived for filmmakers withina certain region, such as the Northwestern United States.The three most prestigious film festivals are commonly regardedto be that of Cannes, Berlin and Venice; these festivalsare sometimes called the “Big Three.” Polish director KrzysztofKieślowski’s The Three Colors Trilogy were each made forthese festivals, with Blue for Venice, White for Berlin, and Redfor Cannes.The Toronto International Film Festival is North America’smost popular festival. Time wrote it had “grown from its placeas the most influential fall film festival to the most influen-43www.ufmag.org