Film Festivals: Culture, People, and Power on the Global Screen, by Cindy Hing-Yuk Wong

Abstract

This book is both an excellent introduction to and in-depth analysis of the world of film festivals. Based on ethnographic research, interviews, archival work and film analysis, Cindy Hing-Yuk Wong’s book offers both a big picture view of the role of festivals within the global film industry and a close-up scrutiny of specific events, films and people to give a sense of the culture-making activity that happens in these spaces. Whereas Marijke de Valck’s Film Festivals: From European Geopolitics to Global Cinephilia (2007) narrates a history of film festivals that is Euro-American centric, Wong’s analysis engages with how films and filmmakers from less wealthy film industries around the world gain wider recognition via major European festivals, as well as examining the development of important festivals in East Asia.

Keywords

• film festivals
• ethnographic significance of film festivals
• political economy of the film festival