Film festival
[1] Films may be of recent date and depending upon the festival's focus, can include international and domestic releases.
According to the Film Arts Foundation in San Francisco, "The Chris Awards (is) one of the most prestigious documentaries, educational, business and informational competitions in the U.S.; (it is) the oldest of its kind in North America and celebrating its 54th year".
Films in the first year included Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali.
The film industry, which was already in upheaval due to streaming options, has faced another major shift, and movies showcased at festivals have an even shorter runway to online launches.
[10][11] The festivals in Berlin, Cairo, Cannes, Goa, Karlovy Vary, Locarno, Mar del Plata, Moscow, San Sebastián, Shanghai, Tallinn, Tokyo, Venice, and Warsaw are accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) in the category of competitive feature films.
[20] The British Urban Film Festival (which specifically caters to Black and minority interests) was officially recognized in the 2020 New Year Honours list.
There are festivals, especially in the US, that highlight and promote films made by or about various ethnic groups and nationalities or feature the cinema from a specific foreign country.
These include African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Arabs, Jews, Italian, German, French, Palestinian, and Native American.
It highlights current trends in international filmmaking and video production with an emphasis on work that has not yet secured U.S.
[22] The Newport Beach Film Festival, founded by Gregg Schwenk in 1999, has emerged as the largest international cinema event in coastal Southern California, attracting over 56,000 attendees to Orange County, CA.
The 60th Chicago International Film Festival, scheduled during the month of October, will host over 40,000 attendees from around the world.
[26] The Ottawa Canadian Film Festival, abbreviated OCanFilmFest, was co-founded by Ottawa-based filmmakers Jith Paul, Ed Kucerak, and Blair Campbell in 2015.
RIFFA annual Award show and red carpet arrival event are getting noticed in the contemporary film and fashion industries in Western Canada.
Toronto's Hot Docs, founded by filmmaker Paul Jay, is a North American documentary film festival.
It specializes in emerging talent and is held in the last week of each July in the two colonial cities of San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato.
In 2015, Variety called the Los Cabos International Film Festival the "Cannes of Latin America".
[37] There is also Filmambiente, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, an international festival on environmental films and videos.
It also seeks to facilitate the growth of Caribbean cinema by offering a wide-ranging industry programme and networking opportunities.
The festival aims to provide cultural entertainment and educational opportunities to refugees and raise awareness of the plight of the Sahrawi people, who have been exiled from their native Western Sahara for more than three decades.
Film industry members often have significant curatorial input, and corporate sponsors are given opportunities to promote their brand to festival audiences in exchange for cash contributions.
Private parties, usually to raise investments for film projects, constitute significant "fringe" events.
On the other hand, some festivals—usually those accepting fewer films and perhaps not attracting as many big names in their audiences as do Sundance and Telluride, require no entry fee.
The Portland International Film Festival charges an entry fee but waives it for filmmakers from the Northwestern United States, and some others with regional focuses have similar approaches.
They provide databases of festival calls for entry and offer filmmakers a convenient "describe once, submit many" service.
