The brightest showcase

What are film festivals for? A question that at first sight seems boring in its banality, but which in hindsight does not bring such an obvious answer.

Festivals have had to adapt over time to the many changes within the film industry, above all driven by the growing importance that new technologies have brought not only on "making cinema" but also on "where and how see the cinema".

Born during the immediate post-war period and in the 1950s and 1960s, festivals initially set themselves up as a showcase that anticipated the viewing of films before their release in cinemas and that showcased products that in theaters they would have reached it with difficulty due to the difficulty of fruition that, except in rare cases, films from the Soviet bloc, African or Eastern ones had. Going to a festival was therefore a pleasant way of discovering talents and perspectives on different worlds and, in parallel, a showcase where the stars showed themselves to the public which – unlike today – had no way of following them constantly as happens on the various social channels (another innovation induced by technology).
The situation substantially did not change over the course of the century, indeed festivals proliferated, distinguishing themselves by theme (environment, geographical areas) and genres (from horror to science fiction) and continuing to fulfill the function of discovering new talent.

As already mentioned, in the last decade new technologies have shifted the focus of these events a lot: globalization has knocked down borders and customs and the cinephile is driven to act individually by discovering new directors on the spot (if not sitting at home in front of a PC screen). Therefore, festivals are reprogramming themselves as bodies that help and support production, financing films by young people or depressed areas to then show them to their own audiences and hosting producers and buyers for a mutual exchange of offers and requests.

And the films? To (r)exist they must rely on the physical presence of actors who still attract the general public, but not all festivals have the promotional and economic strength of Cannes capable of hosting the Martin Scorsese's latest films (with Leonardo DiCaprio and Bob De Niro), the Indiana Jones saga (naturally with Harrison Ford as well as Antonio Banderas), Johnny Depp (returning after a turbulent period)…


Davide Bracco
NP May 2023