Dynamics of World Cinema

Film Festival Yearbook 3: Film Festivals and East Asia

Edited by Dina Iordanova and Ruby Cheung

The most exciting developments in world cinema over the past two decades have been linked to East Asian countries such as China, Japan and South Korea. Films made in East Asia triumph at festivals around the globe. Booming film markets are attached to the most important film festivals in Hong Kong, Pusan, Tokyo and Shanghai. The West is only just beginning to wake up to the importance of these film festivals to global film distribution.

In their latest volume, Film Festivals and East Asia (2011), scholars from the University of St. Andrews chart cutting-edge developments in global film. Prof. Dina Iordanova has stated: ‘In opening up debates on the worldwide network of film festivals we are laying necessary groundwork for the understanding of global film circulation.'

This third volume in the Film Festival Yearbook series explores a rapidly expanding but little-studied area in film festival - film festivals in East Asia. The book contains a series of contextual essays and case studies, and a resources section comprising four original interviews with insiders from the most important Asian film festivals, a festival location map, festival listings and East Asian film festival studies-related bibliographies. Contributors include James Bell, Birgit Beumers, Felicia Chan, Yun-hua Chen, Ruby Cheung, Dave Chua, Marijke de Valck, Alex Fischer, Chris Fujiwara, Dina Iordanova, Adam Knee, Kong Rithdee, Sangjoon Lee, Seunghee Lee, Skadi Loist, Adrian Martin, Abé Mark Nornes, Ragan Rhyne, Julian Stringer and Tom Vick.

‘This new anthology captures the enthusiasm for East Asian cinema felt by film lovers and film professionals the world over.' (Chris Fujiwara, editor of Undercurrent)

‘A vital contribution to both Asian Film Studies and Film Festival Studies. (Chris Berry, Goldsmiths University of London)

CONTENTS

East Asia and Film Festivals: Transnational Clusters for Creativity and Commerce (Dina Iordanova)

Part I: Contexts

Asian Film Festivals, Translation and the International Film Festival Short Circuit (Abé Mark Nornes)

East Asian Film Festivals: Film Markets (Ruby Cheung)

Japan 1951-1970: National Cinema as Cultural Currency (Julian Stringer)

News for Whom? Critical Coverage of the 10^th Jeonju International Film Festival (Adrian Martin)

Washington, Pusan, Rotterdam, Udine and Back: Programming East Asian Films for American Audiences (Tom Vick)

Part II: Case Studies

Bulldozers, Bibles and Very Sharp Knives: The Chinese Independent Documentary Scene (Abé Mark Nornes)

Comrades and Citizens: Gay and Lesbian Film Festivals in China (Ragan Rhyne)

Programming Southeast Asia at the Singapore International Film Festival (Felicia Chan and Dave Chua)

Taipei Film Festival: Creation of a Global City (Yun-hua Chen)

Tourism and the Landscape of Thai Film Festivals (Adam Knee and Kong Rithdee)

North Korea's Pyongyang International Film Festival (James Bell)

Between Europe and Asia? A Chronicle of the ‘Eurasia' International Film Festival (Kazakhstan) (Birgit Beumers)

Part III: Resources

The Resources: Necessary Groundwork (Dina Iordanova)

Interviews

1. 'We believe in "film as art"' An Interview with Li Cheuk-to, Artistic Director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) (Ruby Cheung)

2. A Platform to the World: An Interview with Kim Ji-seok, Executive Programmer of the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) (Seunghee Lee)

3. ‘It's very simple. We like to give the audience the chance to see good films' An Interview with Hayashi Kanako and Ichiyama Shozo of Tokyo FILMeX (Chris Fujiwara)

4. Do Vodka and Sake Really Mix? An Interview with Natalia Shakhnazarova, Executve Director of Pacific Meridian: Vladivostok International Film Festival of Asian Pacific Countries (Alex Fischer)

Tables

Location Map (Alex Fischer)

Table 1: The Asia-Pacific Film Festival (from 1954) (Sangjoon Lee)

Table 2: East Asian Festivals by Decade (Ruby Cheung and Alex Fischer)

Table 3: Festivals Featuring Significant East Asian Cinema Content (Andrew Dorman and Alex Fischer)

Table 4: Film Festivals in Mainland China (Ma Ran)

Table 5: Film Festivals in Hong Kong (Ma Ran)

Table 6: Film Festivals in Taiwan (Yun-hua Chen)

Table 7: Film Festivals in Japan (Alex Marlow-Mann)

Table 8: Film Festivals in South Korea (Yun Mi Hwang)

Table 9: Film Festivals in Singapore (Dave Chua)

Table 10: Film Festivals in Central Asia and the Asian Part of the former USSR (Birgit Beumers)

Table 11: Documentary Film Festivals in Asia (Abé Mark Nornes)

Table 12: GLBT Festivals in Asia (Ragan Rhyne)

Table 13: Monetary Value of Awards at Top Festivals in East Asia (Alex Fischer)

Bibliography: Film Festivals and East Asia (Alex Fischer)

What is New in Film Festival Studies - Thematic Bibliography on Film Festival Research: Update 2010 (Marijke de Valck and Skadi Loist)

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Film Festival Yearbook 2: Film Festivals and Imagined Communities

Edited by Dina Iordanova with Ruby Cheung 

Film Festivals and Imagined Communities, the second volume in the Film Festival Yearbook series, brings together essays about festivals that use international cinema to mediate the creation of transnational 'imagined communities'. There are texts about the cultural policies and funding models linked to these festivals, as well as analysis of programming practices linked to these often highly politicised events. The case studies discuss diaspora-linked festivals that take place in Vienna, San Francisco, San Sebastian, Havana, Bradford, Sahara, South Korea, and London and that feature cinema from places as diverse as Nepal and Kurdistan, Africa and Latin America. Authors include Lindiwe Dovey, Ruby Cheung, Michael Guillén, Jérôme Segal, Miriam Ross, Roy Stafford, Yun Mi Hwang, Isabel Santaolalla and Stefan Simanowitz, Mustafa Gündoğdu, and Dina Iordanova. The Resources section features an up-to-date bibliography on film festival scholarship (by Skadi Loist and Marijke de Valck) and an extensive thematically-organised listing of a variety of transnational festivals.

CONTENTS

Introduction (Dina Iordanova and Ruby Cheung)

PART I: Contexts

PART II: Case Studies

PART III: Resources

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Film Festival Yearbook 1: The Festival Circuit

Edited by Dina Iordanova with Ragan Rhyne

The first in an annual series, the Film Festival Yearbook features articles related to the global proliferation of film festivals. This issue is focused on the dynamics of the film festival circuit, including the roles of individual festivals as nodes on this complex network and the cultural policies that shape its channels of film exhibition and distribution.  

This inaugural volume includes essays by Dina Iordanova, Ragan Rhyne, Janet Harbord, Charles-Clemens Rüling, Rahul Hamid, Kay Armatage, Ruby Cheung, Ma Ran, J. David Slocum, Mark Cousins, Nick Roddick, Dimitris Kerkinos, Marijke de Valck & Skadi Loist, and William Brown.

CONTENTS

Introduction (Dina Iordanova and Ragan Rhyne) 

PART I: The Festival Circuit

PART II: Festival Case Studies

PART III: Dispatches from the Festival World

Part IV: The Field of Festival Studies

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