
But that’s about all the exchange there is between the two. The two worlds only come closer together again at festivals. It’s not just a perceived reality that there are more and more festivals, but it’s unknown how many film festivals take place around the world every year. In 2013, one journalist counted 2,954. Three-quarters of the festivals he counted at that time were launched between 2003 and 2013. Why is it that today every arty hipster seems to be curating their own film festival in their free time? And why is it that the number of festivals is increasing simultaneously with the great migratory wave of films from the cinema to small screens and smartphones – from the first to the second world?
I reach out to Lars Henrik Gass on Skype. He must know the answers to these questions: he just wrote the book on the subject. Continue reading "The Peculiar Boom in Film Festivals" »