Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface -- The Film Festival and Film Culture's Transnational Essence / Dina Iordanova -- Introduction: What is a Film Festival? How to Study Festivals and Why You Should / Marijke de Valck -- History. Introduction / Brendan Kredell -- Making Film History at the Cannes Film Festival / Dorota Ostrowska -- Film Festivals in Asia: Notes on History, Geography and Power from a Distance / Julian Stringer -- The Film Festival Circuit: Networks, Hierarchies, and Circulation / Skadi Loist -- Theory. Introduction / Marijke de Valck -- Contingency, Time and Event: An Archaeological Approach to the Film Festival / Janet Harbord -- Publics and Counterpublics: Rethinking Film Festivals as Public Spheres / Cindy Hing-Yuk Wong -- Fostering Art, Adding Value, Cultivating Taste: Film Festivals as Sites of Cultural Legitimization / Marijke de Valck -- Method. Introduction / Skadi Loist -- Being There, Taking Place: Ethnography at the Film Festival / Toby Lee -- On Studying Film Festival Ephemera: The Case of Queer Film Festivals and Archives of Feelings / Ger Zielinski -- Positionality and Film Festival Research: a conversation / Diane Burgess and Brendan Kredell -- Practice. Introduction / Brendan Kredell -- Seeing Differently: The Curatorial Potential of Film Festival Programming / Roya Rastegar -- Affective Labor and the Work of Film Festival Programming / Liz Czach -- "The Festival Film": Film Festival Funds as Cultural Intermediaries / Tamara L. Falicov.