A fistful of festivals

It sometimes appears that not only every major capital city, but every café at the end of every street of every godforsaken one-horse town has a film festival -- or soon will have. According to trade publication Variety there are 5000 of them around the world, though it\u27s not clear how they define \u27film festival\u27 (does a three-day event screening material off DVD count? If so, there may be many times that number). Whatever the exact number, it\u27s \u27too many\u27, according to Rotterdam Film Festival’s former head, Sandra den Hamer. Yet existing festivals keep expanding and new ones keep making their debuts. As Fred Kramer, who runs a film festival database called Withoutabox, observes, ‘the proliferation of film festivals is not sustainable. There will be some kind of attrition very soon.’ However this article argues that for all the pressures on them -- financial, technological, increased rivalry -- festivals that respond strategically and adapt to changing circumstances are likely to thrive. Festivals will remain a bulwark against Hollywood-led blockbuster aesthetics and homogenisation, an important avenue of discovery where viewers will continue to give themselves permission to take risks, to broaden and deepen their experience and appreciation of cinema