This is the first book to offer an in-depth examination of the history, operation, and growth of film festivals as a cultural phenomenon within Australia. Tracing the birth of film festivals in Australia in the 1950s through to their present abundance, it asks why film festivals have prospered as audience-driven spectacles throughout Australia, while never developing the same industry and market foci of their international fellows. Drawing on over sixty-years of archival records, festival commentary, interviews with festival insiders and ephemera, this book opens up a largely uncharted history of film culture activity in Australia.
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Enthusiastic Amateurs: Origins of Australias film festival movement
2. Growth and Change: Curator-led festivals, fragmenting audiences and shifting film exhibition cultures
3. From Film Weeks to Festivals: The spread of the urban film festival after 1980
4. Between Success and Failure: Crisis and recovery at the Melbourne International Film Festival
5. Programming Perceptions: Film festivals and the construction of taste
6. A Festival for Every Occasion: Niche programming, event culture and vertically integrated film festivals
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Early Melbourne and Sydney Film Festival programs
Appendix 2: Summary of film exhibition and film culture activities, 1949-1990
Appendix 3: Film Festivals in Melbourne, 1949-2000
Appendix 4: Melbourne and Sydney Film Festivals
Archives and Research Collections
Bibliography
Kirsten Stevens is Teaching Associate lS6
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