The conference Reframing European Film Festivals: Transnational Histories, Cultures and Identities is devoted to examining the role of European film festivals as complex cultural dispositifs: spaces of encounter and mediation among films, audiences, and industry professionals; pivotal nodes within national and transnational networks of film circulation; contexts in which critical orientations are shaped and categories of taste are formed; arenas where crucial relationships for the film industry take root and evolve.
The conference aims to analyse these phenomena from historical and cultural perspectives, drawing on interdisciplinary approaches, innovative methodologies, and research based on archival sources that are often still under-explored. Discussions will address the diverse histories of European festivals, their relationships with political and social contexts, curatorial policies, mechanisms of canon formation, institutional dynamics, and the identities that emerge through programming practices and audience participation. Bringing together scholars from different countries, the initiative fosters an international dialogue on the contribution of festival systems to the definition of European film culture, as well as on the transformations that have reshaped their functions, configurations, and forms of mediation over time.
Hosted within the 37th edition of the Trieste Film Festival, the conference is organised by the University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, in collaboration with the Consulta Universitaria Cinema (CUC) and the Associazione Festival Italiani di Cinema (AFIC).
The event also marks the conclusion of the PRIN 2022 project RIFF – Reframing Italian Film Festivals, funded by the
Italian Ministry of University and Research and dedicated to the study of Italian film festivals and to the collection and valorisation of the sources and memories that document their history.
Organising Committee: Federico Zecca, Francesco D’Asero, Gabriele Landrini, Angela Bianca Saponari (University of Bari “Aldo Moro”); Roy Menarini, Marco Zilioli (Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna); Marco Dalla Gassa, Giulio Tosi (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice).
