When I first covered the festival numerous years ago at the downtown Anthology Film Archives, I was struck by several features not encountered in any of the other established festivals. The organizers of the festival performed antics on the stage before the films and threw presents like videos and books into the audience. They were greeted by an adoring and enthusiastic crowd who seemed to be familiar with directors and principal characters of the films screened. In short an audience addicted to...

As a response to the several inquiries that I have received, this article provides additional information following my December 15 background essay on the emerging field of film festival tourism. As noted before, film festival tourism is part of the rapidly expanding cultural tourism industry that serves a fairly affluent and knowledgeable audience. Conversely, local or national departments of tourism have realized that attracting cultural film tourists generates additional income for the local ...

The Tribeca Film Festival has rapidly evolved since its founding in 2002 into the biggest U.S. film festival. In 2006 the Tribeca fest lasted thirteen days and served 465 thousand individuals including 203 thousand who purchased tickets for film screenings and panels. About 4200 productions were submitted coming close to the 4350 entered for the different Berlinale sections (excluding market films). Tribeca has retained its successful eclectic programming approach ranging this year from Holly...

Set up in 1985 as an official Berlinale program the Panorama focuses on difficult issue-oriented features and documentaries by first and second time international film directors and has been programmed since 1997 by Wieland Speck. Compared to other programmers Speck has the rare distinction of being an accomplished film director and writer whose works ranges from educational HIV/AIDS shorts to documentaries like ESCAPE TO LIFE: THE ERIKA AND KLAUS MANN STORY screened at the 2005 Berlinale. Sp...

Established in 1970 as an independent section of the Berlinale the Forumis considered by many observers as the most innovative, experimental and reflexive part of the Berlinale. Focusing on films presenting alternative, politically engaged and independent perspectives, including many from developing countries the Forum is the least commercial of all festival sections. Christoph Terhechte who had worked since 1997 with Ulrich Gregor, one of the co-founders of the Forum, assumed direction of the ...

The Cologne MedienForum, June 20-23, 2004Organized by the Media Authority of the state of North Rhine Westphalia and major German public and private media industries, the 16th annual MedienForum was held again in the fair grounds of Cologne, Germany’s dominant television centrum and home of Europe’s largest public television group WDR and Germany’s largest private television stations. Catering to the second largest television market in the world, the MedienForum is of particular relevance ...