Cult cinema and film festivals

The precise number of active film festivals worldwide is necessarily hard to assess, a task complicated by the lack of an all-encompassing festival association. Writing in 2013 Stephen Follows observed that nearly 10,000 film festivals had run at least once in the preceding fifteen years, with there being approximately 3,000 active. Identifying cult cinema with film festivals is, in one sense, a rather problematic exercise. It should be noted that with regard to the exhibition of cult cinema there is not necessarily a straightforward split between festivals catering for art-house fare on the one hand and genre cinema on the other. In general terms, regardless of their size or audience address, festivals have been viewed as existing in order to ‘nurture independent films, showcase national cinemas, and bring international films to ever-increasing audiences’. Whilst this is generally true, it tends to ignore the role festivals play in both celebrating and canonising older films.