Exploring international film festivals from a co-evolutionary perspective: the cases of Berlin and Busan compared

ABSTRACT

In the past two decades, the number of international film festivals strongly increased. As a research topic, however, these festivals have received little attention within economic geography and regional studies. The aim of this comparative paper is to explore the institutional history and impact on local economic development of two international film festivals, namely Berlin and Busan, from a co-evolutionary perspective. Based on qualitative empirical fieldwork done in Busan and Berlin we draw two conclusions. First, different institutional structures have led to different ways of success. However, Busan’s less stable and tenser institutional configuration may negatively affect the festival in the near future. Secondly, in both cities the festival affects the local economy, albeit in different ways.

KEYWORDS:

• International film festivals
• institutional history
• local economy
• co-evolution
• Berlin
• Busan

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Robert Hassink http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7524-4577

Notes

1. Another contribution of the BIFF is that it successfully led to the global presence of the South Korean cinema. Before the establishment of the BIFF, the South Korean cinema was unknown to the West for a long time, but through the BIFF, the Korean cinemas were screened and gained international recognition. This recent international reception of the South Korean cinema shows how crucial the BIFF’s branding power was. In the national context, the BIFF has also prompted the proliferation of local firm festivals in Buchon, Jeonju and Seoul (Ahn, 2012).

2. After a successful bid in May 1995 to host the 2002 Asian Games, the Busan city government wished to generate a new, non-industrial image for the city. Originally, the government planned to terminate the BIFF after the Asian Games in 2002, but this initial plan was dropped soon after the huge success of the first BIFF (Ahn, 2012).

3. The ferry capsized on 16 April 2014 while carrying 476 people, mostly secondary school students. In total, 304 passengers and crew members died in the disaster, while 172 survivors were rescued by fishing boats and other commercial vessels.

4. Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s first female president impeached due to a political scandal involving interventions to the presidency from her aide was removed from office and arrested on 31 March 2017 on charges including bribery, extortion and abuse of power (“Claims Against South Korean President … ,” 2016; “Park Geun-hye … ,” 2017).

5. The film industry has three conventional modes – production, exhibition and distribution.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst; National Research Foundation of Korea [grant number R1416111]; Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Germany.