Aestheticism in Film Festival Sets

Film festivals, in comparison to other forms of film exhibition, has a unique capability for aesthetic-based curation and selection. A festival's collection of films is often a reflection of the curator's taste, and in turn can follow a style closely. Aestheticism, in its original form, was an art movement based around looking at and creating art based on the aesthetic value, not for any meaning or sociopolitical commentary. Today, it's more of a catch-all term to describe the viewing of visual value and construction as a higher importance than other ideas. While I wouldn't go so far as to state that films should be valued only for their visual quality, to avoid pure style-over-substance type filmmaking, I believe that the idea of aestheticism is crucial to understand and craft successful film festivals.


Each festival has their own distinct audience and ideas for curation, which is important for the rapidly expanding festival environment. The quicker a festival can make a unique identity, the quicker a festival will be embraced by the festival culture and succeed. In his book Film Programming, Peter Bosma states, "Roughly spoken, festival visitors could be in search of aesthetic pleasure, or immersion in an abundance of films, or seeking glamour (seeing and be seen) or just comfort" (70). In response, a festival curator must think of the audience first and foremost. By understanding the audiences, curators can choose films which fit the general "vibe" of the festival to cater to the individual.

In my opinion, aestheticism in film is both extremely important and often overlooked. Its easy for the spectator to ignore aesthetics in favor of content, but I'm of the belief that the curator's mind must always turn toward aesthetics in one form or another. The key to successful film sets is a tying concept behind each of the shown films, so the spectators lining the queue will be sure to enjoy each film. For example, you wouldn't want a set at Mountainfilm that contains a short film about a first ascent with a documentary about the struggles of modern day emigration. From a genre-based viewpoint, these are both documentaries and would belong at a similar festival, but the sets need to be more concrete in their order.

The most common form of this sort of aesthetic pairing, which has admittedly fallen out of favor, is the classic double feature. Used by theater owners in the drive-in era, the double feature was used to show two films for the price of one, often supplementing a popular film with something less so. Born out of studio-era practices involving the required sale of a B-movie with the desired A-movie, it was popularly used through the 1960s until is faded into relative obscurity. While it was primarily used for horror and science fiction films, the double feature offered a framework for aesthetic-based film programming, with two films that a spectator would likely enjoy based on a singular theme.

Some festivals, like LA's Screamfest and Austin's Fantastic Fest, built a following by framing their festivals around genres, which in turn gave them a particular aesthetic value for audiences. Other festivals, like Sundance Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival, focused more on showcasing academy-level films from around the world. Both formats are acceptable and successful in their own right, which allows the festival scene to be so varied.

But where does that place documentary film festivals like Mountainfilm and Frozen River Film Festival?

Bosma discussed two separate options for film festival branding and curation. On one side, a curator would focus on films that present an artistic vision, highlighting personal expression and cinematic innovation. The other style focuses on real life social issues, putting arguments, solutions, and ideas in the forefront. Mountainfilm and FRFF fall into the latter category, as their films all exclusively serve to display actualities and craft discussion. It'd be easy to say that documentary festivals don't need to pay as much attention to aesthetics as genre festivals or art festivals, but I disagree. Film is inherently a visual medium, and as such, the visual aspect of a film is crucial. Aestheticism covers many things, from the color palette to the atmosphere to a film's specific tone, so even documentaries can be analyzed from the same angle as narrative filmmaking. I'm interested to see how Mountainfilm approaches their film sets next week, but my hopes are that the curators have found the balance between information and aesthetic parallelism.


[1] Bosma, Peter. Film Programming: Curating for Cinemas, Festivals, Archives. New York: Wallflower,           an Imprint of Columbia UP, 2015. Print.