The Educational Turn in Film Festivals

This article investigates whether film festivals are undergoing an educational turn and argues that this development must be understood through both a historical-theoretical lens and an analysis of evolving European policy frameworks. While early children’s film festivals such as Zlín and Giffoni emerged from artistic and civic ambitions, the recent proliferation of youth-oriented festivals since the early 2000s coincides with the European Commission’s heightened interest in media literacy and film education. The article situates this trend within a longer genealogy linking film festivals to pedagogical and cultural institutions such as museums, drawing on Bourdieu’s theories of cultural formation and scholarship on curation as a mode of critical learning. Against this background, the article’s main analysis maps the European policy landscape that has redefined the educational role of film and festivals—from the institutionalization of media literacy in EU directives to its promotion through initiatives such as MEDIA, Creative Europe, and the Framework for Film Education. It argues that these policy frameworks have not only supported but also conceptually shaped the contemporary understanding of festivals as spaces of non-formal learning. Ultimately, the educational turn in film festivals reflects a broader reconfiguration of cinema as a tool for cultural engagement, civic participation, and lifelong learning in the digital age.