The most unusual yet fascinating film festivals across the world
Film festivals happen all around the world and cater to people of every possible inclination. They are organised by national or local governments, film institutes in collaboration with corporate houses, service organisations, experimental film groups and individual promoters. Film festivals provide a widescale opportunity for filmmakers to exhibit their creations, distributors and producers to grow their businesses, critics to sharpen their film knowledge and audience to enjoy top quality handpicked movies. While film festivals are usually full of pomp, show and glamour, there are some that stand out for their unusual themes, formats, venues and activities. Here’s a list of 4 such film festivals.
Festival Cuisine, Cinema et Confidences
Festival Cuisine, Cinema et Confidences is a popular Canadian film festival where food meets films. It is held every year since 2017 in the Charlevoix region of Quebec. This film festival has been getting more popular than its earlier editions with each passing year and features a variety of films directly or indirectly related to global cuisine. The event also has workshops, tasting sessions and conferences as part of its grandeur. This film festival is a direct reflection of the one held in New York every October where attendees get to enjoy multi-sensory experiences in which the film they see on screen are laid out for them to taste outside the auditoriums.
Arctic Film Festival
This is an annual film festival held every September in the Norwegian archipelago, Svalbard, in the small town of Longyearbyen. It is part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals campaign and feature films that focus on current global issues like climate change and environmental preservation. Arctic Film Festival is the northernmost film festival in the world and adheres to the sustainability goals of the country and the organisers.
BEYOND Film and VR Festival
With changing times and technology governing our everyday lives, VR or virtual reality has even taken over the entertainment sector. In this spirit, the BEYOND Film and VR Festival focusses on films that include virtual reality and 360-degree videos as part of its features. The best part about this film festival is people from all over the world can participate in it from the comfort of their homes as the entire event is conducted online. Film submissions focus on films that talk about all global current affairs.
International Random Film Festival
This film festival has been happening in the Finnish capital Helsinki for the past six years and its uniqueness lies in the fact that it leaves its programming and allocation of awards completely to chance. Even the 25 films that are chosen for screening are chosen randomly and the winners from them follow the same process. No wonder, the locals consider the theme of this film festival as the haphazard nature of life.