Unusual Chinese Film Festivals: Unusual Sites of Translation

In November 2017, I was on the jury of the Golden Horse Awards in Taipei, which are part of the Golden Horse Film Festival. This summer (2018), I am on the jury of the DC Chinese Film Festival. In this talk, I will use these experiences to reflect further on the idea of film festivals as “sites of translation” developed with colleagues in an AHRC-funded research network a couple of years back and which result in the eponymous book co-edited with Luke Robinson. How do these festivals translate foreign cinema into Chinese-language contexts and vice versa? How do they translate the concepts and practices of film festival cultures into their local environment? The Golden Horse is an unusual amalgam of industry awards and film festival – why has this combination worked in the Taiwanese context? And the DC Chinese Film Festival is an independent event not sponsored by the Chinese government – why have the organisers wanted to set it up and been willing to sacrifice so much free labour to sustain it?