Rural film festivals: social functions, obstacles and challenges

This investigation is centred on film festivals within Spain that take the rural world as their reference. A panoramic approach to an emerging trend is presented in the study. The concept of the “social function” is of central importance to the analytical perspective that is adopted, to understand what added value these sorts of festivals specializing in rural topics can contribute, especially in relation to the current challenges of rural depopulation. Qualitative methods are mainly used, based on semi-structured interviews with the people who direct and manage these sorts of events, with the support of digital documents downloaded from web-pages and searches for the digital footprint of rural film festivals on websites and social media. Promoting and financing a rural film festival is, at the very least, both a social and an organizational challenge, but our study distances itself from an economic viewpoint that might measure the success of a festival in terms of marketing, to contemplate its “social profitability.” From this perspective, we ask ourselves through which channels and to what extent are rural film festivals linked into the community. The results showed that, despite the vulnerability of the sector, these festivals represent an opportunity for links with the local area, social cohesiveness, and the revitalization of socio-cultural activities.