Anocha Suwichakornpong, film festivals and the institutionalization of art cinema auteur

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay tries to interrogate the intertextual relationship between auteurism, art cinema and the mode of institution which was first acknowledged by Steve Neale in his study of the European post-war contexts, by applying it in the contemporary mode of global art cinema address. Through the film festival circuits, the institutionalization of authorship is relocated from national to transnational dialogues and enhances the birth of emerging director Anocha Suwichakornpong faster than her senior fellows had encountered. Mobilizing both the director and the institutions equally, I explore her mode of production—financing, distribution and exhibition in relation to film festivals. With the geopolitical encounter between Asian and European contexts, it can be argued that both the filmmaker and the institutions are mutually and bilaterally interdependent with each other. Film festivals have chosen Anocha, but she has also chosen them. Each arthouse auteur has their network, just as the film festivals do, and that Anocha has deliberately constructed her professional route through them since the very beginning, from film student to professional feature filmmaker. While Anocha Suwichakornpong can enter the global recognition shortly, her strong political uniqueness is also hindered within the institutional contexts of film festivals and auteurism.