Holding onto Power: The Film Industry’s Stratification in the Digital Age

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Iranian cinema scholars argue that digital production has given filmmakers the opportunity to gain independence from the state’s supervision and resource control. Using Bourdieu’s theory of capital, this article argues that the state used its economic, social, and cultural capital to challenge the film industry’s democratization. Utilizing its continued and newly gained advantages over independent producers, the state made big-budget VFX-based movies (called fakher films) and distinguished its cultural productions from independent films. In the process, the state expanded structural inequalities in the industry in favor of its own productions and laid the groundwork for further stratification to strengthen its cultural dominance.