[via GreenCine] David points to a GreenCine article last year where a table of film festival directors review the history and future of the festival.
Some started as propaganda (Venice, Cannes, Berlin), some as flukes founded by freaks, but festivals are constantly balancing the art and commercialism, pure love of cinema with selling out.
How can festivals avoid falling into the trap of becoming just another stop along way for the Hollywood press junket? “Cultivate Internet critics,” insisted [Toronto FF head Piers] Handling. “They are young, they are hip, they are different, they have a very different sensibility. And they are trying to discover young talent, new talent… they are not as fixated on Julia Roberts.”