Field configuring events and hybrid identities: Straddling art and commerce at premier European film festivals

This study puts forward the argument that field configuring events can play a major role in bridging dichotomous categories in cultural markets, as they play with the boundaries between art and market, between the culture of the elite and the entertainments of the street (DiMaggio, 1992). It examines three instances of a particular tournament ritual, that of European premier film festivals, namely the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival, and the Venice International Film Festival, to untangle their role as mediators between art and commerce in the classification system of the cinema field. For the purpose, it uses admissions data from 36 European countries for the period of 1996 to 2005. It examines the impact of festival participation and awards on admissions and further artistic recognition at award ceremonies in the US. Based on the results of our study we argue that, similarly to the classification of art forms, there is a status ordering of tournament rituals (i.e. film festivals) with regard to their ability to act as a nexus of dichotomous categories for a particular cultural form (i.e. art and commerce in the case of film).