ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the relationship of independent cinema to film festivals in the United States, and contextualises this question amidst the immediate pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic and broader trends confronting the film industry. I begin from the premise that the rise of digital cinema was a turning point for festivals, heightening their role as an alternative distribution network for independent film in the United States. Their success in this role, I contend, was in the mutual interests of an otherwise disparate network of stakeholders. Yet the challenges of the pandemic have laid bare the struggle that confronts festivals in continuing to mediate between these groups, as interests that were formerly aligned may increasingly diverge.
