The central premise of this book is that art cinema does not exist. It is a fantasy that is brought into being again and again through rituals that take place at film festivals—rituals such as film selections and screenings, prize-giving, red carpet parades, as well as the production of endless pronouncements on each film, from festival programmes to jury statements, interviews, critics’ reviews, social media posts and, of course, the excited exchange of opinions between audience members after (and sometimes during) a screening.

Yet these rituals, and the sites in which they take place, are not pure: they are constituted by and reproduce economic and geopolitical interests. Film festivals’ construction of that which we call art cinema not only serves the dictates of some rarefied aesthetic value, but, to bring things abruptly back down to earth, it also serves “the interests of nation states and global capital” (Rhyne, 2009, p. 10). Art cinema is a fantasy, yes, but one produced under material conditions, and with material consequences. This book is an investigation of those conditions and consequences—in other words, the ideology of art cinema reproduced through film festivals.

Through the case of new millennium Italian cinema, this book seeks to develop our understanding of which films are permitted international attention and legitimation at European competitive film festivals.