Contemporary mediascapes are increasingly influenced by transnational logics. One of the most important factors contributing to that situation is the network of international film festivals that in recent decades have evolved into complex multifaceted institutions shaping cinema around the globe. Researchers like Cindy Wong point out that programmers have numbers of predilections towards certain qualities. This has led to the creation of the so called “festival film genre.” We want to examine these issues through a case study of Pham Thiên Ân’s Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023), a Vietnamese movie that was awarded the Caméra d’Or at Cannes. In my close reading I give consideration to institutions that fund the movie, as well as recurring religious and local themes. Most importantly, I draw my formal analysis from notions of slow cinema and Paul Schrader’s transcendental style, demonstrating that they are both closely related to the aesthetics of the “festival film.”
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