Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses the brand of ‘Chilean cinema’ at international film markets, and the ways in which it is produced and experienced by Chilean film professionals. It discusses how the brand is appropriated to create films and filmmakers ‘for export’ in the global film market.

Paper long abstract:

This paper analyses the 'Chilean cinema' national brand at international film markets, and the ways in which the brand is lived by Chilean filmmakers and film professionals in the international scene. National branding has become a matter of major significance for film industries in the contemporary post-industrial economy. Like other peripheral cinemas, Chilean film depends on expanding beyond its small national market, and Chilean film professionals, along with the Chilean government, have aimed for the internationalisation of local cinema. Thus, they put a special effort in the promotion of national cinematic products, in order to expand its circulation and consumption abroad. This paper is based on a three-year multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork with Chilean film professionals at the largest European film marketplaces, the Cannes Marché du Film and the Berlin European Film Market. The paper explores the marketing strategies of Chilean film professionals, the agency CinemaChile, and the Chilean Trade Commission ProChile, to brand both national films and filmmakers as a local yet somehow international product for export. The paper analyses the articulations between institutional branding and film professionals' appropriation of 'Chilean cinema'. It looks at their self-branding practices and the performances of 'Chilenity' embedded not only in the visual promotional materials but also in the everyday social interactions of film professionals at film festivals. The paper discusses the commodification process of cinema and filmmakers' identities, addressing how they negotiate the Chilean trademark under the logics of both the global film industry and the business-oriented narratives of national branding.