Luang Prabang, the northern Lao cultural hub and UNESCO world-heritage site, has no operating movie theaters, yet since 2009 the Luang Prabang Film Festival (LPFF) has presented an annual selection of contemporary ASEAN cinema. Normally, crowded nighttime outdoor screenings comprise Lao and Thai films, while daytime screenings feature films from the rest of the region. Free to audiences, the festival has grown to include a Talent Lab for regional productions, panel discussions and workshops.

From 2009 through 2018, the LPFF operated under the aegis of the Department of Cinema, a branch of the Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism (MICT) in the Lao PDR, and the festival’s founding vision was to promote and support the development of the domestic film industry. When the government canceled the festival in August 2018, this informal organization struggled to meet commitments to filmmakers, audiences and sponsors. In the wake of the unofficial festival that resulted, the LPFF slowly rebuilt. This ongoing process has raised key issues about the business of film festivals in developing countries: the politics of who controls them, the challenges of supporting media development in a relatively closed political system and the pressure to justify production in touristic/economic terms. The presentation will address these by way of a narrative history of the festival and its planning for the future.