Tracing the history of Africa's relationship to film festivals and exploring the festivals' impact on the various types of people who attend festivals (the festival experts, the ordinary festival audiences, and the filmmakers), Dovey reveals what turns something called a "festival" into a "festival experience" for these groups.
"Dovey's book provides a crucial intervention by incorporating the responses of actual audiences, instead of the audiences constructed by film texts or assumed by scholars. ... Essential reading for all film scholars, Curating Africa in the Age of Film Festivals enriches our understanding of African cinema and the event of the film festival and opens up exciting areas for future research." (Carmela Garritano, Research in African Literatures, Vol. 47 (3), 2016)