Reproducing Implicit Elitism: Organisational Transformation and Public Exclusion during the Golden Boll (Altın Koza) Film Festival’s First Era (1969–1973)

This article investigates how implicit elitism was reproduced during the first era (1969–1973) of the Adana Golden Boll Film Festival. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital, implicit elitism is conceptualised as the tacit privileging of high-status actors, tastes and decision arenas under a rhetoric of civic inclusivity. Methodologically, the study combines a qualitative content analysis of Yeni Adana (1968–1974) newspaper, along with municipal council minutes, and festival by-laws. Two interrelated claims are tested: 1) Each organisational restructuring –transitioning from a cine-club initiative to a municipality-centred model and, later, to journalist-led governance– preserved a narrow circle of high-cultural stakeholders in key decision sites; 2) The integration of new actors organised to represent the film sector functioned less as an expansion of democratic participation than as a corporate buffer insulating the Municipality from criticism. Findings show that, while programmatic discourse celebrated public outreach, practices such as invitation-only ceremonies, high ticket prices and limited consultation channels curtailed grassroots engagement. Meanwhile, alliances with national film critics and Istanbul-based institutions centralised symbolic authority and heightened Adana’s regional status. The article thus demonstrates how a peripheral festival can replicate centre-oriented power hierarchies, refining implicit elitism as an analytical lens for festival studies and for evaluating local cultural-policy claims of inclusion.