This study is an attempt to understand the politics of international film festivals and how it translates into local forms of colonialism. Theroretical review of this study focuses around the politics of festivals particularly through Iranian Cinema in the international frame. Inclusionary/exclusionary mechanisms of film festivals, the notion of national geographic effect and how they formed the canonization of Iranian cinema will be discussed. The thesis has also analyzed an Iranian film Kandahar as a case study with the notion of Orientalism to demonstrate how colonizing gaze organized in festival circuit has been internalized by a national filmmaker.