Abstract: Debates about the relation between cinema and nation have existed since the early years of cinema's invention. Film scholars have sought to identify theoretical frameworks for the concept of national cinema, and presumed or discussed national distinctiveness of films. However, given the global scope of film production and circulation, the nationality of films has fluid and multiple ramifications and changes in significance through time and space. This dissertation examines the contingencies and uses of the concept of national cinema, utilizing transnational and institutional perspectives that look particularly at the historical functions of film festivals. 'Genrefication'---a process intricately connected to marketing, catalyzed by 'favorable conditions,' and dependent upon wide adherence of 'user groups' overtime---is a useful theoretical tool to explore the international festival circuit. This study examines the genrefication of Iranian cinema via this international circuit. A few parallel historical outlines mobilize this study. A panoramic history of the international festival phenomenon traces the changing conception of national cinema within this complex global network of film commerce. A history of cinema in Iran is considered from the beginning of cinema's arrival to Iran through the formation of a vibrant and internationally-aware film culture. Key local festivals are discussed, laying out the significance of state planning in constituting 'Iranian' cinema and linking the local cinema to the international festival circuit. Specific cases of films by Iranian filmmakers in exile are also explored in order to juxtapose genrefication of the national cinema with the canonical exile of films that did not garner the support of the state nor the international festival circuit. Finally, a discussion of discursive framings of Iranian cinema at the interstices of festivals elucidates the feedback loop that reinforces styles and the poetics of Iranian films. This dissertation underscores the enormous relevance of international film festivals to film scholarship and offers a new paradigm within which to understand national cinemas as constituted via this international circuit. International film festivals are crucial players in staging and canonizing national 'new waves,' and they are vital crossroads at which national characteristics of films are 'discovered,' displayed, interpreted and reinforced---hence genrefied.