Starting A Film Festival From The Ground Up

Film festivals are recognized as a massive driving force of the independent film industry, often gathering eclectic audiences and film buffs from all over the world. While Sundance and Cannes instantly come to mind when you mention film festivals, if you look a little deeper, you will find an abundance of independent theaters across the country hosting their own film festivals. Where large film festivals aim to support the film industry as a whole, local film festivals focus on supporting the community and providing local filmmakers with the visibility needed to climb the ladder. Even the most well-renowned film festivals started as an idea, so here are a few tips to turn your idea into a reality. 

The first step to creating a film festival is establishing a vision. This vision largely depends on the resources in your area. While most film festival hosts try to mold their vision around local filmmakers, the cost of quality filmmaking often makes it inaccessible to the average person. While communities near metropolitan areas are more likely to have access to local filmmakers, rural areas may not. In rural regions, theaters may try to connect with schools to collaborate on a filmmaking project. This will not only spark an interest in filmmaking, but strengthen your theater's connection to the community. If this is not available, you can ask your community what films they would like to see. You can hold a film festival around classics, faith-based films, independent films, or whatever your community is eager to see on the big screen. The most important aspect is creating a theme that actively involves your community’s interests. 

Once your vision is complete, the next step is creating your budget. Your budget must include licensing, labor, travel, marketing, fixed costs, and any additional costs for offerings usually not provided at your theater. While ticket sales alone may cover this budget, many theaters also partner with local businesses, churches, and charities to sponsor the festivals. Theaters can also hold bake sales, merchandise sales, popcorn fundraisers, and other small-scale fundraising events for additional revenue.

Once you understand your budget limitations, you can begin to develop your schedule. If you are scheduling local films, reach out to filmmakers and negotiate fair terms. Your film booker can also help negotiate terms and coordinate scheduling. When booking films, always adhere to established minimum guarantees and ticket sale percentages. Filmmakers or distributors should never ask for a percentage of your concession sales. If you are looking for large studio films or classics, you can create a schedule and leave it to your film booker to request the dates and secure fair licensing fees. Once your schedule has been finalized and booked, you can share it with the public. 

Marketing is crucial to gaining visibility for your film festival. Your programming should be clearly stated with a set schedule and information about each film. If you are having special events, such as scholarship presentations or award ceremonies, this should be clearly outlined in your schedule as well. Costs for each film and event should be readily available, along with the ticketing website or box office locations. Advertisements for your film festival should be distributed on social media platforms, in newspapers, through local businesses, and with flyers.