Last Friday we held the Distribution Meeting of Short Film Week, where we had professional presentations and talks with programmers from Sundance, Berlinale, Interfilm, Next and Timishort (Romania). Everything went very well; we are very happy with the audience response. All the feedback has been very positive.
One of the projects we discovered in the professional presentations at the start of the day was Film Fest Friend, with a new concept for festival databases and a metasearch engine, very much in line with the evolution I am seeing this year. Film Festivals’ Deadlines, which we already knew from previous editions, was also presented.
It is clear that 2018 has started with a new generation of festival databases.
Festival databases are one of the main tools you will need to start distributing your film. In this sector there are many projects that have tried to classify and catalogue festivals with varying degrees of success. They have evolved a great deal, from a static approach to listings that are better tailored to the characteristics of each film, also incorporating submission platforms, which have become an increasingly important source of festival information.
The new projects have very different origins, but they all represent an evolution of the more classic model, with new concepts and features.
To understand these new projects, I have created three broad groups of databases so we can see how they are developing. All of them can serve as a source of information to find festivals for your film.
#1 Festival databases
In the first group are the oldest databases, with a more static approach. In other words, they are listings in which each festival has its own entry with the main details: event dates, contact email and phone number, website, submission fees and, above all, the deadline.
These listings have very basic filters and search criteria to find festivals. Here are five examples from this group of festival databases:
Filmfestivals.com
One of the oldest projects, launched in 1995. It has a database of around 5,000 festivals and a website whose design has not changed over all these years. When I started distributing to festivals in 2003, it was one of my first references.
Short Film Central
Specialised in short films, it also has a database with thousands of festivals. They are ordered by deadline, with a simple search field and another option for advanced searches using several predefined criteria.
Festival Focus
This project has also been running for many years and has evolved very little. It has a database of almost 3,000 festivals, with the option to view the latest deadlines as well. The search criteria are very simple: name, genre, country and fees.
British Council Film Festivals Directory
This database was also one of the ones I used most in the early years. It includes 1,281 festivals and can be sorted by title, country and deadline. It also has a general search engine.
Film Festivals’ Deadlines
The most recent project in this type of database only shows, by default, festivals whose call for entries closes in the next 30 days. To access more festivals and the search engine, you need to register. It has the highest number of festivals of all the projects I mention in this post: 11,057, a very high figure compared to the rest, so I imagine many of them may be pseudo-festivals. I therefore recommend that you review them very carefully before submitting.
#2 Databases from submission platforms
Submission platforms were created as tools to make it easier to submit a film to many festivals, without having to fill in a form for each one. Over the years they have grown into large festival databases, but with one limitation: only festivals that have reached agreements with the platform to handle submissions appear.
Some platforms have worked on improving festival database management, with increasingly advanced search engines. Along these lines, there are three platforms that have recently added improvements and are a source of up-to-date festival information:
Festhome
It has a database of 2,653 festivals, with a powerful search engine. To access the database you need to be registered, but there is only a cost for submissions. A few months ago, a new tool called Submission Assistants was launched to create personalised lists based on each film’s genre and category, clearly evolving beyond the databases in the first group.
Filmfreeway
This is one of the most important platforms and has one of the largest numbers of festivals; at the moment there are 6,473 festivals. It has one of the best dynamic search engines for filtering festivals by various criteria, such as category, fees, duration and deadline. They have developed a new tool to rate festivals and allow users to leave comments.
In addition to the database, there are predefined lists with Oscar-qualifying festivals, MovieMaker magazine selections, top-rated festivals, documentaries, etc. To access the festival database you do not need to be subscribed; access is direct from the website.
Filmfestivallife
It also has a database with predefined search criteria, and was one of the first platforms to create preconfigured festival lists by theme. Although it has evolved little in recent years, from its creation it already sought to support personalised film strategy. Like Festhome, it requires you to be subscribed to the website to access the database.
Movibeta
This platform has also recently changed its search tool by adding new criteria, including genre and theme, improving database management. Access to festival data is free, with no subscription required.
You can see the rest of the submission platforms in this other post.
#3 The new generation of festival databases
This group of festival databases, launched in recent months, shares common characteristics and brings together elements that have appeared in the previous two groups. On the one hand, they are festival databases, but with advanced search engines, tools to generate personalised lists, and information about the platforms needed to submit.
The main objective of these databases is to bring order to so many platforms and, above all, to automate festival strategy. This is truly complicated given the diversity of festivals.
These are the three projects I have come across this year that have been launched recently:
Film Fest Finder
It has a database with more than 7,000 festivals. Each entry already includes the submission platforms, with the option to filter by each of them. You can build a strategy taking these platforms into account and, as with Filmfreeway, festivals can be rated via review, which is one of the main sections of the website. Although access to the database is free, to use all the tools you need to be subscribed.
Festival Whizz
It is the only paid project, with prices ranging from CHF 18 to CHF 20 (Swiss francs). It aims to be a platform to prepare festival strategy using an algorithm whose effectiveness I still need to test. As with Film Festivals’ Deadlines, the list is updated each month, but with the particularity that it is filtered by the characteristics of your project.
To access it you need to be subscribed and pay for one of the available plans. There is an option for free registration, which sends a personalised list of only 5 festivals.
Film Fest Friend
The Spanish alternative to this new evolution of databases. It has had two years of development and it is possible to access the festival database without needing to be subscribed. As with Film Fest Finder, a subscription is required to use the advanced tools. The database is somewhat reminiscent of Filmfreeway’s structure, but with many more criteria to organise festivals by category, theme, director characteristics, awards, submission fees, etc.
What is new about this platform, in line with the two previous projects, is the possibility of creating personalised distribution strategies for each film, allowing you to keep track of the submissions you make to festivals, regardless of which platforms you have used. You can also rate festivals, as on Filmfreeway and Film Fest Finder, so that in the future this also becomes a criterion for establishing festival strategy.
Registering festivals
All database projects try, in one way or another, to maintain an up-to-date record of all the film festivals in the world and, from now on, also serve as a tool to create a personalised distribution strategy.
After several years building my own database, I am very aware of how difficult it is to organise all the different types of festivals and keep the data up to date. Any new project that helps both distributors and directors and producers is welcome.
We will see how these new projects develop and whether they manage to last for a long time.
See you in the comments!