At the beginning of this year, 2017, we learned about the first casualty in the overcrowded submission-platform market. As of February 1, Uptofest has ceased operations.
According to the platform, it has merged with Festhome, where the festivals that previously belonged to Uptofest are now open. This platform has been the first to close after the boom we have experienced in recent years. It was founded at the beginning of 2013, becoming the third to appear on the Spanish market, after Movibeta and Festhome, obtaining the Grants for the modernisation and innovation of cultural and creative industries through digital and technological projects from the Ministry of Culture via Cultural Industries in 2014 and 2015, for a total value of €50,000.
During the 4 years it was operating, it came to have more than 300 festivals at the same time, including some of the most important Spanish festivals, and in recent years it had begun an international campaign.
The closure of Uptofest consolidates Festhome in the national market alongside Movibeta. The Clickforfestival platform remains, but with less relevant festivals than its competitors, and Film-Salad, the Spanish free alternative, is still in beta.
It must be acknowledged that Festhome has managed to position itself very well internationally and stand up to Filmfreeway. The rest of the European platforms have not been able to maintain the same growth rate, remaining at the same festival figures for years. The case of Reelport is particularly curious. It was one of the first platforms in Europe, creating the pricing model that the rest of the projects have followed, but it has not managed to grow in its own market, remaining stagnant all these years and taking no less than 12 years to update its website.
To better understand all the platforms that remain active, I have updated the post I published in November 2013, at the height of the platform boom, which has become one of the most visited on the blog: Short film distribution platforms.
The situation of submission platforms
To analyse the situation of the platforms, I have tried to compile the number of festivals on each of them. While FilmFreeway and Festhome clearly publish the number of festivals on their websites, in the other cases it is more complicated. I have based it on the festivals they have open and therefore these are estimated figures. In the case of Withoutabox, for example, I think it is a very low figure, which only refers to the festivals that are currently open on the platform and that you can see on its website:
- FilmFreeway, 5108
- Festhome, 2021
- Clickforfestival, 640
- Withoutabox, 608
- Movibeta, 165
- Filmfestivallife, 188
- Shortfilmdepot, 100
- Filmfestplatform, 75
- Reelport, 50
- Film-Salad, 30
This chart shows the estimated percentages for each of these platforms, with a very clear dominance of FilmFreeway with 56% of the market, followed by Festhome with 22.5% and Clickforfestivals with 7.1% (although most of its festivals are on other platforms and it does not include major festivals), and Withoutabox with 6.8% (counting only the festivals that are open at the moment). To see the different percentages, you can hover over the chart.
The growth of FilmFreeway has been spectacular in recent years. It was one of the last to arrive and already dominates more than half the market; at this pace, we may see a market readjustment in which other platforms end up closing and FilmFreeway increases its dominance. One of this platform’s successes has been its pricing model, offering free submissions, compared to European pricing strategies, which have been stuck in the Reelport model, based on per-submission fees. Festhome has been the only European platform to innovate on pricing in recent years, creating a flat rate; thanks to this change, it has been able to compete with FilmFreeway. We will also see how the Spanish Film-Salad evolves, as it is betting on a pricing strategy different from the European model, offering free submissions.
These figures give us an idea of the platform market, but the submissions market is much broader, as we would have to include festivals that have their own online form or continue working with PDFs. In addition, we must bear in mind that many festivals open on several platforms and also have their own form.
To see this situation, I analysed 3,927 festivals from my own database over a full year, 2016 (so Uptofest does appear). I noted the platforms and festivals with their own submission system, either with an online form or in PDF. In the cases of festivals that work with several platforms, I only chose one of them.
This is the result:
- On Line, 1316
- FilmFreeway, 973
- PDF, 615
- Festhome, 292
- Movibeta, 296
- Withoutabox, 260
- Uptofest, 30
- Reelport, 30
- Filmfestplatform, 27
- Shortfilmdepot, 33
- Clickforfestival, 28
- FilmFestivallife, 12
- Film-Salad, 15
The online form continues to be the most widely used option by most festivals, at 33.5%; the Filmfreeway platform remains in second place with 24.8%. In third place we see the PDF submission form, at 15.7%, which, curiously, remains a majority option despite the rise of platforms and online submission tools. Festhome and Movibeta remain at 7.4% and 7.5% respectively.
It should be borne in mind that these data are estimates (in the absence of official data, both on the number of festivals and on submissions through the platforms), and they can give us an idea of the development of this market and how it may evolve. We will see how the readjustment takes place, which has already begun with the closure of Uptofest.
We will be watching closely.