Do you run a great film festival which has the potential to become even better?
Do you want to discover new ideas for growing your festival’s income, audience and profile?
Come spend a week in Croatia with like-minded film festival professionals from across Europe at one of the world’s most picturesque and friendly film festivals!
This exciting course brings together film festival professionals from across Europe, equipping you with the skills, confidence, inspiration and contacts to:
- Strengthen and grow your festival
- Produce innovative film programmes
- Drive ticket sales and reach wider audiences
- Tap into different revenue streams
- Raise your festival’s profile
- Develop confidence in your career
- Establish international partnerships with other European film festivals.
Return to work with fresh ideas, renewed motivation, improved confidence and a wider network of contacts to help plan you next festival.
100% of previous participants said they would recommend this course to other film festivals.
Who is it for?
Staff of established medium sized film festivals from across Europe which are going strong and have the potential to become even stronger. Your role at the festival might be as director, producer, programmer, marketing manager, development manager or coordinator. The course is also open to freelance film festival employees and staff of support or funding agencies working with film festivals. We are ideally looking for participants from festivals with around 10,000 – 50,000 annual admissions depending on the relative size of their country.
Applicants must:
- Speak fluent English. The course will be taught in English and participants will be expected to speak and understand at a high or fluent level;
- Have been working for a film festival for a minimum of one year;
- Be a resident of one of the EU Member States, Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland;
- Be interested in working collaboratively with other European film festivals.
Participants will be selected based on a combination of three factors: how well established their festival is; audience reach; motivation for participating in the course.
What does the course cover?
- Strengthening your business model: strategic planning; researching and pitching to corporate sponsors; crowdfunding; growing your festival
- Building audiences: engaging young people and hard to reach audiences; taking advantage of social media and digital platforms to drive ticket sales and deepen audience engagement
- Maximising professional relationships: building relationships with journalists to generate press coverage; negotiating with sales agents to secure film rights; strategic partnerships with other festivals to save money and increase impact.
“Immensely inspiring…The implications will resonate for weeks, months and years to come.”
How is it taught?
The course is taught through talks from film industry experts, practical workshops focusing on participants’ own festivals, participant-led discussion on the major challenges and opportunities facing festivals today, plus one-to-one advisory sessions with course leaders and speakers.
Three days of intensive training is followed by two days of discussion, networking and screenings at the Motovun Film Festival. Participants become members of the European Film Festivals Network for long term information sharing and collaboration.
Speakers
The course will be led by James Mullighan, Creative Director, Cork Film Festival and our inspiring collective of international film industry experts are:
- Peter Belsito, Independent Film Festival consultant (worked for WITHOUT A BOX and IMDb)
- Delphyne Besse, Freelance Sales Agent (worked for Celluloid Dreams, Rezo, Pacha & MPM)
- Paul Drury, Freelance Film PR, Open City Docs Fest, Premiere PR & Idea Generation
- Wilhelm Faber, Programme Coordination Berlinale Special, Berlin International Film Festival
- Mikael Fellenius, CEO, Göteborg International Film Festival
- Allison Gardner, Co-director, Glasgow Film Festival
- Muffin Hix, Film Programmer and Event Producer, The Lost Picture Show / Fringe! Film Fest
- Hannah Horner, Festival Manager, Doc and Film International
- Heili Jõe, Industry Events Manager, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
- Bridey Lipscombe and Cat Turner, Founders of creative agency Native LDN
- Igor Mirkovic, Festival Director, Motovun Film Festival
- Mindaugas Morkunas, Head of Festival Development, Vilnius International Film Festival
- Charlie Phillips, Marketplace Director, Sheffield Doc/Festival
- Louis Savy, Director, Sci-Fi London Film Festival
Fees
€570 / £582*
Part Scholarship: €365 / £373*
Full Scholarship: €160 / £163*
* Sterling rates include VAT
Fees include three full days’ training plus two days’ film screenings and networking; full accreditation for Motovun Film Festival; six nights’ accommodation; transport to and from the airport; breakfast, lunch and refreshments on the training days; social evenings; course materials; membership of the European Film Festivals Network forum for six months after the course. Please note that fees do not include flight costs.
Funded by the MEDIA Programme of the European Union and the British Council. In partnership with Motovun Film Festival. With the support of Vilnius International Film Festival.