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ReportDo you run a film festival with great potential?
Want to reach wider audiences and raise your festival profile?
This course will bring together film festival professionals from across Europe, equipping them with the skills, confidence and inspiration to produce innovative film programmes, reach a wider audience, raise their festival’s profile and develop their organisation.
The course will be taught by industry experts from across Europe through talks, workshops, practical exercises and group discussions. The event will also provide invaluable networking opportunities and foster a culture of cooperation between the participating organisations, who will be encouraged to form a network for peer support and collaboration in the future.
The training will run over three days followed by two days of screenings and networking at the Motovun Film Festival in Croatia.
Who is it for?
Staff of medium sized film festivals from across Europe working in management, programming, marketing, audience development, fundraising, administration or freelance roles. The course is also open to staff of support or funding agencies working with film festivals.
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 at least one year’s experience working for a festival
- 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.
What will the course cover?
- Fundraising: pitching to corporate sponsors, diversifying revenue streams and understanding EU funding criteria for festivals;
- Securing press coverage: planning PR campaigns, writing press releases and building relationships with journalists;
- Online marketing and audience engagement: effective use of social media to drive ticket sales, reach younger audiences and raise the festival profile;
- Programming: innovative programming, outreach events, negotiating with international sales agents, producers and distributors to cost-effectively secure films;
- Sustainable development and strategic planning: defining focus, long-term planning and attracting international and industry delegates;
- Collaboration: key challenges facing festivals and solutions through partnerships.
What else will I gain from attending?
Participants will gain practical skills, fresh ideas, renewed motivation and improved confidence that can be put to immediate use when participants return to work.
They will also develop professional relationships with other festivals and will be invited to form a peer-support network of European Film Festivals to foster cooperation and facilitate partnerships in the future.
Speakers
Speakers will include:
- Ginny Atkinson, Freelance Consultant
- Rachael Castell, Project Coordinator, Support Your Local Cinema
- Ludmila Cvikova, Programmer, Rotterdam International Film Festival
- Igor Mirkovic, Festival Director, Motovun Film Festival
- Joanne O’Hagan, Chief Executive, Jameson Dublin International Film Festival
- Iris Ordonez, Film PR Consultant
- Malgorzata Palarczyk-Vivancos, Festivals Manager, MEDIA
- Algirdas Ramaska, Executive Director, Vilnius International Film Festival
- Maryanne Redpath, Director, Berlinale Generation
- Louis Savy, Director, Sci-Fi London Film Festival
- Shane Walter, Director, onedotzero
Motovun Film Festival
Motovun Film Festival has been running for twelve years and is one of Croatia’s leading cultural organisations. It is dedicated to showing small innovative films and champions cinema from Central and Eastern Europe.
The festival runs for five days with evening outdoor screenings. The program consists of around 70 titles from all over the world, from documentaries to feature films, shorts to long forms, guerilla made films to co-productions. The only criteria is that films must fit in the open-minded atmosphere of the festival.
With the support of the MEDIA Programme of the European Union. Supported by the European Cultural Foundation. In partnership with Motovun Film Festival. With the support of Vilnius International Film Festival. Supported by RIFE Investment Fund through the UK Film Council and South West Screen.
Report
In July 2011, 38 professionals from 35 film festivals from 17 countries across Europe (Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the UK) came together in Croatia for the Developing Your Film Festival training course. The event was run by the Independent Cinema Office in partnership with the Motovun Film Festival, with support from the MEDIA Programme of the European Union, the European Cultural Foundation, the Vilnius International Film Festival and the National Lottery through the BFI and South West Screen.
The event comprised three days of essential training to expand participants’ knowledge and skills, to help them develop and professionalise their festival, and to strengthen their position as champions of cultural film. The course was led by the ICO’s Head of Development David Sin, with 16 speakers from across Europe, including directors and programmers from Berlin, Rotterdam, Dublin, Vilnius and onedotzero film festivals.
As well as the more formal talks and workshops, participants themselves led discussion sessions on the key challenges and opportunities facing film festivals today. The festival professionals attending took full advantage of this rare opportunity for peers working in similar organisations across Europe to discuss common areas of interest, share best practice and form partnerships.
“The whole workshop was very inspired and full of inspiration moments.”
“It changed my way of seeing things in this area and will help me a lot to improve my festival. Thank you!”
“I came back with about 20 action items to implement within the coming 24 months for our festival.”
Motovun
The course was held at the Motovun Film Festival in Croatia, a medieval hilltop town with UNESCO heritage status. During the run up to the festival, it was inspiring to witness the team working so hard to bring the entire infrastructure up the hill, with festival director Igor Mirković likening the feat to Fitzcarraldo. The remote location, peacefulness (before the festival parties began, at least!) and friendly atmosphere provided the perfect setting for film festival professionals to take a step back from their busy work schedules, forge links and plan how they could collaborate together in the future. 82% of participants rated the location as excellent and 14% as good.
“An inspiring and wonderful place to hold a course. Inevitably using a medieval hill top town brings specific challenges (not least the distraction of views) but these are dwarfed by the overall experience of being immersed in the beauty and excitement of the place and the build up to festival.”
“It was a stunning location and nice for us to be part of another festival for a few days. We were very well accommodated and felt very welcome.”
What did we learn?
The course comprised talks, workshops and group exercises on strategic planning, sustainable development, securing corporate sponsorship, European funding, negotiating with sales agents, planning a press campaign, innovative programming, and engaging audiences through social media. Here are a few of the insights that speakers shared…
“Film festivals are driven by art and passion, but don’t forget that you’re running a business,” Ginnie Atkinson, festivals consultant and former Managing Director of Edinburgh International Film Festival reminded us. You must be able to account for yourself in business-like way to funders and sponsors. You also need to stay ahead of the game, with a clear map of the environment so you understand how the artistic, political and funding context might impact upon the future. “Think of it like farming – you need to know what the crop will be like next year.”
One of the most animated discussions was with Pape Boye from Coach 14, who offered tips on securing the films you want from a sales agent. If the agent says no, invite the talent to the festival and get them to ask. And the best time to contact a sales agent? Late November or early December.
When you go to a meeting with a potential sponsor, make sure you listen much more than you talk. So says Mindaugas Morkunas, Managing Director of event marketing company Sick Service. Collect as much information as you can about the company’s product and its needs before you prepare a proposal tailored just for them.
More sponsorship tricks were shared by Louis Savy, Director of Sci-Fi London Film Festival, who began by reminding us that sponsors don’t need festivals and they don’t care what the festival is screening – they care about audience numbers, demographics and the opportunities for their brand to be seen. And don’t give up if you can’t get cash out of them – think laterally about every single part of your festival and how they might be able to help, from printing t-shirts to using their PR department.
Film PR consultant Iris Ordoñez shared a wealth of tips from her practical experience on getting press coverage for film festivals. Cultivating relationships with journalists is key, but they don’t happen overnight – work at it, buy them drinks, find out their likes and dislikes, and don’t forget to say thank you! You can also make a journalist’s life easier by including all the information they’re going to need in your press release, including quotations from celebrities – make it look like they’ve done loads of work.
“If you collaborate you can do much bigger things. I don’t have any competitors – I just have potential partners,” says Shane Walter, Director of innovative moving image festival onedotzero. He also challenged festivals to raise their ambitions and act as if they’re bigger than they actually are. Many people assume that because onedotzero is international they have 100 staff but in reality their team is only seven people.
Never underestimate the importance of sharing information and cooperating with other festivals. As Algirdas Ramaska, Executive Director of the Vilnius International Film Festival put it, “Five minutes of talking to the right person can save you five years of making mistakes”.
Feedback
91% of participants rated both the trainers’ knowledge and the organisation of the course as excellent, with the remaining 9% rating them as good. 100% of participants said they would recommend the course to others.
“This was a fantastic course and I have learnt a lot from it, as well as building relationships with other festivals. Brilliant.”
“There has long been a need for such initiatives for film festival professionals, and your comprehensive yet detailed programme was very well received. The wide variety of festivals and nations represented seemed to spark a great energy – the networking elements of the course were always buzzing, and I’m certain the network of ‘DYFF graduates’ will stay strong for a while!”
“Really inspiring course, glad I came. Thanks for all the effort you put in, everyone left very happy!”
“A very well organised and smooth running course. Thoroughly enjoyable, at the same time completely informative and inspiring. Thank you. “
“Just in case you’re not tired of being thanked for all your hard work and charm over the last few weeks, then here’s one more. Thank you very much. You made it a wonderful event for me and as far as I know, for everyone else. The implications will resonate for weeks/months/years to come. The course and the network of fellow film festival people was immensely inspiring, and I feel the least we can do is to make some practical use of all that energy and enthusiasm. The whole partnership concept has given me a big shot of adrenalin, and I want to see where we can take it.”
“One of the most memorable, motivating and enjoyable experiences of my career, aspects of which will be used for years to come.”
The future
Participants left Motovun with enhanced knowledge, fresh ideas, renewed motivation and a network for peer support. By the end of the course, the participants had identified a long list of ways in which they could collaborate in the future. Many partnerships had already been established before leaving for the airport, including joint programmes, information sharing, and cross-promotion. Participants are also keen to explore collective negotiation, sharing costs and collaborative sponsorship deals. During the course we informally established the European Film Festivals Network, with conversations initiated at the course continuing on an online forum. We hope to be able to gather the course alumni together again face-to-face in the near future and to formalise the network in the long term.
“I will definitely try to be closer to other film festivals and approach them to work together.”
“A huge thank you to all involved at the ICO to make this happen. This was an excellent course and the perfect way to kick start a European Film Festival Network. Keep up this great work.”
