Do you run a great film festival which has the potential to become even better?
Do you want to reach wider audiences and raise your festival profile?
Come spend a working week training, networking and watching films at one of the world’s most picturesque and friendly film festivals!
This course will bring together film festival professionals from across Europe, equipping them with the skills, confidence and inspiration to strengthen and grow their festival, produce innovative film programmes, reach wider audiences, drive ticket sales, tap into different revenue streams, raise their festival’s profile and develop their organisation.
Participants will gain practical skills, fresh ideas, renewed motivation, improved confidence and a wider network of contacts that can be put to immediate use and help them to plan their future festivals.
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 organisations, who will be invited to join and grow an established network of European Film Festivals for peer support, partnership 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?
Established medium sized film festivals from across Europe which are going strong and have the potential to take it to the next level. Your role at the festival might be in production, management, programming, marketing, audience development, fundraising, education, administration or freelance. 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.
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 will the course cover?
- Strengthening your business model: strategic planning; researching and pitching to corporate sponsors; 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.
The course will also include peer-to-peer discussion workshops in small groups around topics identified by participants based on the main challenges and opportunities facing film festivals today. There will also be a limited number of one-to-one advisory sessions available for participants to discuss a particular project or issue with course leaders and speakers.
Speakers
Our course leader will be Catharine Des Forges, Director of the ICO, and our international industry expert speakers will include:
- Maryanne Redpath, Section Director: Generation, Berlinale International Film Festival
- Pape Boye, Co-founder, Coach 14
- Lars Hermann, CEO, Copenhagen Film Festivals
- Rachael Castell, Interactive Consultant, Digital Producer at English National Opera and New Business Consultant: Theatre at Digital Theatre
- Nina Numankadić, Managing Director, Doc Alliance
- Tomas Prasek, Festivals Consultant and Founder of Eventival
- Clare Wilford, Film Festival PR Consultant
- Barbara Kelbl, Kinobalon (young people’s programme of Kinodvor/Ljubljana Film Festival)
- Igor Mirković, Festival Director, Motovun Film Festival
- Rajko Grlić, Artistic Director in Honourable Retirement, Motovun Film Festival
- Ana David, Director, Queer Lisboa
- Jovan Marjanovic, Head of Industry, Sarajevo Film Festival
- Louis Savy, Director, Sci-Fi London Film Festival
- Astrid Hallenstvedt, Head of Sponsorship, Stockholm Film Festival
Fees
Full Fees: €550 / £551.63*
Part Scholarship: €355 / £356.05*
Full Scholarship: €150 / £150.44*
* 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 each training day; 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.
Scholarships & Bursaries
A limited number of scholarships for reduced course fees and bursaries of up to €200 towards travel are available. Please note that priority for Full Scholarships will be applicants from EU New Member States and Croatia and priority for Part Scholarships will be given to applicants from festivals with less than €200,000 annual turnover. Please see our Scholarship Guidelines for full criteria and details of how to apply.
Apply for a place
Applications for this year’s course are now closed.
Motovun Film Festival
Motovun Film Festival has been running for thirteen 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.
This years’ Festival will run from 28 July – 1 August 2012.
Travel & Location
Motovun is a medieval hilltop town with UNESCO heritage status which offers a unique backdrop to the course and film festival. However, this beautiful, isolated location presents a few charming quirks that applicants should take into consideration, including the amount of time and number of modes of transportation needed to complete your journey. The nearest airports are Ljubljana, Pula and Trieste. For transportation to and from Motovun, there will be one or two collections from each airport of Monday 23 July and one morning drop off to each airport on Sunday 29 July.
Motovun has little infrastructure and unreliable internet access so applicants should be prepared to go on retreat, focus on the course, spend time with peers from other film festivals and tell their colleagues they probably won’t be checking emails!
Access
Being a medieval hilltop town, Motovun has uneven cobbled streets and uphill climbs. It is therefore not easily accessible for everyone. We have a disabled access fund for this course, so if you have any requirements please get in touch with us to discuss how we can help.
Funded by the MEDIA Programme of the European Union, Creative Skillset and the British Council. In partnership with Motovun Film Festival. With the support of Vilnius International Film Festival