Film festivals are integral to cultural life and cultural economy. To begin with, it’s important to distinguish the difference between film markets and film festivals.
At markets, films are screened for buyers of licenses to distribute a film (ex. a broadcaster or theater chain owner), and festivals can be attended by general public.
While the primary focus of film market is, obviously, big money, a film festival is designed for independent filmmakers to showcase their movies to the public. The festival serve a purpose in terms of celebrating the art of film, but don’t serve much of purpose in terms of generating revenue for film creators. Film festival is more of a cultural event so the public is obviously invited and encouraged to come and watch independent festival movies.
However, film festivals, is also an entrepreneurial venture… Mostly, not for film makers in most occasions, but for festival organizers. Film creators pay submission fees to film festivals (usually between 15 and 100 USD per 1 submission). This fee is paid by any applicant to a festival who wants to have a chance to be selected for broadcasting their piece of art. For example, the Sundance Film Festival received around 10 000 submissions in 2021 with submission fee reaching over 100 USD. Among these 10 000 applicants, only 50 were selected. Less then 1%. In addition, festival organizers charge visitors for entrance tickets.
How do festival films differ from films for traditional market?
There is a difference between a very successful festival film and a very successful commercial film. People who go to traditional mainstream cinemas aren’t the people who go to festivals. There are some crossovers, however most people are either commercial movie goers for mainstream kind of “thoughtless action stuff”, or they’re very eclectic and want “a little more depth and art and thought”. Festival films are designed for that eclectic festival crowd. And sometimes it’s the kiss of death that is festival goers don’t really like commercially viable films. They don’t like what they call these “bubble gum”, “standard”, “predictable movies”. They like something more eclectic and more artistic. So when they love it, it’s almost like it’s not commercial enough to go into regular distribution.
Future of film festivals…
Film festivals are an important part of the film culture as such. Usually being held in cinemas, film festivals had to adapt during the corona pandemic due to restrictions. Instead, many film festivals switched from a traditional festival to an online version. Film makers, cinephiles and festival organizers around the world argued for and against online formats of festivals and how they can hold up with traditional film festivals. Do online film festivals recreate traditional values? If so, how do they manage to translate those traditional values into an online format? Maybe they address other needs and therefore create alternative values? Do they even succeed in creating value? Despite all these questions, many festivals managed to host online versions of their festivals and were very successful doing so. Some were so successful that they consider hybrid models for their film festivals in the future.