Do We Make Film Festivals Work Better For Everyone, Or Do We Let Them Die Off When They Don't?
Easy Answer, Right? Nine Operational Improvements For Existing Fests To Move Into The Next Era
A friend of mine suggested I list out all the aspects of the FKATheFilmBiz that I found something wrong with, write a post about why each was not all it could be, and then write another post suggesting some fixes. That’s what he felt would make HFF even better.
“Isn’t that what I am already doing?” I asked. He wants a greater clarity of purpose. Perhaps he thought such a list would be short. The problem is my list includes everything. And then goes beyond that. My list of all that need fixing includes everything of everything — not just the cinema industry.
It is not a bad thing to have an abundance of things one wants to fix. It tickles the phenomenon of constant change. We need to stimulate revision and growth of everything. Even when we get it wrong. It’s fun. Unfortunately, we have a tendency to linger too long and keep doing things the old way even though all the surrounding aspects have changed. Movement may slide us further into the ditch, but it is better than staying in the mud.
Both our culture and industry gets too set in their ways. Particularly when they are considered “good enough”. Non-profits are the most guilty of this stagnation; their boards hold grade-school crushes on whatever legacy event they first got recognized for. They throw all their resources behind that, even when the fruit it bears is born stale. We’ve never learned how to keep our cultural practices fresh and instead run programs and practices into the ground.
For instance, I dig film festivals. All sorts. All over. And a lot. Film festivals truly work wonders for me. Give me five films a day and I am a happy clam. But festivals haven’t changed much in the thirty years I have been attending. That lack of evolution brings with it a decline in utility and satisfaction. Sure fests serve a purpose, but they haven’t been changing with the times.
All things have to get better or they will be replaced. Audiences move on. Sponsors move on. Funders move on. Filmmakers and distributors move on. Things can never really be “good enough” unless they have evolutionary practices built into them. Our industry can’t afford to have more companies like Participant close, or festivals like Human Rights Watch Film Festival shutter.
As Anthony Kaufman pointed out in a recent missive, most festival’s new strategies are really revenue-based or sponsor-driven. You can chalk this up to necessity — but to me, we all need to look under the covers. In America, we’ve forgotten how to value culture and sometimes even to appreciate it. I mean it’s understandable, right? Culture is only the thing that unites us and allows the best aspects of our nature to shine — so why should we care much about it? Sigh… The practical resignation of “they need to make money” blocks us from strategizing on how to get to the utopia we deserve. Everything need not be based on revenue — and we should stop lying that it does.
Maybe we just need to elect Ted Gioia president and have him enact his 30 Ways To Revitalize Arts And Culture.
Yes, systemic solutions are needed, but even Rome wasn’t burnt in a diay. Maybe as things continue to crumble, we can figure out how to put more icing on the cake. Band-Aids, maybe, but also if we can just make our love spark anew, we’d double down and prioritize a few more of the things that truly matter.
So what would be your Top Five operational improvements when it comes to Film Festivals? Okay, these aren’t really my Top TOP Five. And they are not even five for you; I have nine for you now. But these are just some of #OpImps for TheFilmFestEcosystem that are currently top of mind for me. Let me know what you’ve got too. Maybe I can share even more. Thanks.
Nine Ways To Revitalize Film Festivals & Re-Orient Them To Today’s Situation
1. Require All Undistributed Films To Present Multiple Distribution Plans In Order To Play The “Top” 15 Festivals
Seriously. Festivals have been leading the little film lambs to slaughter for decades. Okay, that’s a bit harsh, but it is everyone’s best interest that filmmakers be better prepared, and we don’t require it because too many folks are making money off of their lack of preparation. But that is the old way and we are wiser now and it is in everyone’s long-term interest to make sure the filmmakers know what is best for them and their film.
As it currently stands, the festivals set all filmmakers up by not requiring filmmakers to know what they are in for when they get in. Agents and lawyers are motivated by the fee structure to get a deal done — even when it may not be in the film’s best interest at the time. The distributors want these newbies at the best price. Everyone is complicit even if such evil is not their intent. All it takes to stop such practices is to stop. Or require better practices. That’s where I put my vote.
If you don’t have distribution in place before any and all of your festivals, you should fund someone to design three strategies around your priorities. These strategies should extend both to distribution and marketing. Some such strategists already exist, but yeah we need more too. Others will become available when we embrace the tapestry of side-hustles I’ve advocated for earlier. This won’t become the province of only the privileged, if the philanthropists and support organizations can also quickly step in and push for this. It won’t happen overnight, but festivals are the gateway where the demand can be made.
As I spread this over both festival and distribution strategy, I gave you two points in one!
2. Same As Above — But Also For Film Festival Strategies
Short of requiring film festivals to ONLY show undistributed films, festivals should insist participating films know their next series of moves. One way you can see how the American festivals and sales agents neglect the full needs of the filmmakers, is how they actively ignore the need for filmmakers to think beyond their launch. Everything on these shores adopts a wait-and-see policy. Most international sales agents, particularly in the non-fiction realm, have a festival strategist on their team. No American talent agency or sales company has the same. The Film Cooperative offers such services, but the list ends there. One way to counteract our current culture of abundance and distraction is to slow everything down. If you ask me, all indie film — both fiction and non-fiction — needs to adopt a long and slow approach. Festival play for such films should be a year long activity, covering 25 or more festivals. If you haven’t planned that from the start, you are now doing it wrong. If the launch festival (as well as your sales agent) allows you to screen without already sorting that out, they are complicit it what very likely will be your demise.
3. End The Festival Hierarchy
We have put all our eggs in one basket. Or rather three. And we’ve done it twice over. Whether it is looking at global film festivals or those in the United States, we’ve invested in the power of three and that will be our downfall if we don’t change things around something fast. Okay, first this is not a truly global perspective, but a very western European centric perspective. Although Cannes, Berlin, and Venice all program films out of Asia, including on some rare occasions out of South East Asia too, they rely predominately on European and western programming – but that’s not my issue here. My issue is the same thing we do in the States, which is to build a pyramid where there are three festivals on top. In the States, it is only a question of perception, as really on Sundance matters, and even then that’s debatable. My issue is that three festivals can not hold all the wonderful films that are available to screen at any given moment, let alone provide the proper context and launch that is needed. There is no reason why we couldn’t have 15 or more festivals across the land and year that provide all that and more. Why don’t we? How could we? We could if our industry – the media and the distributors – chose to do so. EZ PZ. If the trades chose to cover regional film festivals, those same festivals would attract more films and more sponsors. If the distributors chose to supply a few hot titles to those regional festivals they would attract larger audiences. What happens if you are attracting more films, more sponsors, and more audience? You grow. You thrive. You become more sustainable.
4. Unite A Handful Of Festivals Into Something Even More Prestigious Than Any One Could Be On Their Own (And Promote Festival Unity In The Process)
Okay, you what my favorite festival is right? If you guessed October, then you guessed right. I told you this before though so that’s almost cheating... But what’s different about me raising it again this time? Well,
there are over thirty regional festivals in the month of October, and in some ways you could argue that they are competing for the same talent and attention – but it doesn’t have to be this way. Like anything else, by working together, we could build something better. For instance, if you are on the festival circuit then – particularly if you are not a corporately financed and distributed film – it is REALLY hard to manage the logistics on hitting five them. Most don’t give you enough for a plane ticket, let alone one each for the director and a producer. And it is a friggin’ house of cards. Trust me. You get Covid or something that throws you back into bed for a few days and it all falls apart. Boom. Squash. Splat. But it could be something else.
Imagine if five festivals decided together to celebrate five films – ideally ones without distribution or corporate funding – and elevate them as a special selection that they all are playing and working together to highlight. They could pool resources and shine a light. They could elevate their prestige and attention. They could perhaps enable these films to get distribution. If the role of festivals is to celebrate such films, why aren’t they doing this? I bet they could easily get a new corporate sponsor to back the “awards”. Maybe they could get an airline to do so, and in addition to travel offer the five films selected a standard license fee for the films on the airplane (something few indie films achieve).
5. Ensure “Movie Reviews” (And Build A Local Critical Base In The Process)
The number one way an indie film secures distribution is through receiving positive reviews. Yet if you are not premiering at one of the 5 festivals considered to be at "The Top" of the IndustrialFilmFestivalComplex’s Hierarchy then neither the industry trades nor the mainstream media outlets will deem you fit to bestow a review on you. There lies the rub: do festivals deliver sufficient value to the filmmakers if they can’t even deliver reviews? Sure, festivals are not even close to be being all about reviews, but reviews are something, and something that should not be that difficult to deliver. When I raise this, I get pushback that festivals can’t guarantee coverage, that reviews are up to the editors, but… All the regional festivals need to build greater support with the local press, be they blogs, colleges, or affinity groups. Why aren’t such folks currently attending festivals? If festivals delivered reviews to filmmakers, they they would also soon be delivering better films to their audiences too. Seasoned journalists & critics could mentor the newbie reviewers Media brands could sponsor the mentoring program. Frankly, I’d watch a reality show where newbie critics trained to become the next gen Eberts. I might even listen to a podcast where the mentors helped the mentees develop their own list on “How To Make Better Films”.
6 & 7. Help Filmmakers Produce Their Own Distribution (And Develop A Local Film Financier Base In The Process)
There are multiple steps one can do in this regard, and it would evolve the ecosystem in a significantly positive way if the regional festivals were working to develop their own investor base. Film investment does need to be production-centric, and in fact should not be. If we want to build a sustainable and generative, non-dependent independent film ecosystem, then film investment should be evenly disbursed across production, distribution, and operational improvements for the ecosystem – but let’s discuss that later.
Imagine you are a non-corporate filmmaker. You have made a film but you do not have distribution in place. Because of either the subject matter or aesthetic approach you have embraced, you are shut out of the Top 5 of the FestivalIndustrialComplex’s Hierarchy. You are looking local for your launch. There is a new festival alliance across five festivals and they have selected your film and four others to be their inaugural cohort for a collective elevation. They guarantee multiple reviews at each festivals and lo and behold they are covering airfare and accommodations for both you and one of your producers. But the good things don’t end there. You and the other films in your cohort are going to get to present at each festival to a carefully curated group of high net worth individuals in each city. You will get mentorship from me or someone like me to develop a distribution plan for you to produce in advance. You will know what you need when you need it. And now you are going to get to present it to folks who could fund it, if they so see fit. Awesome? Yes, f’n awesome. Thank you very much.
What are some other ways that film festivals could help filmmakers produce their own distribution? How about introducing to filmmakers they might have some affinity with and encouraging them to come back later in the year as their own mini-fest with three or four other films that have some sort of thematic link (the stronger the better) so it feels connected? Not something they need to apply for, just something you are offering. And why stop there? Tell them how you will make sure you get the most influential folks in the community to show up, so if they respond to the work they may help with the release. See where this is going? It is all part of the same idea my friend.
Want more? Remember the Alternative Distribution Initiative: College Film Tour. There is a university or community college of some size near every festival. Those students should be at the festival and the filmmakers should be addressing them somehow directly. Filmmakers teach and then the colleges, book. Book? Yeah, book. They book the filmmaker to come in for that ongoing class “How I Built It” (or something with a less popular name).
Oops, I did it again. Another two-fer.
8. Promote Total Transparency and Accountability By All Festivals (And Encourage Artist Ownership Of IP As A Result)
I hear filmmakers often complain that film festivals are making all sorts of money from their films, and they see nothing. I got to run a non-profit film org with a long-running festival for a minute, and I doubt that any film festival is raking in the green. It is hard to do. But that suspicion helps no one. It is only there because of our overall culture tendency of holding our cards close. And it helps only the crooks. So the good eggs have to go 180. Show it all. Show your admissions. Show your costs. Show how long it takes to make all this work. But don’t stop there. I want to know your selection criteria. And evaluation filters. What is it that you stand for anyway? I am a big believer that if we shared all of this, all of this would get better. I am not saying there won’t be bumps. Or course there will. Dirty laundry ain’t so pretty. But it will eventually improve both the process and the product I believe. We need information to revise our practices. And that’s really what is afoot here. Information is a necessary part of the creative process. We should have a right to the data our work generates. As that information is being denied to all that participate in the corporate film industry, it falls on the non-profit side to show the alternative. Share data as a human right. We will slowly grow to recognize what really is ours, and from there we can start to see clearly. From the ownership of data grows comes the consideration of the right to share in the success your work generates, and from there the obligation to make sure it is both accessible and preserved for prosperity. Soon you are going to own the farm. Which you should. Because you built the farm and you bet the farm. You risked it all and you deserve to harvest the results. Nonprofits are the path this snowball should take. Roll baby roll.
9. Declare Your Festival’s First Principles And Create A Code Of Collaboration
Okay, this is an extension of the Total Transparency, but I am surprised how hard it is to even find a festival’s “mission” on their website. But what about everything beyond that? For instance, wouldn’t it be awesome if all festivals adopted “May one’s success not limit the opportunity of any other.” as one of their First Principles? And then made all such principles totally accessible to everyone. It would be a start of a Code Of Collaboration. It costs nothing for a festival to define what they stand for and then be transparent with it. It costs little to try to work well with others and find principles to align around. Similarly, I think it would be a better world if programmers set criteria for both selection and rejection and then were public with them. Ditto film festival juries. But perhaps those are additional points.
I could go on, but damn it — I have to get to work. Audience development is needed and that comes from providing context between different films, both in the present and from the past. I like to dream of a festival where the actual Artistic Director had a conversation each day with a film professional of some sort and they tackled deep topics. Let me know if you want another five… I mean nine! I have that list too.
So do you have a preference amongst these that I’ve already shared? If we could build one tomorrow, what would you want it to be? Can you take a minute and vote? Helps me understand where we are all coming from. Thanks.
A note on that poll: Substack limits poll questions to five, so I had to double up.
Were you surprised by yet another list on HFF? A sharing of ideas? Who would have thought!
Like this sort of thing? Keeping a list of all that need to be done? Let me help; here are some prior posts (back from the days I had hoped you’d read things if I just said what they were, and didn’t have to come up with a splashy title to pull you in):
Five Wild Ideas To Support The Creative Community (Artist Retreat Initiative, Visiting Artist Residency Database & Placement Agency, Artists In Need: Frequent Flyer & Customer Points Initiative, Mental Health Support For Artists, Proposal Generator (To Future Proof The World)
Five Easy To Build Things That Would Improve Indie Film: (HFF Holistic Producer Training Program & Accelerator, New Tools Training Monthly Seminars, Pitch Market for Democracy & T2P Narratives (i.e. Soft Power Booster “SPB”), Alternative Distribution Initiative: College Film Tour, & the Film Guru Hotline
Although my list of Dangerous Ideas (That Are Needed To Improve The Film Industry) is not quite the same, they are in the same class.
And for those of you who find these posts a tad TLDR, here’s the bullet points.
Nine Ways To Revitalize Film Festivals & Re-Orient Them To Today’s Situation
1. Require All Undistributed Films To Present Multiple Distribution Plans In Order To Play The “Top” 15 Festivals
2. Same As Above — But Also For Film Festival Strategies
3. End The Festival Hierarchy
4. Unite A Handful Of Festivals Into Something Even More Prestigious Than Any One Could Be On Their Own (And Promote Festival Unity In The Process)
5. Ensure “Movie Reviews” (And Build A Local Critical Base In The Process)
6 & 7. Help Filmmakers Produce Their Own Distribution (And Develop A Local Film Financier Base In The Process)
8. Promote Total Transparency and Accountability By All Festivals (And Encourage Artist Ownership Of IP As A Result)
9. Declare Your Festival’s First Principles And Create A Code Of Collaboration
Special Bonus: MUST READ
Please be sure to read Daniel Bessner’s recent piece in the May issue ofHarpers “The Life And Death Of Hollywood”. The one two punch of his article followed the next day with Skoll’s call to shutter Participant made our current plague truly evident. Have we all become hobbyists? Has Wall St and the current crop of CEO’s now killed off culture?
“The film and TV industry is now controlled by only four major companies, and it is shot through with incentives to devalue the actual production of film and television. What is to be done? The most direct solution would be government intervention. If it wanted to, a presidential administration could enforce existing antitrust law, break up the conglomerates, and begin to pull entertainment companies loose from asset-management firms. It could regulate the use of financial tools, as deWaard has suggested; it could rein in private equity. The government could also increase competition directly by funding more public film and television. It could establish a universal basic income for artists and writers.
None of this is likely to happen.”
Most importantly, it is the article we’ve needed, capturing the history of how we got to this moment of crisis, of how deregulation may have first issued in record profits, but led to the consolidation that reudces choice and leads to all sorts of anti-competitive practices, killing off creatives and sustainable careers. It hits all the beats, including The Era Of Free Money, Wall St’s Takeover, and The Private Equity Firms’ Current Control, right up to the Era Of The New Precarity we are in now. Sure it is mostly about the writers, ut it is an absorbing #MustRead nonetheless!
I’m a fan of the united festivals idea, and it doesn’t even sound like it would require much extra effort (on top of the effort organising a festival requires, which must be substantial). Last night at the small, regional Inner West Film Festival in Sydney, we celebrated Canadian National Film Day with some recent Canadian films, an introduction by a member of the Canadian Consulate, and welcoming drinks (though I was late for the drinks, so I can’t speak to how Canadian the drinks were). Apparently there was even a red carpet laid out for the Canadian glitterati. And this was only one event in a global calendar of events in honour of Canadian National Film Day, and only some of the Canadian films showing all week as part of the festival. Now the festival organisers are cautiously discussing the idea of an Australian equivalent to the National Film Day. I know this is different to what you describe, but my point is you can effectively cross-promote within festivals. It doesn’t have to be a hierarchy or ‘best of the best’ selection of 5 films: it can simply be treated as a roving mini-festival that visits a group of united festivals. The Roving Film Festival, for example.
Last night just before going to bed I read the entirety of the article you reference here (saw your post on LinkedIn) "The Life and and Death of Hollywood." Afterwards, I went to bed totally depressed. Then last night I had a dream where I was sad and moping down a dark street of multi-millionaire mansions where super nice cars were double parked on one side of the street.
While I have no idea what this dream portends (other than me being sad and bummed out about the situation) I wholeheartedly recommend the article as a call to action and, as you write, a MUST READ for all filmmakers. Thanks for posting it.