by Agatha Altarovici
Thanks to shared resources within the Film Festival community, I just recently became aware of an incredible website that in my opinion every independent filmmaker should use to plan their Film Festival strategy and calendar. It has a very intuitive name: www.filmfestivaldatabase.com/
Being a spreadsheet geek myself and realizing how time consuming this must have been - I had to reach out to Michael Forstein first of all to thank him for his Indie initiative - by donating to his project - and then to find out more about how he put the whole thing together.
Who is Michael Forstein, the creator of the Film Festival Database ?
I’m a producer, filmmaker, and have worked in various capacities for film organizations and non-profits. I’ve been involved in film festivals in just about every capacity- as a filmmaker, audience member, juror, panelist, volunteer, employee, and festival producer.
Can you tell me when you came up with this idea ?
In 2015 I was submitting a feature and a short to festivals, and I created a spreadsheet to keep track - maybe 50-75 festivals I was considering. It was vital for tracking my submissions, acceptances, and ultimately deliverables, screening dates, etc. I figured filmmakers and producers all over the world were creating similar things for their own films. It seemed like a lot of people reinventing the wheel, but I didn't know what the alternative was.
The following year I taught a film festival strategy class and shared my spreadsheet with the students. Some of them hadn’t thought to be so methodical about festivals, and others had but maybe didn’t have the time or energy to do it, so they really appreciated having my version shared with them.
Fast forward to last spring- a colleague asked if I’d be interested in starting a film festival in my hometown. I wondered- if I were to start a festival, when would I want it to be? I wouldn’t want to schedule it the same weekend as other local festivals, or during a busy weekend nationally. I searched online for some kind of visual calendar that would allow me to scan through the year and see when things were busiest, but I couldn’t find anything. So I started to make one, really just to satisfy my own curiosity. The first step was gathering data into a spreadsheet, and when I noticed that this spreadsheet was essentially identical to the one I’d made four years ago when I was submitting to fests, something clicked- the problem I was trying to solve from a festival organizer's perspective collided with the problem I had tried to solve several years prior as a filmmaker. I realized it might be possible to solve both problems at once.
How long did it take for you to get this done ? Can you tell me a little bit about the process and apps you use ?
If you add up all the hours, probably 3-4 months of full time work. I started working on it last spring, put it away for the summer, then picked it back up in October. I set a goal of launching before Sundance, which inevitably meant several weeks working 24-7 to get it done. In that way it felt no different than pre-production, finishing a movie, or the build up to a festival - no matter how well you've prepared, no matter how much legwork you’ve done, the final push is always a beast.
As for the actual nuts-and-bolts process, just imagine two monitors, each with about 12 Chrome windows, each window with about 50 tabs open. Podcasts during the mindless clicking parts, instrumental or non-English music during the data input parts (so as not to cross wires), and constant riding the line of repetitive stress injury. Pretty glamorous.
I had some great help along the way: Isabella Matejka collected data on the initial batch of about 250 festivals. Paul Fischer, who has been a creative partner in some capacity on pretty much everything I’ve ever done, helped with the web, visual, and some of the creative and technical elements. Nick Baldwin wrote a custom script for the calendar portion of the spreadsheet (that’s the only piece of the project that’s automated - the calendar tabs populate from the info on the database tab each time I run an update function). And my friend Ryan Mattke, an expert on all things maps, helped me build the GIS map, which allows for more detailed interactive options than the Google Map.
What's the best way to submit an update to the database ?
If your festival meets the Guidelines for Inclusion and it’s not already in the database, fill out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdrUsEDGm-4MseZBoMd0vnpLIGDBrcqyolxH2alCUyVyVz3gA/viewform
If you notice an error or item that needs to be edited, email me at info@filmfestivaldatabase.com with a subject line:
“ EDIT - [festival name]”
I welcome emails, and appreciate everyone who’s reached out so far!
How can the film community support you in your efforts to keep this tool free and updated?
Donations help a lot! A small handful of people have donated already, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. I made and shared this on a hunch that it would be valuable to people but I really had no idea. I’m thrilled to see how many people have used it so far. The donations to this point have covered most of the actual cash expenses I incurred in creating the project, and donations going forward will help maintain it.
Ultimately, I’d love to add Canada, Europe, and the rest of the world, but long-term sustainability, and scale-ability, would require an organization or individual with significant resources getting behind the project. In the meantime, donations are deeply appreciated!
or visit the website:
Agatha Altarovici is a marketing consultant for Independent Filmmakers & the Art House community.
To find out more about her services, or how she has helped other filmmakers, visit her website: www.thecible.com