How to Start and Organize a Film Festival

Film Festivals are a great way to showcase new movies that you and your classmates have produced.

While most film festivals will take a long time to prepare, they can also be done quickly, and less professionally at the high school level.

Step 1: Naming the Festival

One of the First things that you should do is name your film festival.
Every film festival has a name.

The better the name, the more interesting it will sound, and more people will look into it.

Here are some of my ideas for our film festival name:

Greatest Film Festival on Earth
Second Greatest Film Festival on Earth
Cannes (ummm....is that taken?)
Almost Perfect Film Festival
Mr. Big and Tall Film Festival
Sears Film Festival brought to you by Wal-Mart, for all of your filming needs.

Feel free to leave ideas in the comments, I will add them in here later.

Step 2: Getting the Venue

You will need to book a venue for the festival.
This can cost a lot of money, and will need to be booked long in advance.

For instructional purposes, I am using the projector, and Smart Board in my Classroom.
The Smart Board is a great alternative to an expensive theatre that would cost thousands of dollars.

Step 3: Budget

You will need a budget
To get money specifically for the film festivals, you could create an entry fee, or even collect sponsorships.

If you are doing this for fun, on a small scale, such as in a classroom
there won't be much of a budget.

You could get a catering company to provide food. Or have the guests and movie makers bring their own food.

A popcorn machine would be an awesome addition to the festival and it would blow everyone's mind.

Step 4: Schedule

You will need a schedule to help plan what movies will be seen, and when.
With a large scale film festival, this is crucial.

On a smaller one with your friends, and a limited audience,
a schedule may not be needed.
However, many film festivals held at my school have been done around exam time, so that people may show their movies at the end of the year.

Depending on how many entries there are, it could take anywhere from one day, to the whole week.

Step 5: Getting the Films, and People

You will need to invite:

Directors
Producers
Writers
Actors
Audience
Critics/Judges

If you are doing it in a school, you could invite the principal, students, or teachers who are on prep.
Make sure everyone has their films prepared, so everyone is set for the day.

You could also lure people in with promises of snacks and immortality.

Step 6: Crew

You will need a crew to help run the festival. They are in charge of keeping everything running.Crew are one of the most important parts of a film festival.They are a necessity. Feel free to use friends, or other people from your classes. With any luck, they will work for free, just to get out of class.

This would include:

Lights
Projector/Screen
Food
Doormen
Bouncers

Step 7: Promotion

Put up posters of movies, and give descriptions.
This is so people have an idea about what they will be seeing.

Encourage people to be creative with their posters, in order to generate a lot of hype for the festival.

Set up the posters along the walls of the venue, so that everyone there will be able to see them upon entering.
You could possibly have the creator show the poster while introducing the movie.

Step 8: Showing the Movies

Show the movies to the audience
You could possibly have the directors explain it before it begins.

Make sure to rate the movies as they go on, so that you can review them, give constructive criticism, and possibly, hand out awards.

You could get a red carpet, print tickets, get a popcorn machine, or various other movie related items, that would make it as interesting as possible.

Step 9: Awards: Optional

You could hand out awards, as most Film Festivals do, but this isn't a necessity.
However, it could be fun, and give rewards to those who did exceptionally well.

Try not to rub it in anyone's faces though, or they won't want to do it again, or will be discouraged from their failing dreams.

Award Ideas: