PRESS RELEASE
FilmFestivalLife has launched open accessibility to their new technology: the FilmFestivaLife Submitter. This means that from today, film festivals can evaluate and activate this sophisticated technology for all submissions, screening and selection, on their own terms.
Wearing the ‘Made in Germany’ stamp of technological excellence, the FFL Submitter has been hailed by the festival industry since its private release three months ago. Founding Partners include Doclisboa – International Film Festival, FILMFEST DRESDEN – International Short Film Festival Dresden and Ozu Film Festival, with countless more industry authorities remaining anonymous due to current exclusive agreements with Amazon owned competitor Withoutabox.
‘We’re really looking forward to start using your submission system and let me take this chance to personally congratulate this wonderful revolution on film festivals submission processes,’
Miguel Ribeiro, Program Coordinator, Doclisboa, 6th August 2013
‘We are really interested in the platform [FilmFestivalLife] and we decided to let filmmakers know that as of next year, 2014, we going to use this platform.You know, I have seen the other platforms and they are user un-friendly. I think the good idea is about the fact that it is really a social network.’
Enrico Vanucci, Ozu International Film Festival, 1st August 2013
FilmFestivalLife’s aptly described ‘Smarter Submitter’ includes the following features: Easy-to-use Admin Dashboard, Selection Committee Control, HD Quality Screening Rooms, Communication Center, Fees Management, Exporting features and an Archive. All can be viewed by festivals immediately, without signing any agreements. Even then, there are no hidden costs. In a new way of thinking, founding film festivals pay zero for the FilmFestivalLife Submitter. Subsequently, filmmakers save on postal costs and pay a minimal, legitimate fee for submissions. FilmFestivalLife’s CEO, Luca Zamai says, ‘This model aims to inspire the overdue growth and expansion of digital distribution and communication’.
Zamai feels festivals have suffered under the reign of too-few submission outlets for long enough, locked into long term agreements, left alone without technical support for long periods without notice and charged exorbitant fees for ‘marketing’. The release of Kaufman’s infamous Indiewire article May of last year stirred immense change, questioning the available outlets and concluding with, ‘Few festivals are willing to give up Withoutabox because of its immense reach. But how much longer will that be the case?’.
Since then, alongside numerous outfits offering new solutions, festivals have been finding new ways to manage submissions including but certainly not limited to Vimeo private linking, Google Docs, Paypal solutions alongside online forms and online forms alongside posted DVDs. It is here that Zamai needs to make it clear that this is not just a ‘replacement’ for the service, ‘FFL is not just another submission service, it is an environment,’ says Zamai. ‘We are building a place where you go if you are a festival organizer, buyer, VOD service, whatever and you are looking for films – and the place you go if you want to have your film discovered, screened and sold.
’It is this very distinction that makes FilmFestivalLife increasingly valuable for all sectors of the film festival industry. FilmFestivalLife is a financially accessible environment to provide support, sharing and socialization for the entire festival industry – all online, mostly free and all fun.
Since it’s first offering, FilmFestivalLife has built slowly and sensitively alongside the industry. Supported by the German government, FFL was built as a resource for the filmmaking community to enable the planning and building of film festival distribution internationally. From the Festival Search Engine to the Festival Rating Tools to Festival Lists and a large handful of social features, the platform has provided filmmakers with all the tools they need to submit. Up until now, the focus has been mostly on filmmakers, with Zamai planning the focus to eventually extend threefold to festivals. That time is now. The team at FilmFestivalLife are excited about the future features in the pipeline including festival-to-festival program sharing, making the discovering and selection of films more organic and flexible.
Assisted by a small amount of investment and a large amount of passion in a very small team working from their Berlin headquarters, this launch also marks the growth of the FilmFestivalLife team. Festival aficionado Marcin Åuczaj, currently working as head of guest department for Warsaw Film Festival, programmer at Zubroffka Film Festival and World Shorts among others, has joined the team to link this new technology to the Eastern and Central European festival organizers and support FFL’s business development. FilmFestivalLife has also begun internship programs to assist with the marketing and client relation management of the new ‘Smarter Partners’.
The FilmFestivalLife Submitter is accessible via www.filmfestivallife.com: ‘Sign up’ and ‘Create festival’ and you are there. Kill your curiosity. See the FilmFestivalLife Smarter Submitter live and decide on your own time the definition of ‘smarter’.