Task A1 - Short film festivals

BFI Film Festival

The BFI film festival is an event where hundreds of filmmakers from all over the world, can showcase their short films that are no longer than 10 minutes. The first event was on the 16th of October 1953, it is for 16-25 years old who would like to participate or who are film fans. BFI event gets funded through their different partners such as American Express, the national lottery, Odeon etc. However, if you want your short film to be in the showcase then it's a £15+ fee which depends on different aspects such as country. They may be charging the film makers because BFI is the organisation who is providing the screen for the movie to play on and the audience to watch it, therefore they may feel as if they want to get some profit out of the event for future events. Paying to showcase my short film here is understandable, I know there's some film festivals that do not charge to showcase your film but because BFI is funded by Odeon. I think that publicity will be very good as Odeon is a very popular cinema.

The BFI film festival attracted approximately 208.9 thousand people in their 2017 event. This shows that BFI film festival gets a lot of people attending their event yearly, illustrating that their event is quite popular. This suggests that showcasing my short film at this festival could help with publicity and awareness, for film fans like me who are trying to make their films and ideas known.

They have a variety of genres they showcase such as love, debate, journey etc. On the BFI website, it doesn't show that they have got any drama short films. My short film will be a drama which could mean that my film would be the first drama, this is good because I will have the opportunity to impress everyone with my short film as it seems as if BFI has never showcased a drama.

BFI uses Instagram, Twitter and Facebook which demonstrates that there's a wide range of people who know about the festival. This suggests that I will be able to use their social media accounts to promote my film and the dates it will be showcased, I will also be able to promote my film on my own social media platforms. Many young teenagers aged 16-25 years old use social media which helps with promoting as my focus is for ages 11-25 years old, however 11 year old are too young to attend the showcase.

(R. E. F https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/default.asp?menu_id=BC501999-F108-4187-8EDC-159FF6BF8C90&sToken=1%2Cdfc093ef%2C5bfea9cc%2C95286DE0-5B95-4C19-A37E-E0F3FE3577B0%2Ch8Gh4Dz%2FIgzZqCqIzNp5aCa1reg%3D)