2023 is just around the corner and this year has seen more and more film festivals get back up and running as live events. I also saw lots of new and exciting changes happening within the festival landscape post-pandemic. With that in mind I put together a list of what I foresee as being the key trends which will be occurring within the film festival world next year.
1. Film Festivals will become more immersive. With the rise and popularity of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), filmmakers now have the option to tell their stories in different ways. VR allows people to immerse themselves in a story by putting them inside the world of the film. AR lets users see the real world through the eyes of characters in a film.
The Tribeca Festival and Chelsea Film Festival (among others) were 2 of the very first festivals to programme VR content and have been adapting their festival to the changing environment. Tribeca’s ‘Immersive’ programme includes virtual reality projects, 360 films, augmented reality projects, web projects, mobile apps, multi-media installations and multi-platform works, all of which have some sort of interactive element.
2. Film Festivals receive tons of submissions (Sundance receives over 7,000 submissions and that figure tends to increase each year). A lot of these submissions tend to be completed short length & feature length films. I foresee that there will be an increase in podcast submissions and unproduced screenplay submissions, as both of these categories are becoming more popular as they hold a lot of value for networking purposes.I really enjoyed the podcast programme at the 2022 edition of HollyShorts.
Several clients of mine who had unproduced screenplays touring the festival circuit had very successful festival runs which resulted in one client securing a literary agent and the other met an investor who contributed towards funding her film.
3. It’s a fact – people are going back to the cinema and this will continue to increase as festival audiences are selling out. According to Statista, throughout 2021, movie theaters across the United States and Canada sold approximately 492.2 million tickets, up from less than 222 million tickets in the previous year – an annual increase of about 122 percent.
Inevitably, this will result in people spending more time watching movies than they did previously. Before the pandemic began experts were predicting that we’ll see a decline in the number of films made each year. However, more and more new films are released each year and especially with regards to the thriving independent film scene; there’s always a short or feature film being made and available to watch 24/7 on film festivals online & in person.
4. The hybrid Model is here to stay – during 2020, Film Festivals had to move online and run as virtual events due to the global pandemic. Not all filmmakers (and festivals) warmed to this idea at first, however, it soon became part of the ‘new normal’ and a lot of festivals soon began to see the value in the online platform to reach a wider, global audience. I predicted that the online platform would be here to stay and it has, as festivals are embracing the hybrid model (where the festival is both online & in person) I feel confident that the hybrid model will still continue to have a strong presence in 2023 and that maintaining a digital presence will be especially important for smaller, regional festivals, in order to attract larger international audiences.
Do you have a topic that you’d like me to cover in a future column? DM me on Instagram @rebekahfilmdr and let’s connect. I’d love to know what else I can help you with.
