Please ensure all material is sent 2 weeks before the start of the festival. Please get in touch with us if this is a problem for you.
Please send all download links to adam@filmfestinternational.com.
Please Note:
Please be aware of the naming structure given below for all files. For the main Film Screener file, simply the name of the film is all we need in the filename. Please do not use a shorthand version or just the initials of your film name.
Screenings:
TL,DR – a H.264 file, under 20GB. We don’t screen DCP format.
Please send us the film in it’s entirety via the same methods as you send the clips. We prefer to have all files sent digitally. We understand there are questions of security however please be assured we take this very seriously. Files are downloaded to an external hard drive which is kept securely at our office. Further, our screening computers never connect to the internet.
Clips:
Below is an example of how we use the clips on the awards evening.
Clips must be roughly 20 seconds long – We will cut this shorter for the final Awards Video.
We would like a different clip for each nomination you have. If you have 5 nominations and you send 1 clip that means on the night everyone will watch that same clip 5 times. To showcase your film best we would like to show different parts that are relevant to the category. If this isn’t possible, simply sending 1 long clip would suffice and we can cut it from there.
When cutting clips, please do not add your company name, film name, distributor name, selection laurel or any other information to the beginning, end or during the clip. We will edit this off as we need to make every clip the same. Ideally we would like the clip only, with no writing except subtitles where appropriate (see Point 4 below). This includes “For Consideration” or other such writing over the top of the film.
We are an English speaking Festival. We host events around the world but they are all English speaking. If your film is not in English then if possible, please add English subtitles to the clips you send.
We can deal with most video formats. We use Adobe Premiere Pro for all editing. If we encounter a format we cannot use we will do our best to convert it. With this being said, please make it easier for us and send a format that is usable with our software.
The final edit will be 1920 x 1080 resolution. Anything not in this resolution will be cropped appropriately to fill the screen. Please send HD footage but please don’t go overboard on file size. Ideally we would like all clips to be no more than a couple hundred MB’s.
Please name the file in the following way: Film Name – Category Nominated in – Festival/City Name
If the Category isn’t specified, we will distribute the clips as we see fit. If the film name isn’t specified on each clip (not just the download folder) then there is a chance we may not know which film to attach it to and therefore write back to you and ask you to send again.
We get so many clips sent to us from all over the world at all times during the year. When we have a file called “Clip1.mov”, or something similar, it’s hard for us to distinguish which film it’s from or which Festival it’s for. Please make it easier for us.
To get the clips to us you can use any of the following:
Please be aware of Download expiry when sending. For example, Hightail is a popular service but often only allows 48 hours to download. We would rather not use this service. WeTransfer tends to give at least 7 days – this is just about ok for us. Our preference is always Dropbox or Google Drive for all files.
Vimeo would be our next choice but please ensure you send us the password and enable downloads so we can get the file.
We don’t have the ability to enable uploads via our own FTP server however we are able to download from your FTP. We use FileZilla for this.
Please Note:We cannot accept any links from Aspera Connect. Unfortunately this service is incompatible with our systems and we can’t download any files from this service.