You
can't judge a book by its cover, but can you judge a festival by
its website? That's what we wondered when we set out to explore
the websites of the many festivals on the circuit. With more than
1,000 festivals in our festival directory, we examined a selection
of 100 fest websites in hopes of sorting out what options festivals
make available to their global visitors.

Of
course, to compare festival websites would be like comparing Truffaut
and Spielberg. You can't. So we won't. Of course, the classic festivals
such as Toronto and Deauville tend to have slicker sites than an
independent short film festival with a smaller budget and less prestige.
In
addition, there are festivals in the classic sense (with nominations/screenings/award
ceremony and sometimes a market). And
there are "new media" festivals, with a strong emphasis in internet,
seminars, new techniques, online forums, etc ...

Another
factor to be considered: is it an independent festival or is it
organized by a foundation? A festival in the latter category is
much more likely to have updates throughout the year than the fests
which happen once a year and disappear from the circuit.

When
it comes to past glory, we say go for it! Fortunately, 67% of festivals
have links to past events or similar archives. Some change the URL
address each year and leave the older site online, which is unfortunate
when looking for the festival on a search engine. Most of the sites
(80%) have a brief introduction and/or history -- very useful to
the web surfer who wants to know more.



About 48% of the festivals upload news during the festival on their
site. And only 18% have updates between two editions of the festival.
Of this group, 18% are organized by foundations promoting films
and cinematography who are active throughout the year; their festival
is only one part of their activities between seminars, workshops,
markets, etc… More than 77% of the festivals have other activities
during the festivals, like workshops, markets, interviews, discussions,
etc…



Only 25% of the festival pages have Flash content. Streaming is
found on only 20% of the sites, predominantly on the bigger festivals.
From this group, most of them use streaming techniques either to
present the highlights of their own festival, or to show trailers.




Not one festival from the sample has an online submission link,
whereas online short film festivals are more likely to sport this
feature.

There
were boutiques on 23% of the sites. Most of them sell merchandise
directly related to the festival, whereas some link directly to
online vendors. Fourteen percent of the sites have online ticket
sales. The bigger festivals (50%) tend to have online accreditation
forms, whereas only 13% of all have online accreditation forms.

The
festivals that we found the easiest to use, with the friendliest
graphics were the Berlinnale and the San Francisco International
Film Festival. Particularly useful were the search engines for the
films they screen, clear press information (a personal favorite
here at FilmFestivals.com!), and easy surfing. Though less consulted
than the others, the Black Nights Film Festival and the Hong Kong
International Film Festival had very beautiful (though some say
"too funky") scores according to our researchers. What
we learned from our research is that there are many viable options
to make a great website ... and when it comes to online options
... the more the merrier!