The movie industry is a huge one. Everybody knows this. But it is huge, not just in terms of valuation or contents being produced. It is actually in the seemingly mundane things like getting a movie accepted into film festivals.
Film festivals have historically been a place for new movies to be premiered for the prime time. But thanks to video on demand services like Vimeo, the importance of film festivals has waned somewhat.
However, from this part of the world, film festivals are still very important and getting your movie accepted into the right one could go a long way in making that movie a big hit.
This is where Festivilia comes in.
What is Festivilia?
Festivilia is a movie distribution platform. Founded in 2017, the platform helps creatives distribute their films to films festivals. With just one submission form, filmmakers can get their movies into over 500 film festivals across the globe.
According to the founder Tobi Ogunwande, Festivilia was started “as a result of my own frustration in having to comb through numerous film festivals rules and regulations from the other submission platforms available before deciding which is a perfect fit for my film.”
I will rather prefer to use my time for other valuable things. Unfortunately, that can’t happen because I have to do all the work. The idea of Festivilia was born to help other filmmakers like myself spend less time scouting and submitting to film festivals and focus on creating more amazing films. –Tobi Ogunwande
Using its own proprietary algorithm, Festivilia curates film festivals and matches a film to its preferred festivals. Films are automatically submitted to diverse reputable film festivals based on a number of factors including your genre, length, location, among others.
The Festivilia team is constantly researching and reviewing festivals and only adds competitions worth submitting to. This activity greatly reduces the time spent by filmmakers to sort out film festivals and submit to individually.
The startup which has been in existence for a year now started out in beta for some time before kicking off full operations. So far, it has helped submit 307 films across various film festivals. Over 70 of these movies have gone on to win awards at various film festivals.
And according to the Lagos-based startup, it has had a 70% acceptance rate so far. It now has now also successfully on-boarded 565 film festivals.
Festivilia’s Revenue Base and Growth Potentials
Festivilia operates a freemium subscription service. Its free tier is tailored to suite short movies. Only one film can be submitted each year, and the film’s distribution is restricted to just 10 film festivals.
Its paid plans cost $9.99 and $19.99 per year with each payment plan offering a wide variety of options and distribution spread.
Festivilia looks poised for plenty of growth going forward. For one thing, its service is not restricted to Nigeria. For such a utilitarian service at an evidently cheap subscription plan, the service could prove successful among filmmakers.
However, plenty of publicity is needed to get Festivilia to the right customers. For now, publicity looks really poor. Its social media presence is all but active. All that would need to change to get this service off the ground.
