Void International Film Festival: The 2021 Edition

VOID is a full-ranging festival, offering both short and feature films, often accompanied by side activities such as masterclasses, workshops, or talks. From the beginning, a guiding force for VOID has been to “prove to people that animation for adults is an important piece of art, an important product” (Anne). As the festival founder Anne describes, the idea behind it is that a significant amount of animation is created for adults, but audiences are not so aware of it. VOID mainly deals with animation for adults, and in this sense, it is creating an alternative way of screening content that otherwise would not be noticed. With its unique cultural offer, VOID

“fills a big hole in the culture sector, in Copenhagen but maybe also in Denmark” (Diana). Another premise behind VOID’s mission of creating daring and unconventional animation content for

adults was giving a chance to animators to share their works. In fact, although there are many animators creating content for adults, the industry is not always suited for this offer, which does not always sell or get funds. However, although this was the initial idea and remains the core cultural offer, it has developed over time, since today VOID is also offering family-friendly content.

A high level of uncertainty undeniably characterized this edition of VOID. In 2020, when the team started to discuss a potential format, the pandemic was already a reality. Thus, they considered different scenarios, and the hybrid format idea already started to emerge. As Sandra describes: “When I joined, we talked about having a part of it online, perhaps 5% of the festival.

And the movies that we would screen online, we would also have them physical: so it would still have been 95% physical”. Different scenarios and combinations were considered as time passed;

however, the original plan was to reserve only a minor part for the digital side of the festival.

What happened in the end was that the pandemic forced the team to reverse their original thought, and Digital VOID became the main VOID.

Considering the hybrid format already in the last months of 2020 turned out to be a wise decision: since the festival ended up being primarily digital, they were not caught unprepared.

In January 2021, only a few weeks from the beginning of the festival, the team took the definitive decision to hold a digital version of the festival, and to postpone the physical screening for better times. Nevertheless, the team never stopped to hope for a physical, smaller version of the festival. They kept some titles for the potential reopening, and added to the physical program some additional material that came out later. However, uncertainty was still a constant element even in the final phases. When these interviews took place in April, the team had a plan for the physical screenings, but nobody knew if that would have been allowed. This element of uncertainty affected many stages of the festival organization, such as the difficulties in communicating and promoting factual information on the physical festival. The team described it as complex to give precise information to the audiences without having certainties, especially as the festival was getting closer. In the end Digital VOID successfully took place from the 26th of February to the 26th of March, but the physical screenings remained uncertain until late. It was only when Denmark announced the reopening of cinema venues for the 6th of May, that the arrangements with Cinemateket could take place again. At the present moment, it

appears as VOID will be allowed to physically screen some of its contents starting from the 17th of May.

After deciding to go online, the following step was to find a proper platform. The research took time because of the multitude of valid platforms emerged during the pandemic. Diana was the main person in charge of that, and since the VOID 2021 program involved both feature films and short films, she reached out to platforms suitable for both products. The team did not consider the idea of building their own platform, for reasons of time, budget and workforce.

After receiving several offers from the selected platforms, they decided to use the American platform Eventive. Eventive was founded in 2018 by the filmmaker Iddo Patt, with the mission of making independent films more accessible (Source: Eventive Website). Two years later, the pandemic made Eventive’s mission even more relevant, and today they describe themselves as

“the leading global provider of secure, ticketed, on-demand and live streaming of independent film content” (ibid.). The possibility of screening the contents not only in Denmark, but also in Sweden and Norway, was one of the reasons VOID finally chose Eventive. Another positive aspect was that this platform was founded by professionals from the field: “Eventive was made by festival organizers (...) they knew what they needed because they are in this world. So, everything I had a question about, they already had an answer to: that was really good” (Diana) 4.2. The Present: Digital Festivals

The circumstances forced VOID to adopt the digital format for the main festival, running from the 26th of February to the 26th of March, while postponing the physical festival to an unprecise date. Because of the pandemic, digital festivals held on online platforms have obviously constituted the majority of the festivals in the past year. Adopting this format was something unprecedented for the festival industry. It affected the organization of the festivals as well as more generic aspects of this field, such as networking or audience development. In this section, my aim is to outline the main outcomes film festivals could obtain from their online formats, whit a specific reference to the case of VOID. Afterwards, I will describe how this new configuration impacted three of the main activities correlated to a film festival: programming, audience development and networking.

4.2.1. Advantages of the Digital Format

The benefits of digital festivals were manifold in the interviewees' opinions, but one element in particular often emerged: the accessibility of this format. Film festivals are often reserved to an exclusive audience: as the founder of Eventive declares in his mission statement, they have been exclusive for too long, primarily because of the ticketing prices and processes (Source: Eventive Website). The first positive element of this new digital format, made possible thanks to platforms such as Eventive, is the democratization of the cultural product. By reducing the economic, geographical and ticketing barriers, most festivals are finally starting to bring their cultural product where everyone can consume it. As Stella described: "Generally, everything that is online has democratized a lot accessibility: I think it is really worth to put the focus on it". Thus, one crucial strength of digital film festivals is the democratization they can achieve through a higher level of inclusivity.

This inclusivity can occur in manifold ways. First of all, digital festivals usually allow reaching a more extensive geographical area than physical festivals would do, because they are not limited to the capacity number of the cinema venue. This element was evident in the case of VOID: typically, the audiences needed to be located or come to Copenhagen to attend the festival. A significant advantage of this digital edition was the chance to extend the screenings to the whole country, as well as Sweden and Norway. Thus, the festival went from being pretty local to cross its borders, getting people from all these countries, in line with their goal of enlarging their existing audience. Film-makers too found several benefits in these physical boundaries' liftings; this element applies to VOID, defined by a rich diversity in the creators' nationalities. For instance, Chonie Prysilia, the Indonesian director of the feature film "KOsOng – No One Inside" screened at VOID, described the considerable benefits of this format on promoting her title: "I found it very helpful, because Denmark is so far away from where I'm now.

To have a festival that does the best it can to sound my film, it's been a fun and helpful experience".

(Chonie). However, it is also true that, as the same Chonie Prysilia noticed, the chance of screening films abroad already existed with physical festival, since movies are a kind of cultural product that can easily “travel” across countries. The opportunity that distinguishes film festivals, in this regard, is that the audiences can watch these titles within the festival frame, but without needing to be in the same continent as the director. The Spanish film-maker Nacho

Errando, whose short film “A Phone Story” was screened during Digital VOID, described how it was not complicated for him to find festivals to join. Even without contacts in Denmark, he could quickly find VOID through the platform Festhome, together with several other digital festivals across Europe, which are currently showing his short.

Besides breaking the geographical barriers, digital festivals are also more accessible in terms of price. For instance, VOID’s offer consisted of a whole month of digital festival for the attractive price of 149 kr: with this price, people were able to screen more than 100 titles at any time during the month. VOID already had a competitive price point, but with no doubt the pass price was lower than it would have been in the physical festival, as Sandra describes: “If you wanted to watch the amount of content on a physical festival compared to this year’s digital, you would have paid 10/15 times as much”. Thus, this accessible price helped VOID reach a even wider audience. Another shared opinion was that, going digital, VOID could reach even those people who would maybe not go to Cinemateket. This cinema venue, where physical VOID has always taken place, can be perceived as something artsy, for cinephiles; thus, some audiences could feel it does not apply to their identity. Instead, the digital format does not require identifying with a specific cinema venue and can turn out as a chance for gathering broader audiences. As Sandra summarizes: “We had a chance to be more popular by doing it online (...) and perhaps reach an audience that would normally go to different cinemas, that are not as artsy”.

Considering digital film festivals from the perspective of the film-makers, another positive aspect emerged was how decision-making has become easier. Industry festivals in particular often holds pitching forums and work as markets for cultural products, and Chonie noticed the difference when they switched to the digital format. When the pitching forums began to take place online, all the decision-makers could finally gather in one virtual room without physically sending representatives to the festivals. In Chonie's opinion, this factor indeed sped up the deals of content acquisitions in industry festivals. Decision-making was also facilitated by the

"horizontality” caused by digital formats: in fact, there is a broad perception that going digital has flattened the hierarchies in the field. Nacho described this phenomenon: "You are in the same condition as the others. When you’re going to a physical meeting, maybe you don't have the contacts or the people are busy. Now, people have more time to meet digitally, and it’s easier".

This consideration was shared by Daniella, who highlighted how in platforms such as Clubhouse, people from the same field of interest could connect and pitch their projects more easily and horizontally. Thus, it appears that digital formats have changed the communication between the field's professionals. This phenomenon may also apply to a generational point of view: while younger generations grew up in a digital era, the pandemic also forced those who were less inclined or not used to digital communication to adopt it in their daily work interactions.

To conclude, the interviewees shared the perception of a generic flexibility associated with the digital format. First of all, it can make the programming choices more agile: for instance, Sandra noticed how adding a title could be decided from day to day, while changing the titles screened in a physical venue would take much longer steps. This programming flexibility, that allowed VOID to mix plenty of mainstream and underground titles on their online version, also granted the festival a wider inclusivity in terms of exposed content. Secondly, the digital festival is more flexible from the audiences’ perspective than the physical screening where they go to one specific venue on a fixed day and time. In the case of Digital VOID, audiences could watch almost every title during one entire month, thus being able to adapt the festival to their daily schedules.

Finally, the organizers can also benefit from the digital flexibility when it comes to evaluating results. It is much easier to get data on which results an activity brings, and this means that the festival performance can be optimized while the festival is still running.

4.2.2. Programming the Digital Festival

One of the main strengths of VOID is its program of shorts and feature films. The content screened during VOID has always been characterized by a tendency to niche titles, and by great diversity, in terms of nationalities, styles and techniques. It is relevant to consider how the programming phase has been affected by the digital format. What emerged is that the typical programming tasks did not change that much per se; instead, the necessity of going digital had a relevant impact on the choices in terms of digital and physical screenings. In the case of VOID, Sandra was the main person in charge of programming. During the preparation of the festival, she examined countless content, taking inspiration from VOID’s previous programs and the

“buzz” of other festivals. In a later stage, once she and the team had selected the content they

wanted to screen, her task would be to negotiate and coordinate the various film-makers and guests. Moreover, they needed to curate the definitive program to decide which movies will go together, which themes to create, which side activities to organize.

What I found most insightful for this research was the rationale behind what to screen during Digital VOID and what to keep aside for a future physical version. The team remembered a significant debate around this theme, that started back in 2020 when they realized going digital, at least in part, was becoming a necessity. The program composition certainly played a role in this discussion. The interviewees agreed that this year's program was slightly more popular, more approachable from neophytes of animation, than the previous editions. They mixed niche shorts and feature films with more popular titles such as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" or

"Fantastic Mr Fox", in line with their goal to get a broader audience. However, niche contents still constituted the core cultural offer, as Sandra describes: "We have a responsibility as a niche festival to shoot some content that might not hit the cinema, that you might not find on Netflix.

This is an opportunity for people who love animation to see something they wouldn't see elsewhere". A primary logic behind what to screen online was based on these niches titles. The team realized these small and independent titles would not be sold easily in cinemas because they are not directed by famous animators or studios. Thus, screening them online was a wise decision, also in terms of budget, to let the animation lovers still enjoy this niche content.

Moreover, the team had to consider technical requirements, too: for instance, some movies were just too dark to screen online, while some old films would have been challenging to convert to digital, thus were kept aside for the physical screenings. Besides these technical features, the team also realized some titles would have worked better or worse in the Cinemateket's venue. This logic relates to the abovementioned consideration about how Cinemateket is perceived. Thus, some old cult titles and retrospectives were on purpose not screened on Digital VOID, because they could be in line with the cinephile audience that usually attends Cinemateket. To sum up, going digital indeed impacted the program's curation, since the team had to examine how each title would have reacted to one or the other format. As Sandra summed up: "It was definitely a mix of technical requirements, debate on budget and also the experience of the movie".

4.2.3. Audience Development in Digital Festival

Adopting a digital format undoubtedly impacted another typical activity of film festivals, that is developing audiences. Among the several advantages of digitalizing festivals, according to the interviewees, there is the possibility to gather data in a faster and easier way. Through their platforms, festivals can gather plenty of data from their audience's habits: how many people watched a particular title, when they did it, when they stopped watching it. Moreover, digital festivals allow an expansive screening of the audiences' composition. This information gathering, which was more complicated when festivals were held physically, represents a unique chance for developing these audiences.

VOID's audience-driven approach highlights the importance of this festival to understand and cultivate the existing audiences while also looking for new ones. First of all, it is helpful to describe what these existing audiences look like. The interviewees referred to their loyal public, who attended VOID more than once in the past, with a specific name: "VOIDers". The team reached a consensus in describing how this variegated group would typically look like, and it can be summarized by the words of the founder Anne: "We do have personas: culturally interested, hipster-kind-of people in their 30s".

However, sticking only to this definition would be reductive. Stella, who was the main person in charge of the audience development activities, remembers creating some detailed profiles of these "personas" to understand better how to retain them effectively. First of all, the primary age range has usually been between 25 and 35. However, as I will later describe, this edition's audience became slightly younger than usual, thus reflecting success in the team's goal of reaching younger people. Besides this common trait, Stella explained that some shared traits could describe this loyal nucleus. First of all, the VOIDers are usually in that phase of life where they start to work and have their own money, that they are happy to spend on cultural consumption. Moreover, a segment of them works in the perimeter of culture: "They might not be animators or producers (....). They are part of what we call creative businesses, so they find VOID a good opportunity for networking, having interesting conversations, meeting people" (Stella). Thirdly, there is also a sub-group of VOIDers who like to attend these events just for the pleasure of gathering together, sharing an experience and meeting new people: they

like to invest in social occasions, especially in cultural ones. A common trait, that sums up the different subgroups of VOIDers, is that they are culturally sensitive people who like to experiment with different experiences in their spheres of interest.

On the practical side, VOID's team adopted a structured approach to understanding the VOIDers: starting from analyzing the past year's data, they met in person some of these people and consequently created specific profiles, called "personas". After understanding them, the intention was to empathize more with them and enhance their experience during the festival and throughout the whole year. The interviewees agreed that the goal of "reinforcing the brand" was carried out successfully. For instance, 43% of the final audiences purchased the

“early-bird" tickets, sold long in advance before the festival’s start, meaning that a many loyal attendees had probably returned from the previous years.

Besides maintaining this solid “followers” base, another primary goal of the team was to target and attract new audiences. The main pool of interest in this regard was VOID’s second most popular age group, ranging from 16 to 24 years old: “We would like to bring VOID to younger people, allow them to grow along the festival: to have them since they are 16 and they are at school, and after, to build this lab for animation together” (Stella). Thus, the team's goal was to understand what motivates and guides this demographic, to create an appealing offer for them and build a solid relationship. However, it may be complicated to catch the attention of this age group, as they typically have more spare time and a lot of recreational activities to choose from.

Moreover, VOID's team pertained to another age group: thus, they needed to interact with them and gather some first-hand information. To do so, the team ideated a broad collaboration with some of the most creative schools in Denmark to meet the students, engage them in activities such as workshops or focus groups, and retrieve the needed information to create some new personas. This activity would have been fruitful in understanding which cultural experiences meant the most to them and how to shape the communication to suit them. Unfortunately, the prolonged pandemic situation did not make it possible in the end to open these schools to VOID, but it will remain an intention for VOID 2022.

Even without the chance of interacting with younger audiences in their schools, the team agrees that they were pretty successful in expanding their audience to this age group. One reason was