What is the Film Festival Collective?

The Film Festival Collective (FFC) is a partnership between Comcast XFINITY and participating film festivals which presents selected short films on the XFINITY On Demand platform to customers in the Eastern half of the United States. The program spans across thirteen states and is available to millions of XFINITY customers. As of this writing, the growing list of festival partners includes the Atlanta Film Festival (which administers the collective), the Charleston International Film Festival, Indie Memphis Film Festival and the Nashville Film Festival.

Why should my festival participate in the Collective?

The Collective is designed to reach viewers who would enjoy film festival content but might not have been exposed to it. By presenting this material in a Video On Demand format, the Collective will reach beyond the normal channels where short form content is found and highlight the artistic curation of the individual film festivals who participate. Every filmmaker wants to find new audiences—this is a new avenue for their work, and your chance to demonstrate that your festival can bring new audiences to the work that you champion.

Is there any compensation available for filmmakers or for our festival?

The Film Festival Collective is intended to be a channel for discovery rather than a generator of revenue, so XFINITY and the festivals involved will charge nothing for access to the content beyond the normal cable subscription fees. You and your filmmakers won't receive monetary compensation for your work, but neither will we.

What are the terms of the agreements that the filmmakers sign with the Collective?

The agreement is non-exclusive to all other forms of short film distribution (online platforms, etc), though we do ask that filmmakers not enter into agreements with other cable VOD platforms for the 1-year term of your agreement with the Film Festival Collective. We assume no ownership of participating films other than to show the movie during the term of the agreement, and to use stills and clips from films to promote the Collective program. Because trailers, web pages, and other promotional content may continue to exist for longer than the term of the agreement, we reserve the right to continue using clips and stills beyond the term of the agreement. The term of the Collective agreement with filmmakers is one year, which allows us time to schedule films well in advance. Films are available on the service for a period of 90 days. At present the Collective is available in thirteen states, representing a large swath of the Eastern United States.

What are the responsibilities of the festivals who join the Collective?

Festivals are asked to select films from their recent events (going back three years, though more recent films are preferred) and to facilitate the relationship between the filmmakers and the Collective by making the initial approach and encouraging the filmmakers to participate and deliver materials in a timely manner. In addition, participating festivals are asked to perform a minimum number of promotional activities (the creation of a Collective page on your web site, email campaigns, social media mentions) to promote the Collective, particularly when your films debut on the service.

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