A short summery of Indie Online: Adapting to New Online Platforms

The upheaval of the global COVID pandemic has likely transformed the traditional festival circuit as well as the way we watch films, consume content, and participate in events. Film festivals provide the independent animator and filmmaker opportunities to connect with audiences, develop networks, link with funders, producers, distributors and multipliers, usually with ‘face to face’ opportunities such as roundtables, pitching etc. In the absence of physical meetings, cinema experiences, and opportunities for live audience participation what are the challenges independent animation filmmakers face? Also, as new online platforms and solutions emerge, what does the new model look like? This post will summarise some of the key findings from the Indie Online research project led by Michelle Kranot of The Animation Workshop/VIA University College, and offers some suggestions for festivals and independent animators when considering new distribution models.

The research took place between March 2020 and October 2020 and involved semi-structured interviews with 20 film festivals and 20 independent animators and filmmakers. The majority of interviewees reflected on the accessibility of the online format of a festival concluding that audiences (including filmmakers, distributors, multipliers, and the general public) can find the online format difficult to navigate and that film festivals need to invest more attention in helping them locate for the most valuable experience. The audiences’ physical appearance at a physical festival enables a navigation of the exhibition space(s) that is hard to replicate online. The screen can flatten and homogenize the audience’s experience.