OUFF Short Film Festival 2023

FILM FESTIVAL

As President of the Oxford University Filmmaking Foundation, I was responsible for organising OUFF's second ever film festival. I had been involved in the first last year as the Marketing Manager and was therefore familiar with the structure and how it was run. 

I began by posting a committee call out at the start of Michaelmas Term. I needed a Deputy Director, Head of Marketing, Head of Film, and Speakers Rep. At the end of the year we also did our call out for films. 

Emma, the Deputy Director, and myself started planning the launch party. I had organised it for the year before – it had been highly successful and sold out – and I knew what I wanted to keep and change. We booked a club in central Oxford (a much more accommodating venue that the previous year). We designed a themed menu, a dress code, and bought decorations. The only thing that did not happen which disappointed me was that we were unable to screen a trailer at the venue. We did not sell out this year (people are much busier post COVID) but we nevertheless had a great turnout. 

Emma, Téa (Head of Film), and myself managed the film submissions. After deciding which ones we wanted in the festival, we organised them into categories for each night: Absurd and Experimental, Pivotal Moments / Crucial Conversations, Dreamy and Poetic, Unheard Stories: Documentaries, and The Darker Side of Film. We had fun with these titles and knew they would be a key part of our marketing strategy. 

I ultimately did most of the marketing for the festival. I relied on BTS / stills from the films and information about the various crews, knowing that friends and family would be our biggest audience. I focused on digital marketing to reach students (asking other societies to reshare information to their circles) and print marketing to reach locals in Oxford. The latter was more effective than anticipated: I caught many groups of strangers looking at the posters throughout Oxford and would stop to tell them about the events. Ellie, our Graphic Designer, did a brilliant job with the posters. I absolutely love them. 

One of the biggest changes from the previous year was that we chose to only screen each film once. Although we sold a lot of tickets in 2022, our turnout was not ideal. Screening each film only once forced attendees to show up if they wanted to see the film, instead of convincing themselves they could go to the next one. We sold-out each screening and had to add additional tickets on the day to support demand (we of course had some additional space because people do not show up).

I delegated the awards ceremony to other members of the committee, but when it became clear it would not go ahead unless I interfered, I began to organise the event. Because of this it was relatively last minute, which meant we didn't have a great turnout, but it was still fun!

The biggest let down of the festival was arguably that we didn't have any industry speakers. We did contact a lot of people but were unfortunately unable to convince any industry professionals to visit on our budget. 

I'm really proud of how the festival came together. With more resources and a bigger team it could be even better next year.