Film festival

A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online.

Films may be of recent date and, depending on the festival's focus, can include both international and domestic releases. Some film festivals focus on a specific format of film, such as documentary, or runtime, such as short film festivals, or genre, such as horror films, category of filmmakers, such as women, production country/region or subject matter.

Film festivals can be competitive or non-competitive, and are often regarded within the film industry as launchpads for new filmmakers and indie films, as well as boosters for established filmmakers and studio productions. The films are either invited by festival curators or selected by festival programmers from submissions made by the filmmakers, film producers, production companies, sales agents, or distributors. Often, audiences have the opportunity to watch films premiering months before their commercial release, or films that may not benefit from a wide release and would otherwise be hard to find.

The oldest film festival in the world is the Venice Film Festival. The most prestigious film festivals in the world, known as the "Big Five", are (listed chronologically according to the date of foundation): Venice, Cannes, Berlin (the original Big Three), Toronto, and Sundance. Other major festivals include Karlovy Vary, Locarno, San Sebastián, SXSW, Telluride, Tribeca, Raindance Film Festival, Edinburgh Film Festival, Glasgow Film Festival, Slamdance Film Festival, Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival, and the three largest and most prestigious genre festivals, Sitges, Fantasia and Fantastic Fest.