How film festivals collect film submissions
Film festivals receive hundreds of large video files in a short period, usually from filmmakers all over the world. A shared upload point with generous size limits removes the two recurring problems: files that are too large to send, and submissions that arrive through channels nobody is watching.
What makes festival submissions difficult
- screeners and masters are frequently tens of gigabytes
- submissions arrive in a concentrated period before the deadline
- filmmakers use whatever service they know, so material lands in many places
- free consumer links expire before the selection committee gets to them
- unreleased films must not circulate beyond the committee
How festivals solve it
- Create a folder for the edition or for each section of the programme.
- Share it with write access, or publish an upload address on your own subdomain.
- Send filmmakers a single instruction with that address.
- Let submissions arrive directly into the folder, without accounts on the filmmaker side.
- Give the selection committee read access to the same folder.
- Keep the material available for as long as the selection process runs.
Why size limits matter here
A festival screener in reasonable quality is routinely 5 to 30 GB, and a DCP or master far more.
MyAirBridge covers 20 GB per transfer even on the free tier, 250 GB on Pro, and removes the limit entirely on Enterprise, so filmmakers are not forced to compress work that will be judged on its image quality.
Protecting unreleased films
- password-protected shares, available from the Pro plan
- end-to-end encryption for material under embargo
- expiration set to the end of the selection period
- read-only access for committee members
- a log of incoming transfers, so it is clear what arrived and when
In practice
Dozens of international film festivals use MyAirBridge to collect submissions and to distribute material inside their teams, including festivals in Poland, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
The common pattern is one upload address published in the call for entries, and folders per section behind it.
FAQ
How can a festival receive large film files?
Through a folder shared with write access or a branded upload address, so filmmakers upload directly without accounts and files land in one place.
How large can a submission be?
Free transfers cover 20 GB, Pro covers 250 GB, and the Enterprise plan removes the transfer limit entirely.
How do we keep unreleased films protected?
Use password protection and end-to-end encryption, give the committee read-only access, and set expiration to match the selection period.
Summary
Festivals collect submissions most reliably through a single upload point with high size limits, protection for unreleased material, and read access for the selection committee. MyAirBridge is used this way by dozens of international festivals.