Regional Film Fests killing it (versus being killed) during the year of COVID: San Luis Obispo International Film Festival

One of the regional film festivals I have worked with the past few years has been the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival located on California’s Central Coast. It instantly became one of my favorite fests because it’s made-to-order for a vacation getaway town was so clearly invested in the film festival. I often talk about my delight of happening upon a little shop in San Luis Obispo that had put up an elaborate window treatment dedicated to the film festival. The business did that on their own. The SLO Film Fest team had nothing to do with it. As someone that preached until he was blue in the face to the communities and cities where the film festivals I worked for called a home, that they should embrace their film festivals and incorporate their businesses activities around the fests’ run, it was the first time I had seen such a thing matching what I had seen on French Riviera with the shops and restaurants celebrating Cannes.

Wendy Eidson, SLO Film Fest’s longtime Festival Director and do-everything stalwart had been the brains and heart and soul of the film festival for quite awhile before she brought me onboard to handle the press and PR. She successfully managed to build a distinctive film festival which had the unique quality of bridging the Central Coast’s dual identities: Wine Country and Surf Culture. Between the “marriage” of those two interests, she added strong lineups of independent film, coaxed to life a local filmmaking community, and for the cherry on top managed to secure some top level celebrity honorees for the fest’s King Vidor Award.

Last year, Wendy brought on Skye McLennan as Associate Director and then followed by having her take the reins as the film festival’s Program Director this year while she remained as Artistic Director. And I think one of the things that solidified the Eidson/McLennan team was how well they worked together to make the adjustments in March when the COVID avalanche happened – first to plan for stringent protocols to keep people safe for the fest and then, when it became clear that in-person screenings were out of the question to then instantly create and execute a virtual approach.

Two of my film festivals, SLO Film Fest and the Oxford Film Festival (which will be the subject of an upcoming column) were scheduled to happen during the same exact dates, both scrambled to handle the new dire situation, and then both had to scrap all of those plans immediately and come up with a new plan. They both did remarkably well.

One of the reasons that the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival was able to not simply do a rapid fire pivot to virtual, but also bring the bulk of their passholders and loyal San Luis Obispo film fans with them was the consistency of their presentation and communication and the calm sure handedness of Eidson and McLennan. Speaking of how McLennan has handled jumping into the choppy waters and looking forward, Eidson said, “It’s been a challenging time for her to take the reins but I’m so grateful to have someone in charge who’s willing to roll with the punches and stay connected to peers. Overall we are staying positive and looking for ways to keep our audience engaged this fall and early winter, and obviously it’s a challenge to plan too far ahead. We’re lucky we don’t have a big overhead and I think that’s taken the pressure off. I think I can speak for our board and staff when I say we are confident that we’ll be an even stronger and more relevant festival when the pandemic is behind us.”

McLennan also took part in the Film Festival Alliance’s Film Festival Leadership Lab, which brought together a handful of “next generation” film festival heads to come up with real ideas on ways forward and necessary innovations and reinventions of the film festival format and business model. Designed to be a weekend intensive, the pandemic forced a change to the approach. That approach became a weekly virtual series of Zoom meeting which lasted more than a couple months. It was another key application of FFA’s education process for its member fests to not just have a forum to commiserate and touch base, but to “move the ball forward”, to not settle with tired formats or be satisfied with subpar execution and break-even business practices, but to come up with tangible solutions.

McLennan’s personal project developed over the course of the lab: to update the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival’s mission statement and business plan with an emphasis on prioritizing festival staff and year-round employment and compensation to

Recognize the value in their experience handling vital jobs in programming, production, development, and community outreach, goes to the heart of why SLO Film Fest WAS successful in the face of a seemingly impossible situation.

So, now it’s her turn to look at what worked for SLO Film Fest as one of the first to do the (here’s that word again…) pivot to a virtual presentation and what her thoughts are about their approach to 2021 will be:

FGW:  Skye, why, does it seem to you (if that is the case) as though many regional fests fared much better than the larger, market-based fests?

Skye: I’m seeing strong local support for small businesses in many regional areas. There is a mental shift and refocus to think about how you are spending your money and where you patronize. We’ve been discussing streaming giants for years, but I think patrons are appreciating that what we offer a community is unique. Our festival is beyond just watching films or something to click on your Netflix queue. It has also made us reflect personally on what makes us unique and why we do what we do. 

FGW: Programming-wise, what did you discover doing this year’s edition of your fest that you had not anticipated (if anything)? What was communication like with the filmmakers? What adjustments did you make in that regard?

Skye: I was extremely surprised by the willingness of filmmakers to let us screen their films virtually. We were one of the first festivals to go virtual, but there was a strong desire to get their films to our audience in any capacity. The biggest concern was security of their films, and due to our limited platform we only let existing sponsors and passholders have access. 

FGW: Presentation-wise, how were the growing pains for the virtual shift? The biggest challenges and also the pleasant surprises? And what about doing drive-in screenings? What are your thoughts following doing the fest this year as you look ahead to 2021’s edition?

Skye: Our virtual festival was just a webpage we designed very quickly. At the point of our cancellation we had very little time and funds to use a proper platform and there was not a lot out there that fit our model. I was surprised by the level of support and feedback from our audience who were just so appreciative for the opportunity to still see the films. It was a reminder that our organization is an important staple of our community and something patrons were really going to miss. For 2021, we plan to partner with a proper streaming virtual platform and offer all the bells and whistles we do for in-person screenings, including intros, Q&As and more. 

FGW: Audience-wise, what did you personally see as the participation, enthusiasm, the actual numbers?

Skye: Most of our passholders tuned into our virtual festival and while disappointed about not having the festival in-person, they really appreciated the opportunity to see the films.

FGW: Staff-wise, what did you do this year to make it all work? How will that affect next year?

Skye: We operate with an extremely small team and had to furlough some of our staff over the summer due to our cancellation. I think putting on a virtual festival is just as much work if not more than an in-person event and my goal is to still secure staff and highlight the importance of staff for a successful event. 

FGW: Sponsorship-wise, and financially in an overall sense, what worked to even make having your film festival possible and keep the organization going not just for 2020’s edition, but also looking ahead to 2021?

Skye: Our sponsors were grateful for the opportunity to still be a part of the festival and get access to the films. I believe that it helped them understand our importance in the community and pledge to give us continued support in the future. With more time to plan for 2021, we hope to offer more incentives and opportunities to our sponsors next year virtually or in-person. 

FGW: Finally, none of us operate in a vacuum, Film Festival Alliance held weekly Zoom meetings addressing each of these concerns and production elements with member fests comparing notes, etc. Beyond the obvious, how did that help you specifically? Did you and do you have a sense that FFA took/takes a leadership role throughout the process? 

Skye: The FFA has helped create and cultivate a culture of collaboration I am eternally grateful for. I now have a network of peers who have all been on this rollercoaster together. It gives me continued optimism about the future of our industry when working collaboratively with such an incredible talent pool of folks who love putting on film festivals!