Film festivals began as the Guides for the film industries of the world, the torch bearers, the path finders and Enablers. The job of a film festival therefore is clear cut; guide the film community on the latest developments in the art commerce and science of cinema, bring to surface new experiments in films, help film makers reap the best benefits out of their creations, draw their attention to new products, technologies.
A film festival therefore must reach out and source cinema that may be hidden from the eye. It may be under submission files, it may in some small countries. At the business level, the film festivals must engage in the match making activity and help nurture as many film projects, as possible.
The Film festivals must also keep an eye on latest scientific developments and innovations in the field of cinema and create a platform to present all such technologies and innovations. These could be a camera, a certain light, crane, dolly, projector, editing software or just anything. In the first few years of the arrival of Digital Cinema, some Festivals frowned upon the technology and its propagators. Today, the same Festivals have adopted the digital technology.
A film festival is therefore a place where people arrive with lots of expectations. These are diverse crowds from within the film making community, but their needs need to be addressed. The Festivals must understand that the expectations of a technician are far different from that of a Film Critic or young short film maker. Accordingly, the film festivals must customize and create spaces for each set of film making community.