Networking in film festivals takes place at the pavilion of the film market, at the premieres, at parties and in the queue for buying a snack. As every festival-goer has a special purpose for attending, the conversations are not only but mostly concentrated on exchanging ideas and information. During this exchange, new ideas are generated, deals made, friendships formed and cultivated. People will also be talking about the latest films seen and give an opinion on them, being reminded every time how different tastes are in the arts, and especially in cinema. What a nice idea – to get together with someone who has completely different likes and dislikes, show each other your favourites, discuss and maybe discover something new.

The festival circuit is a metropolis with many different districts which are connected to each other but differ in their popularity and speciality. However, when visiting some of these districts regularly, and some occasionally, hubs appear and the ties between the festivals and attendants become tighter – thus eventually the metropolis feels more like a village where everybody knows each other. There’s a theory which claims that if you know 6 people you know the entire world – film festivals prove it time and time again.

by Zsuzsanna Kiràly