Research Outputs
2025 Activity
The Network Effects project launches in early 2025 at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France. This key industry gathering provides an ideal platform to introduce our methodology and begin establishing our international partner network.
Following this, we will host "Measuring What Matters: Festival Impact in the Local Creative Ecology", a symposium bringing together regional stakeholders to explore how improved festival impact measurement could benefit local screen industries. This event will help shape our data collection frameworks while ensuring they serve both local and international needs.
Our initial phase focuses on developing robust foundations for long-term research. We are creating standardised data collection frameworks and establishing secure data-sharing protocols with partner festivals. A comprehensive baseline report will document current evaluation practices across participating festivals, providing crucial context for measuring change through new methodologies.
Future Development
The project's second phase will implement our Actor-Network Theory methodology for tracking career progression through the festival ecosystem. This will be supported by a web-based data visualisation platform making visible the complex networks of relationships festivals create. We will produce detailed case studies demonstrating festival impact on filmmaker careers, alongside academic papers examining the effectiveness of new evaluation methodologies.
Looking ahead, our ambition is to establish the first dedicated Festival Data Research Centre, providing a permanent home for research into festival impact. This centre will develop new industry standards for measuring festival impact, maintain our data visualisation platform, and produce regular reporting on global sector trends. Through this work, we will continue building the evidence base needed to reshape how cultural funding bodies approach festival evaluation.
PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS
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Festival Partners One-Pager
Document shared with founding festival network partners
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Partnership building in Clermont-Ferrand
Report on initial research idea exploration with potential partners
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Measuring What Matters
Roundtable discussion on local benefits of this research
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Short Measures
2016 study exploring limitations of film festival data collection
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Reference List
An active list of publications and articles, updated regularly, that have informed this study
Photography courtesy of Encounters Film Festival ©Matt Whiteley and Jon Craig