Trailblazers: Katie Bignell at Festival Formula
Posted on May 9, 2025 by Admin
As founder and strategist at Festival Formula, Katie Bignell guides creators through submission, selection and rejection – all par for the course when entering the film festival circuit
Words Katie Kasperson
For filmmakers, the festival circuit can seem never-ending, with many first-timers overwhelmed by their options and unsure where to begin. But since 2014, Katie Bignell, her husband Ian and the rest of the Festival Formula team have been working to demystify this process.
Bignell draws on 20 years of experience to offer advice on almost every topic, like which festivals to target and when to move on. “It’s a tediously slow process,” she states, before adding, “but doing research can save a whole lot of time and money.”
She’s found that many new filmmakers approach the circuit with the assumption that a one-size-fits-all strategy works best. “That’s the biggest misstep. I wouldn’t call it a mistake, as every filmmaker does it,” she admits.
Instead of applying for all of the most famous festivals – Cannes, Venice, Berlinale, Sundance and so on – right off the bat, Bignell urges filmmakers to ‘do their research’, be realistic and select programmes that are a good fit.
“Don’t lock yourself off from the opportunities that you might not have considered,” she stresses. “Some of the smaller, regional, off-the-beaten-track festivals are where you’re going to meet your next collaborator.”
This sense of connection is an invaluable aspect of the in-person circuit experience – and something missing from online festivals. “Purely online festivals do not have the same impact as in-person festivals for several reasons,” Bignell explains. The first is that “online festivals often run monthly, which devalues a filmmaker’s work because you’re the best of what was submitted that month, rather than the best of that season or year.” The second is that online festivals “are not the all-encompassing event you’d have if you were physically there in person,” she adds.
Online festivals also run the risk of being illegitimate, tricking filmmakers into paying for a laurel that’s ultimately meaningless. “As soon as you make a film just for it to be a career stepping stone, you tie yourself into a lot of rejection and disappointment,” Bignell suggests, though she knows it can be tempting to seek validation. At the end of the day, “it’s about sharing your film with a particular audience because that’s who you’ve made the film for.”
In the age of omnipresent technology, film festivals are taking on a different role and, in a sense, replacing the traditional cinema trip. “If you missed a film that was out at the theatre, you wait a couple of months and it’s on Netflix or Amazon Prime – or you can hire it off one of the SVODs,” Bignell describes. “The beauty of film festivals is that they capture that idea of strangers in a dark room, and the experience of watching a new film. It’s an exciting time for festivals now because they’re doing what theatres used to do.”
Now at Festival Formula for over a decade, Bignell has seen the industry evolve through pre- to post-pandemic times, endure Hollywood strikes and now navigate the rise of GenAI. Despite it all, “I love this job,” she concludes. “Every day is different, which keeps it exciting.”
Discover more about other trailblazers discussing the obstacles and opportunities for women in cinema.
Learn more at festivalformula.com
This story appears in the April 2025 issue of Definition
