It is called film festival tourism and it is what Prescott Film Festival founder Helen Stephenson projects businesses can bank on with its fifth annual festival in July.
Film festivals attract filmmakers, their friends and family and cinema tourists who generate ticket sales and naturally will have lodging and restaurant needs; in turn, bolstering business revenues.
Some of the most popular and longest-running festivals generate revenues in the millions of dollars, with vivacity and incredible influence sometimes stronger than their host city.
Proof in one word: Sundance.
Stephenson, a Prescott resident, says her motivation to bring a film festival to the area stemmed from her love of Independent Films and the realization about a film festival’s economic potential.
“It seemed like there was a hole in our community waiting to be filled,” she said. “Film festivals bring art, tourism and, when filmmakers come back to shoot their next films, economic development to a town.”
Reports show popular festivals can produce revenues in the millions: Austin’s 20-year-old festival generates $8 million for its local economy annually, based on Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau estimates. Even radically greater is Park City, Utah’s Sundance Film Festival, which last year generated $70 million for the state and brought some 46,000 attendees.
Can Prescott’s relatively new cinematic bait create its own economic boon?
Absolutely yes, says Ty Fitzmorris, who owns two Prescott businesses, Peregrine Book Company and The Raven Café. “Having a vibrant, culturally-driven community will have positive financial impacts for Prescott’s economy,” he said.
About 50 local and state businesses, entities and organizations sponsor the PFF in some manner, whether monetarily or through service barters. Familiar names like Margaret T. Morris Foundation, J.W. Kieckhefer Foundation, James Family Trust, Arizona Commission on the Arts, Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe, Prescott Western Heritage Foundation, Springhill Suites, Prescott e-News, Country Bank, National Bank, and numerous others realize the festival’s potential.
“Film festivals allow communities to share artistic and cultural traditions, which can create vibrant opportunities and experiences for citizens and visitors,” said Arizona Commission on the Arts Executive Director Robert Booker, citing Sundance’s million-dollar impact on Park City as evidence. “While the Prescott Film Festival may not be generating those kinds of [Sundance Film Festival] numbers yet, we believe it has enormous potential.”
Arizona Commission on the Arts granted PFF $2,000 matching funds this year toward the $150,000 festival budget. Along with grants, festival funding comes from business sponsorships and ticket sales, typical of any film festival. Stephenson said revenues support event production and this year the festival is “finally breaking even” and none of the founders or planners is on the payroll as of yet.
The City of Prescott also grants tourism funds for the festival, with this year’s grant at $3,800.
With the help of her husband, Don, and volunteers Jared Haxton and Ron and Debbie Hammer, Stephenson launched PFF as a monthly film series in 2009. It evolved the following year into a one-time event encompassing several days, with screenings at various venues. In 2012, a partnership with Yavapai College was created and subsequently the festival had found a new home base.
With some 250 submissions from around the world, festival volunteers are busy most of the year selecting participants and planning for the event, which this year is July 23-27 and will provide cash awards to winners for the first time.
Prescott Tourism Director Don Prince said although there is significant promise, patience is key while Prescott slowly earns acclaim as a film festival city.
“Major events like this take years where they’re popular enough to attract thousands of people, Prince said. “Sedona’s film festival is very popular and brings in a lot of people and a lot of money but it’s been years in developing that.”
Film Festivals began in Venice in 1932 and now number more than 1,000 internationally. From Temecula to Timbuktu, film enthusiasts stream into host cities, directed by a love of Indie Films and a love of travel, thus creating the term “film festival tourism.” Many websites promote film festival tourism through travel packages to various domestic and international destinations, with hotel, ticket and restaurant combinations.
Film festival supporters see significant value in cultural events, raising a city’s pocketbook potential and banking on the economy of emotion.
A “Soul of the Community” Project launched several years ago by Gallup and the Knight Foundation interviewed thousands of residents in more than two dozens communities and discovered cultural events like film festivals are the number one factor in creating community attachment for residents and luring both tourists and newcomers to a city.
“Having cultural events like the film festival that raise the level of artistic dialogue is place-making,” of a community, along with open space, education and jobs, said Fitzmorris. “Creative place-making for our city is part of the process of community building and this [film festival] is one aspect of that.” QCBN
For more information, visit PrescottFilmFestival.com.
Fifth Annual Prescott Film Festival
Free Sneak Preview
Peregrine Book Company
6 p.m., Saturday, June 14
View five “Short Films” among the
festival’s official selection.
Limited seating.
By Josette Kubin
Quad Cities Business News
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