The evolution of film festivals from spectacles restricted to the film industry headline makers and the glamour-seeking onlookers to a serious alternative to the commercial film distribution has, over the past decade, led to an unprecedented spread of film festivals around the world.

It is probably not an exaggeration to say that today, each film genre that has at least some following also has some festivals dedicated to it. Many of them deliberately speak to a limited public and there in no place in their agenda for glamour and show. Their role is as much cultural as it is social - never did the world need social cohesion more than in the time when the internet can bring the world into every household.

The realization of the potential of film festivals as often the only source of quality cinematography in many countries has resulted in the increase of festival-related travel by both the film industry professionals and journalists, and the regular audience. The expansion of artistic goals together with the growth of local and international competition is the festival organizers' raison d'etre, but is also their greatest challenge.

In the early 90’s, you could count the festivals leaning on information technologies on the fingers of one hand. They were either unable to afford their use, or they considered them incompatible with the artistic environment from which they sprang into existence. As time went, this trend began changing. The big, well-established festivals were the first to begin transforming their organizational methods in the light of the possibilities the information and communication technologies opened. Today, the newly arising festivals can no longer even imagine their existence without the main tool of organizing their contacts and films – in other words, without a professional festival database.

Whatever we may think about the long-term consequences of the technological development for the human race, there is no doubt that sensible use of computer technology is an enormous asset for organizing mass-attended events by saving their organizers’ time, energy and money.

Our professional experience, intimate knowledge of the film festival environment, and an extensive contact network around the world have led us, ten years ago, to the path of creating and promoting information systems for film festivals. We believe that the success they have had confirms our conviction: that a professional festival management database system is no longer an excessive luxury but a fundamental necessity.