I just launched Festival API, a developer-first REST API that helps answer one simple question:
Which film festivals are accepting submissions right now?
Festival discovery is still scattered across submission platforms, individual festival websites, old listings, spreadsheets, and manually maintained directories. That creates a real problem for filmmakers, filmmaker tools, AI agents, entertainment platforms, and anyone trying to build useful discovery workflows around festival submissions.
Festival API turns that fragmented festival information into clean, searchable JSON.
What Festival API does
Festival API currently tracks:
- 2,000+ active film festivals
- 30+ categories
- 75+ countries
Developers can search and filter festivals by:
- Genre
- Category
- Country
- Deadline
- Maximum submission fee
- Keyword
- Festival relevance score
The API returns structured data such as:
- Festival name
- Submission deadlines
- Fees
- Accepted categories
- Genres
- Eligibility requirements
- Contact information
- Venue details
- Festival rosters
- Country and category metadata
Why I built it
VersusMedia has supported independent film and music since 2001. Over the years, one of the recurring pain points for filmmakers has been discovery: finding the right opportunities at the right time.
There are thousands of film festivals around the world, but the information is spread out, inconsistent, and time-consuming to organize.
Festival API is meant to provide the data layer for better filmmaker tools.
That could mean:
- Festival discovery apps
- Submission planning tools
- Filmmaker dashboards
- AI agents
- Entertainment marketplaces
- Studio and distributor tools
- Research products
- Indie film platforms
The goal is simple: make film festival data easier to build with.
Festival Score
One of the core features is the Festival Score, a proprietary 0 to 100 relevance score that helps rank festivals based on submission fit.
The score can factor in signals like:
- Category match
- Genre alignment
- Deadline proximity
- Fee reasonableness
- Submission relevance
This gives developers a way to build ranked festival recommendations instead of showing a flat list of results.
For example, a short horror filmmaker does not need every festival in the database. They need the festivals that are most relevant to their project, budget, timing, and submission goals.
Example use cases
Here are a few things developers could build with Festival API:
A filmmaker submission planner
Let filmmakers enter their film type, genre, budget, and target regions, then return a ranked list of festivals accepting submissions.
An AI festival assistant
Use Festival API as a data source for an AI agent that recommends festivals, explains why each one may be a fit, and helps plan a submission calendar.
A film platform dashboard
Add festival discovery directly inside a filmmaker or creator dashboard.
A research tool
Analyze festival categories, locations, submission fees, and deadlines across countries and regions.
A festival discovery widget
Add a searchable festival finder to an entertainment or indie film website.
Python client
Festival API includes an official lightweight Python client.
pip install festivalapi
Example:
from festivalapi import FestivalAPI
client = FestivalAPI("fes_your_api_key")
# Search festivals by category
festivals = client.festivals.list(category="short_film")
# Keyword search
results = client.festivals.list(q="Cambodia")
# Get relevance-ranked festivals
scored = client.festivals.scored(min_score=70)
# Get a festival's film roster
roster = client.festivals.roster(301)
# Health check
client.health()
Node.js client
There is also an official Node.js client.
npm install festivalapi
Example:
import { FestivalAPI } from "festivalapi";
const client = new FestivalAPI("fes_your_api_key");
// Search festivals
const festivals = await client.festivals.list({
category: "short_film"
});
// Get relevance-ranked festivals
const scored = await client.festivals.scored({
min_score: 70
});
// Get a festival's film roster
const roster = await client.festivals.roster(301);
// Health check
const health = await client.health();
REST API
Festival API is a plain REST/JSON API using Bearer token authentication, so you can also use it with any HTTP client.
Example request:
curl "https://festivalapi.com/api/v1/festivals/?category=short_film" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer fes_your_api_key"
Pricing
Festival API uses simple prepaid credits.
New accounts receive 50 free credits with no credit card required.
Credit packs are one-time purchases:
- Starter: $20 for 2,000 credits
- Pro: $50 for 5,000 credits
- Enterprise: $200 for 22,000 credits
There are no subscriptions, no auto-billing, and no saved payment methods. Credits are valid for one year.
Also now inside VersusMedia
As part of the launch, we also added Festival Search inside the VersusMedia artist dashboard.
Artists who have uploaded at least one video to VersusMedia can now use festival search tools powered by Festival API to discover relevant submission opportunities for their work.
What comes next
The current API already covers 2,000+ active festivals across 75+ countries, and the discovery pipeline has scouted thousands more. The plan is to keep expanding coverage, refreshing data, improving scoring, and adding more developer-friendly ways to use the data.
Iām especially interested in seeing what people build with it: filmmaker tools, AI workflows, dashboards, festival planners, and anything else that helps independent creators find better opportunities.
You can explore Festival API here:
Built for developers. Made for filmmakers.
Suggested Dev.to tags
api webdev python javascript
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