Who is the Gdynia festival participant? | Survey on the 48th PFF audience
We know the 48th Polish Film Festival participant profile. The conducted survey has shown that festival participants are mainly young people – half of the audience are persons under 35 years old, well-educated and quite well-off. 1/3 of the viewers comes from Gdynia, 1/2 from the Tri-city, the rest mainly from other big Polish cities. The main reason we take part in the festival is to watch interesting films, to spend our free time, because of the atmosphere of the festival, and out of curiosity. On one hand, the PFF audience is permanent, which proves the event’s maturity, but on the other hand, the festival also attracts new audience – festival debutants. Apart from the Main Competition, the festival participants show great interest in the Short Film Competition and meetings with the filmmakers.
The survey on the Polish Film Festival participant profile was conducted in 2023 already for the fourth time (2018-2019, 2022-2023). During the 48th PFF, academics and students from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the Lodz Film School asked viewers to answer new questions, such as about the source of information and promotion, and also the evaluation and attractiveness of different festival sections and competitions. Having that knowledge the festival organisers are able to introduce some changes to the programme and to the way of reaching wider audiences.
“2023 Film festival participant profile” survey is a joint project conducted by Pomeranian Film Foundation in Gdynia and the Faculty of Human Geography and Planning at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. The survey was conducted between 18th and 23rd September 2023 by dr hab. Krzysztof Stachowiak, prof. UAM, dr Anna Wróblewska (Lodz Film School) and dr inż. Malwina Balcerak (UAM in Poznań) with a group of students-interviewers from the Faculty of Human Geography and Planning at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the Lodz Film School. – Once again the interviews were carried out in public places. Students, scattered in all festival venues, interviewed viewers during breaks between film screenings, after meetings with the filmmakers, waiting in queues, at information points. They reached record high number of viewers – 1216 – says dr hab. Krzysztof Stachowiak.
Who is the PFF in Gdynia participant?
Festival participants are mainly young people – under 35 years old. That was a group of slightly over 62% of all responders. The largest age group were people aged 18 to 25 years old, whereas the group of people aged above 55 was the least numerous. The share of persons below 18 years old, which has been growing from year to year, was relatively high – 14%. – This would seem to reflect the effects of the Gdynia for Children section organised with the Polish Filmmakers Association, which attracts Tri-city audiences since 2024, and also of the animation-related activities carried out by the Gdynia Film Centre – says dr Anna Wróblewska. The festival participants were mostly persons with higher education. They constituted nearly 60% of all participants, which was a similar proportion as in previous editions of the event. The smallest group of festival participants were people not educated beyond lower secondary level. Over a half of the participants were employed individuals, although there was also a substantial participation of learners (pupils and students). It was a group of slightly over 1/3 of all respondents. The dominant group of the PFF viewers declare income between PLN 4,000 and PLN 6,000 (net wage). 1/4 of the festival participants claim to earn PLN 6,000. The average net income of a participant is PLN 5,611.90 (2022 – PLN 5,384. (average monthly remuneration in private sector, according to the Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS) in the third quarter 2023 was about PLN 5,235 net).
Although this may not be apparent, PFF is not an industry festival, as demonstrated in the first edition of the survey. 1/3 of the respondents comes from Gdynia. The festival participants come also from Gdansk and Sopot (over 12 percent). Many participants come from other big Polish cities with developed film culture, such as: Warsaw (17 percent., we assume these are mainly filmmakers), Krakow, Lodz, Poznan. It is worth mentioning that the number of foreigners coming to Gdynia festival is growing year by year.
Permanent participants (taking part in the PFF at least five times) constitute almost 1/4 of all participants. Similarly to previous surveys, 1/3 of the respondents were persons debuting at the PFF. That is the largest group of all festival participants. The Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, as one of the biggest film events in Poland, has its permanent participants but it also attract new viewers. As usual, also in 2023 we’ve asked about the estimated costs and expenses related to the participation in the event. An average festival participant declared to spend PLN 2,203.52. Average expenses increased by 6.1% compared to 2022 (in particular, accommodation – nearly 24%). In 2018, estimated expensed amounted to PLN 877.59!
Festival in the eyes of the audience
Why do we need the Gdynia Festival? Approximately half of the participants (49%) want to see interesting films. Throughout the surveyed editions, this was most commonly stated reason, although there has been a decline in these indications. What attracts participants is the unique atmosphere of the festival (41%, with an increase in this reason each year) and the desire to spend free time (also 41%). Therefore, cultural and recreational motives predominate. Professional reasons were reported by nearly 23% of respondents – these are people from the industry or filmmakers. It is worth noting that advertising and promotion, in comparison to previous surveys, are slightly more important than before – in 2022 only 2% of participants indicated it as a reason, whereas this time it was a little over 5%.
A third of the respondents use the information available on the festival’s Facebook page. – As we can see, online media about the festival are the source of information for the majority of respondents. Traditional sources of information such as radio, press and posters are fading into the background, says Dr Malwina Balcerak.
For the first time, we asked the audience how they prepare for the festival. First of all, the participants surveyed read the film descriptions – this was declared by almost half of the respondents. In addition, they tend to follow both the festival’s website and its social media when preparing. – Based on this collected information, the organisers can adapt their activities in the future to better meet the needs of the participants preparing for the festival, adds Dr Malwina Balcerak.
Once again, participants were asked to evaluate certain aspects of the Gdynia Festival and yet again the evaluation is very positive. The sense of security at the festival was rated best – as many as 90% of respondents rated this aspect as good or very good. The participants’ service was rated equally highly, with almost 90% of positive responses. The quality of the films was rated good and very good by 74% of respondents (similar to 2022). The accessibility of the festival facilities was also rated very positively (almost 80%). The festival’s social media was generally rated well, although still many of those surveyed do not have an opinion on it, which may indicate that they do not use it. What was rated less positively in 2023 compared to 2022 was the festival programme – in 2022, it was rated positively by almost 80% of respondents, whereas during the last edition, the programme was rated positively by less than 70% of respondents.
Only less than 10% of respondents attended a festival occasionally. The average attendee spent almost four days at the festival (2022 – 3.8 days at the festival). This data is consistently repeated almost every year.
Not only the Main Competition
In 2023, we asked participants for the first time what they use to plan their personal programme during the festival. Again, the use of electronic media for such information is evident here. Both the programme on the festival website (43 %), the online catalogue (32 %) and the festival’s mobile app (31 %, as opposed to the paper programme with 26 %) are popular. – Electronic media are the main source of information, which should be interpreted positively in environmental terms. After all, the festival tries to minimise potential environmental pollution. Less paper, plastic, ink etc. are expected to make the Festival greener. The behaviour and preferences of participants can contribute towards this, comments Dr Malwina Balcerak.
Participants attending the Gdynia festival have shown a high level of activity throughout the event, with more than a third of them having seen 10 or more film screenings). Over 30% of participants saw between one and four films, with a similar figure for the group who saw between five and nine films. On average, a participant watched 6.8 films. This is 0.5 less than in 2022, where the average was 7.3 films.
Accompanying events generate much less interest. More than half of those surveyed attended four or fewer events. The statistical festival participant attends two or three accompanying events – a lower average than in 2022, where the average was 3.2. This shows that it is mainly the competitions that matter to participants. In 2023, the respondents who did not attend accompanying events at all amounted to 36 %.
The Polish Film Festival has been evolving continuously for the past two decades, with changes in format of competitions and accompanying events. At the request of the Pomeranian Film Foundation, questioners asked viewers which categories they were most interested in. Almost 17% stated that they were only interested in the main competition. Half of the respondents (50%) indicated that apart from the main competition they would choose the Short Film Competition. However, interestingly, the Microbudget Film Competition had been indicated by far less people, only 32.5%. – The concept of a microbudget film is not clear to the viewer, it can also be unattractive, being associated with something cheap and off-beat. The ambitious, although similar in terms of production, inexpensive film made as part of the Munk Studio’s Sixty Minutes programme screened in the Main Competition is something different – it is “advisable” to go to the debut presented in this section. The industry often fails to remember that “Gdynia” is above all a festival for viewers – fans of Polish cinema. This is why the idea of artistic director Joanna Łapińska to change the microbudget section to the “Perspectives” competition is in fact prospective – a more attractive formula with a hint of snobbishness has a chance to attract new participants to the event, comments Dr Anna Wróblewska.
In terms of other events not related to film screenings, viewers are eager to go to meetings with filmmakers, watch the closing gala of the festival both live and on television or the Internet.
We took a closer look at two types of accompanying events: meetings with filmmakers and the Gdynia Industry section. Meetings with filmmakers are attended by slightly more than half of those surveyed (57%). Therefore, this is a relatively popular form of accompanying events. Most of those who attend such meetings rate them very highly and at the same time consider them significant (60% of respondents attributed great importance to them).
Approximately 30%, of those surveyed, attend meetings within the Gdynia Industry section, which is slightly more than those who declared their industry affiliation (23%). – This indicates there is also a small proportion of people from outside the industry attending these meetings. The majority of attendees rate them as relevant meetings and consider them interesting. The industry aspect at the festival is important, although, it must be emphasised, it is narrowed down primarily to professionals – assesses Krzysztof Stachowiak, PhD.
A PFF participant is an active consumer of cultural goods. More than 60% of festival attendees also participated in at least one other event of this type within the last year. Respondents most often attended festivals such as New Horizons, Millennium Docs Against Gravity, the Warsaw International Film Festival, Off Camera, Octopus, Cameraimage, the Kraków Film Festival and the Youth and Film Koszalin.
It is worth noting the great potential to maintain and even increase the audience of the Gdynia festival, since as much as 84% of the surveyed participants expressed their desire to participate in the next edition of the festival. Only 13% were undecided and only 3.5% of those surveyed did not plan to participate again. These results are similar to statements from previous years.
– This year, we asked ourselves how connected the festival is, in the eyes of the audience, to the city where it has been held since 1986. The vast majority of respondents (70 percent) indicated that Gdynia is the right place for the festival. This can be summed up by the inscription on the wall in front of the Gdynia Film Centre – Gdynia loves film, film loves Gdynia, comments Dr Krzysztof Stachowiak.
In 2024, the Polish Film Institute co-financed the fifth edition of the survey on the Polish Film Festival participant profile. This time, students and academics of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the Lodz Film School will conduct the qualitative studies.
The 49th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia will take place on 23rd–28th September 2024.
