Let’S celebrate: with feStivalS on the web

Back in 1995, when blogs, vlogs, and web series weren’t the norm, an online serial made its way onto the Internet. Created by Scott Zakarin, The Spot traced the lives of many twenty-year-olds, who shared a beach house in California — partly through videos and photos. Video streaming was identified as a feasible option in 2006, and soon enough, there was an increase in web series with Soup of the Day, lonelygirl15, and Sam has 7 Friends. Today, web series festivals such as HollyWeb Festival, ITVFest, YouTube FanFest, and Vancouver WebFest celebrate digital content. The first ever web series festival was established in 2009 — Los Angeles Web Series Festival. Marseille Web FesT This web fest aims to reveal and highlight the best talent of digital series. It further seeks to serve the changing digital world, promote its development, and celebrate the best of digital series on a global spectrum. For more, visit marseillewebfest.com Melbourne Web FesT Ranking as Australia’s international web series festival, MWF seeks to honour innovative creators that can transform the world of entertainment. For more, visit melbournewebfest.com T.o. Web FesT Organised in Toronto each spring since 2014, the T.O. Web Fest seeks to support, connect, promote, and celebrate independent content creators from Canada and around the world. For more, visit towebfest.com vancouver Web FesT The festival showcases global talent and provides recognition for online content. VWF brings together International and Canadian web content creators and viewers. For more, visit vancouverwebfest.com roMa Web FesT This web fest aims to represent the contemporary media world by an exchange of new ideas and projects, and create new connections between filmmakers and audiences. For more, visit romawebfest.it hollyWeb FesTival The festival began in March 2012, and has qualified as the world’s premiere destination for digital content, series and pilots available online. For more, visit hollywebfestival.com aTl WebFesT This interactive festival is designed to bring together the film, business, and technology communities in a way that will spark new ideas and showcase the latest talent and innovation. For more, visit atlwebfest.com nyc Web FesT This festival brings together a multifaceted group of people from around the world to showcase the best of the web every year. For more, visit nycwebfest.com The sTreaMy aWards cereMony The awards ceremony is unofficially known as the Oscars of online content and nominates the best of online videos and the creators. The event brings together the biggest names from YouTube and the online world for a night of celebration, discovery, and meaningful recognition. For more, visit streamys.org raindance Web FesT This is UK’s first independent festival dedicated to web/streaming series. The Raindance web fest believes that the Internet and mobile technology have together created many new opportunities for independent filmmakers, and web and mobile series have become the new short form content that studio executives have started looking towards in order to find the next generation of filmmakers and stars. For more, visit raindancefestival.org