Pendance held its first-year festival on December 15th, 2017. We competed head-to-head with the opening night of Star Wars, a last-minute snowstorm, and the busiest date of the year for holiday parties.

We averaged an audience of 400 per-screening, broke even financially, and had audience members messaging us for months with comments about how the festival impacted them. We hosted seven films that had Canadian, International, or World premieres at the festival, and many selections went on to screen at dozens of other reputable international festivals throughout 2018.

Over the last year, we’ve measured and tracked the growth of our brand using every available statistic: site traffic, engagement, subscriber growth, quality of film submissions, sponsorships, social media growth, and international interest in the festival from distributors and creatives alike. These metrics point to a very promising growth trajectory.

Our first year was executed from start to finish in exactly sixty-four days by a team of five. It remains to be seen whether a bigger team working over twelve months with fewer financial restrictions and the added benefit of experience can put on a drastically better event. But we’re counting on it.