A film festival lives and dies by its program. When your official selection spreads across three venues and four packed days, attendees need one clear way to see which screening block starts when, which shorts program follows the world premiere, and when the Q&A with the director begins. Flipbooks AI turns that printed program into a flipbook that pages like a real booklet on any phone, so nobody misses a session because the box office ran out of paper.
From paper booklet to a link you can update
The old way was a glossy booklet printed weeks before opening night. Then a venue changes, a jury screening moves, or a filmmaker cancels a Q&A, and every copy sitting in the lobby is suddenly wrong. A flipbook removes that risk. You export the same program PDF, drop it in, and share one link. Swap the PDF when the schedule shifts and the link stays identical, so the QR code on your posters and lanyards never has to be reprinted.
What curators put in the flipbook
Your curator team already builds the program in a layout tool, and that export is all you need. Inside the flipbook, attendees flip through:
- Official selection: feature films grouped by strand, with runtime, country of origin, and the venue each one screens in.
- Shorts programs: each block named and numbered so a viewer can tell shorts program 2 from the late-night genre block.
- Q&A and panels: which screenings carry a post-film Q&A, and the moderator or jury member hosting each one.
- Retrospective and laurels: your honoree retrospective plus the laurels and award categories a submission can win.
- Venue notes: how to walk from the main cinema to the second screen before the next screening block starts.
Build it once, share it everywhere
You do not need a developer, and most festival programmers finish setup in a single afternoon between submission deadlines.
- Export your finished program layout as one PDF, from the cover to the back page.
- Upload it to Flipbooks AI and let it become a smooth page-flip flipbook.
- Copy the share link and turn it into a QR code for lanyards, posters, and the box office window.
- Post that same link on your festival site, in the opening night email, and across social so every attendee lands on the current schedule.
Need a matching printed handout for press or sponsors too? The event program maker and the brochure flipbook maker cover those, and you can browse more use cases for ideas from other events.
Embed the program on your festival site
Drop the flipbook straight into your program page so visitors read the full lineup without ever leaving your site:
<iframe
src="https://flipbooksai.com/viewer?book=your-flipbook"
width="100%"
height="600"
title="Festival screening program"
loading="lazy">
</iframe>
A festival guest who can plan an entire day from their phone before opening night buys more tickets and turns up on time for the Q&A.
Beyond the program: submission guides and press kits
The screening program is the headline document, but it is rarely the only one your festival ships. Filmmakers hunting for the next call for entries want your submission guide, sponsors want a clean deck, and press want a kit they can quote from without emailing you at midnight. Each of those is a PDF too, so each becomes its own flipbook link.
A submission guide as a flipbook lets a first-time director page through eligibility rules, format specs, and deadline dates the way they would a real handbook, then jump straight to the entry form. When a curator opens submissions for the retrospective strand, you update that one PDF and the link every filmmaker bookmarked still points to the current rules. No stale attachment floating around a Slack thread.
A quick day-planning table
| Time | Screening block | Venue | Q&A |
|---|
| 10:00 | Shorts program 1 | Main cinema | No |
| 13:30 | World premiere feature | Grand hall | Yes, with director |
| 16:00 | Retrospective screening | Studio screen | With a jury member |
| 20:00 | Opening night gala | Grand hall | Yes, full cast |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can attendees read the program without downloading an app?
Yes. The flipbook opens in any phone browser from a single link or QR code, with nothing to install. A guest scanning your lanyard at the box office is flipping through the official selection and shorts blocks in seconds.
What happens when a screening time changes after we print?
You swap the PDF behind the same link. The QR code on your posters and printed laurels keeps working, and every attendee who opens it sees the updated screening block and Q&A time right away, with no reprint.
Is it really free to try for our submission and program docs?
Yes, Flipbooks AI is free to start. Upload a program, a submission guide, or a schedule and see how it flips before opening night, then share the link with your whole audience. Here is how to begin: create your flipbook.
