Journal · September 25, 2026 · 2 min read · By ONTOURAGE
Why we built FilmFest: the festival insider in your pocket
Hundreds of films, overlapping screenings and a rush line you have to gamble on. FilmFest shows you what’s happening on the ground, with no account needed.
A film festival is the best week of the year for people who love movies. It’s also a logistics puzzle. Hundreds of films screen in overlapping slots across theatres a walk or a cab ride apart. The screening you want most is sold out. The rush line is your only hope, and nobody knows if it’s worth joining.
We built FilmFest to be the festival insider in your pocket.
The problem: the schedule is the easy part
Festivals publish their programmes. What they can’t tell you is what’s happening on the ground: how long the rush line is right now and whether anyone in it will get in. They can’t tell you if you can make it from one theatre to the next between screenings either. Festival-goers piece it together from group chats, social posts and guesswork.
Rush lines, posted live
FilmFest’s answer is the audience itself. People at the festival post live rush lines from the queue. FilmFest also shows rush odds based on who actually got in. Before you give up an hour in line, you can see whether it’s likely to pay off.
The whole festival, in your pocket
At TIFF alone that means 433 films, 12 days, 8 theatres and 1,107 screenings. FilmFest puts all of it in one schedule:
- What’s on now and what’s starting soon, at a glance.
- Your schedule, built from the full programme, with Share my day to send your plan to friends.
- Full film pages for every title in the programme.
- Venue maps, so you know where you’re going and how far it is.
- Notifications, so you’re not refreshing the app between films.
A diary for everything you watched
Festivals go by in a blur. FilmFest keeps a diary of what you saw, and it exports to Letterboxd, so your festival ends up on your film profile too.
More than one festival
FilmFest covers 19 festivals, including TIFF, NYFF, Busan, London, Cannes, Berlinale, Sundance and Venice. Version 1.1 widened it to the whole festival year and added My season for tracking the festivals you’re following.
No account, no ads, no tracking
You’re at a festival to watch films, not to sign up for things. FilmFest is free and needs no account. It has no ads and does no tracking. You open it and it works.
Know the rush line before you join it.
Why it’s part of ONTOURAGE
Every entourage has someone who knows which door to use and when to show up. At a festival, that’s FilmFest.