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Festivals and Exhibition · Stage 1

Film Festival and Cinema Assistant

The room where the audience meets the film: get into a festival office or behind a cinema's front desk and learn the business from the door.

Festivals and cinemas put films in front of a paying audience. How the UK's festivals and cinemas work, what an assistant does before and during a festival, the skills producers hire for, volunteering and front-of-house work as first steps, the rules on pay, a Stage 1 CV and a plan to Stage 2.

2 hours · 6 modules · 18 lessons

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What you’ll learn

  • Explain what the exhibition sector does, name the UK's main festivals and cinema networks and describe a festival year from the call for entries to the debrief.
  • Know a festival assistant's nine jobs, a pre-festival day and a festival day hour by hour, the language of the office (DCP, KDM, holds, run sheets, premiere status) and how to score yourself against the ten skills a producer hires for.
  • Know where experience really comes from for this role, including festival volunteering, cinema front of house, viewing, community cinema and the ICO's training, and what the law says about volunteering and unpaid work.
  • Have a scored skills audit, three routes into the sector this month, a Stage 1 CV outline built against MFJF's template and a plan, saved to your account, to bring to an MFJF mentor.
  • Be able to say MFJF's five Stage 1 statements honestly and know what to do next on the site.

Where this leads

By the end you will have written your own Stage 1 plan, checked yourself against MFJF's five Stage 1 statements, and know exactly what to do next: a mentor clinic, an Academy workshop, and Stage 2, the HotList.

Finish the course and you can build your personal plan: MFJF's three-stage planner for this role, ticked from Your Profile and your CV, with dated next steps and the CV line each one becomes.

Module 1

The role, the festivals and the cinemas

20 min

What exhibition is, who runs the UK's festivals and cinemas, where the money comes from, how a festival year works, and what an assistant does before and during the event.

  1. readFestivals and cinemas: the map, the money and who is in the office9 min
  2. readThe festival year, the assistant's nine jobs and a week in a cinema8 min
  3. checkCheck: the sector and the assistant3 min
Module 2

Before day one: skills, tech and the language

20 min

The ten skills a festival producer or cinema manager hires for and how to get each one this month, the words you will hear in week one, and a scored audit of where you stand.

  1. readThe ten skills that get you hired, and how to get each one now7 min
  2. readThe language of the festival office and the ten tips6 min
  3. taskTask: score yourself against the festival skills list7 min
Module 3

Getting experience at Stage 1

20 min

The two classic first steps and five more routes that need no contacts, then the rules on contracts, volunteering, pay, hours, safety and personal data that go with them.

  1. readWhere experience really comes from for this role7 min
  2. readThe rules: contracts, volunteering, pay, hours and looking after yourself7 min
  3. taskTask: find three routes into festivals and cinemas this month6 min
Module 4

Your CV, cover letter and first approaches

20 min

What a Stage 1 CV for this role says and leaves out, the four-paragraph cover letter, how to approach festival and cinema people without annoying them, and what a reference means in a sector this small.

  1. readThe Stage 1 festival CV, the cover letter and the approach7 min
  2. taskTask: draft your Stage 1 CV outline7 min
  3. checkCheck: the CV and the approach6 min
Module 5

The industry around the role

20 min

Who is on the other end of a festival office's emails, the international calendar, the path from assistant to producer or programmer, where else the skills get you hired, and the library for this course.

  1. readThe wider map, the path upwards and the people who walked it7 min
  2. resourcesThe library for this course8 min
  3. checkCheck: the map and the path5 min
Module 6

Your plan: Stage 1 to Stage 2

20 min

Your plan, saved to your account: the role, the routes, the skills, the approaches and a review date. Then the five statements that tell you when you are ready for Stage 2, and what to do next on MFJF.

  1. plannerPlanner: my route into festivals and cinemas9 min
  2. readHow you know you are ready for Stage 2, and what to do next on MFJF7 min
  3. checkCheck: ready for Stage 2?4 min
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Sources and references

Where this course comes from. Open any of them yourself.

What this course was written from

Every link checked 19 September 2026.

You are not doing this alone

You have your own personal career mentor

That is us, the MFJF team. Book an MFJF Mentor Session with us every month: we guide you through this journey and answer all your questions, from which job is yours to your CV and your next application.

Book my MFJF Mentor Session

Where next

Your recommended next steps

Picked for Festivals and Exhibition. Signed in, they follow your stage and the roles your answers point to. See your whole MFJF journey, step by step →

  1. My MFJF JourneyOne page for everything MFJF has built, in the order you need it.
  2. My Reading ListThe books, blogs and bodies you have saved, in one place.
  3. Start the Stage 1 course: Festivals and ExhibitionTwo hours on what the job is, how people get in and what to do first.
  4. Get on the HotListPut yourself in front of productions looking for crew.
  5. Join MFJF DayPlayersDay work on productions for crew with the credits and the skills.
  6. Find your role in the career plannersEvery entry-level job by department, with a three-stage planner for each.
  7. Read the career guidesWhat each job is, the day, the way in and the pay: one guide for every role.
  8. See how it all fits on the career maps17 maps of how films get made: the people, the process and the departments.
  9. Who works whereEvery department on a shoot and every kind of film company: who is in each and what they do.
  10. Industry EssentialsThe books, industry bodies, websites and blogs worth knowing, department by department.
  11. Read the MFJF Survival GuidesStraight answers to what everyone starting out asks: how long it takes, what you get paid, and what to do every day.
  12. MFJF Academy workshopsLive sessions with people who do the job, and the monthly career clinic.
  13. Build your CV with the CV BuilderThe industry's format, built from your profile and your current CV.

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