Hire Us : cinéSPEAK Boldly Independent.

A smiling person in a red shirt and cap is framed by yellow scaffolding, sitting behind an outdoor audio-visual setup with cables and equipment, in a grassy park setting.

Hire Us

Planning a film screening but don’t know where to start?

cinéSPEAK provides a wide range of services for screenings and events, providing on-the-ground production support at locations across the city. We support individuals as well as local arts, cultural, and grassroots organizations with technical services to produce film screening events in their communities. We create packages catered to the needs of our clients that can include renting and operating technical equipment, providing program curation, and overseeing event production from visioning through implementation.

Recent and ongoing clients include: Independence Public Media Foundation, The Academy of Natural Sciences, Bartram’s Garden, The Enterprise Center, and PhillyCAM.

Our rates vary depending on a number of factors, including what services you want, how many staff members will be involved, timeline, etc. We’re happy to work with your budget to produce an event.

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From Clients

“At the heart of our collaboration with cinéSPEAK on the Confluence Film Festival is the power of connection. They are helping us bring together the art of film and the power of science to inspire and empower environmentally conscious individuals across the region. Our ongoing connection and partnership with cinéSPEAK is vital to the success and momentum of the Academy’s annual Confluence Film Festival.”
— Ryan Strand Greenberg and Molly Gross, Festival Organizers, Confluence Film Festival at The Academy of Natural Sciences

The great folks that power this organization lend their talents and thoughtfulness to making sure every event runs smoothly and in a way that makes both guests, performers, and partner organizations feel welcomed and cared for in the space. Quality is always guaranteed and makes for an easy programming choice when aiming to bring the very best to the communities we serve at Bartram’s Garden in alignment with our mission and vision. Outside of their regular programming, they have also been a key resource that has made the Community Movie Nights we host an even more enjoyable experience for guests and staff.
— Shanna Mitchell, Arts & Culture Programs Coordinator, Bartram’s Garden

Organizations

FAQs

If it’s a free event, do we need to pay licensing to screen a film?

A: Film licenses are legally required for all public presentations, regardless of whether admission is charged. Licensing fees will be factored into the estimated cost of an event.

Some of our more standard (but not fixed) licensing fees have been:
$250 for licensing and participation of short films;
$300-600 for curation of a program;
$750 for feature film premieres (ie Under the Stars)

These are some of the more frequent fee structures we’ve used but by are no means fixed and always true due to a number of factors.

What is the minimum number of people recommended for a screening?

A: Screening audience sizes vary upon the event or venue, but we typically don’t like to see less than 20 people attending.

We have an idea for a screening and a venue secured, but don’t know which films to select, can you help us?

A: If you have a proposal, cinéSPEAK is happy to look over film options and ideas, and collaborate with you to make sure the program fits with our audience and season. In some instances, we may be contacted to curate (or pay someone else to curate) the screening ourselves and we’re happy to add that on to your services.

We own the rights to a film and/or we have permission from the artist to screen it, do we still need to pay a licensing fee?

A: It is very rare that cinéSPEAK doesn’t pay a screener fee of some kind, whether it’s our standard fee or some sort of one-time special circumstance. It’s recommended that a screening fee be paid to filmmakers, especially if the filmmaker is someone other than yourself. If you’re featuring your own work, feel free to use this as an opportunity to pay yourself as an artist, use the fees to pay collaborators, or use how you see fit.

We would like to have a screening in a public park, what equipment and permits are required?

A: Permits would have to go through the city and parks the parent organization. Typically, these permits are about time/place, noise level, occupancy, and sanitation.

If we hire you to curate and produce an event, will you share our event on cinéSPEAK’s social media & website?

A: Yes! We would consider this a partnering event and encourage our audiences to attend, even though it’s not an in-house cinéSPEAK screening.

Can we have a cash bar at our screening?

A: We typically don’t do cash bars at screenings, but if the venue itself allows this sort of thing, then we can talk about. We’re not shy about encouraging folks to have a safe and fun time as they fit, however, a lot of our screenings welcome folks of all ages so we want to be mindful of that.