About Minnesota WebFest
Minnesota WebFest is the first film festival dedicated to the web series format in the Upper Midwest.
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Founded in 2017, the Minnesota WebFest mission is to bring the best web entertainment in the world to Minnesota, and to show off Minnesota creative talent to the world. Minnesota WebFest is a member festival of the Web Series World Cup and part of the North Star Story Summit.
Traditions
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The Lake Cruise |
The Purple Carpet |
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Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes and no Minnesota WebFest would be complete without a cruise on one of those 10,000 lakes. Though summer is in the rear-view mirror during Minnesota WebFest, we invite visiting filmmakers to join us for this perfect networking event. Before leaving the Twin Cities, we would cruise on the lake made famous in the movie Purple Rain, Lake Minnetonka. In Duluth, we naturally cruise Lake Superior. If you ever attend Minnesota WebFest, make sure to leave time at the end of the festival to make this cruise! |
The evening before we head out on the lake cruise is always dedicated to our Awards Ceremony. The ceremony begins with a cocktail hour and our take on the red carpet: The Minnesota WebFest Purple Carpet. Creators and other attendees gather, take pictures, and network as they await the start of the Awards Ceremony. Of course, the thing most people want to know is: who are the winners this year? |
History
Shortly after starting Seeka TV, festival founder George Reese noticed that all of the film festivals for episodic, short-form content were on the coasts (or in Austin). He joined forces with the newly established non-profit The Northern Film Alliance to create Minnesota WebFest. The first edition of Minnesota WebFest took place the last weekend of September 2017 in Edina, Minnesota.
The festival moved the next year to Minneapolis, Minnesota with ITVFest director Philip Gilpin as our keynote speaker. During that visit, he met with many representatives of the Minnesota film and TV communities and decided to bring ITVFest to Minnesota. ITVFest moved from Vermont to Duluth and became Catalyst Stories.
2018 and 2019 saw Minnesota WebFest grow rapidly to become one of the most influential web festivals in the world. We joined the Web Series World Cup and began looking for ways to expand programming until COVID-19 struck.
COVID-19 did not stop us. We held an online event in 2020 that turned out to be our highest attended year. Our experience with the virtual event helped us identify ways to incorporate online programming into a mostly in-person event.
We returned to limited in-person programmin in Bloomington, MN in 2021 where we made a huge announcement: Minnesota WebFest would be partnering with Catalyst Stories and Duluth Superior Film Festival to create the North Star Story Summit in Duluth for 2022. As part of this move, we began included podcasts in our programming.
We are returning to Duluth for 2023 and look forward to the most impactful Minnesota WebFest ever.
The Minnesota WebFest is a member festival of the Web Series World Cup and a program of the 501(c)3 non-profit Northern Film Alliance.
