Eventive started with a question that has become our mission.

How can we make independent film more accessible to more people?

Film festivals had been too exclusive for too long. You had to be in the know just to be able to go.

The first barrier to access was ticketing. A notorious source of confusion and frustration for festival goers and operators alike. And even if you figured out how to get a ticket, there was no guarantee that you would have a seat.

There ought to be a way for passholders and single ticket buyers to reserve seats from the same inventory and actually have a seat reserved for them, right? Wrong. That functionality didn’t exist.

So Iddo Patt, filmmaker and founding board member of the Indie Memphis Film Festival, asked his son Theo, then a 15-year-old high school student, to find a solution. Theo built Eventive.

Theo envisioned a pass and ticketing hub that would also serve as the basis for engaging old and new audiences and festivals. Unfolding our core guiding truth: the film festival starts online.

With its enticing new mobile-friendly schedule and film guide, Indie Memphis attendance increased dramatically. And other festivals took notice.

Together with our first seven partner festivals, we launched Eventive out of beta at Art House Convergence 2018. Within two years, we were serving some 130 partner festivals and exhibitors around the world.

Every one of our partners had unique priorities and needs. Simply listening to them taught us a lot. Their collective wisdom and knowledge have translated into a highly responsive and robust platform. With extras like online balloting being added along the way.

Then came the global pandemic, and with it the total shutdown of cinema exhibition around the world.

Once again, our mission compelled us to find a way to connect audiences to the films we love.

In just a few months, the Eventive virtual screening platform emerged and soon became the world’s leading provider of secure, ticketed, on-demand and live-stream virtual screenings. For festivals, arthouses and film distributors.

Innovations since 2020 have set new standards for security and accessibility – with invisible forensic watermarking on all ingested content, VOD plus Livestreams available to make every screening a memorable event, and the ability for organizers to precisely control capacity, geographic restrictions, and pass/ticket access.

What's next? Stay tuned.

— Iddo, Theo & The Eventive Team