Festival delivery
How to send a DCP to a film festival without a hard drive
Ask the festival's technical contact for their delivery instructions before you upload anything. Many festivals run their own upload portal and will not take a link from anywhere else; others want a drive, and some accept any transfer service.
By asa cinema ยท updated 22 September 2026
Ask the festival first
Some festivals only accept uploads through their own portal. Some still want a drive by post. Others accept any transfer service. There is no general rule, so one short email to the festival's technical contact saves a lot of work. Ask:
- Do you accept a download link from an external service, or should I use your portal?
- Encrypted or unencrypted? If encrypted, which server certificates do you need, and for which dates?
- What is the deadline for the package to be received and ingested, not just sent?
- Interop or SMPTE?
- Who confirms receipt, and how will I know the package ingested without errors?
The last question is the one most often forgotten. A confirmed download and a successful ingest are two different things, sometimes days apart.
What the package must contain
A name that follows the ISDCF convention
The name that counts is the one inside the CPL, in its ContentTitleText
field. The folder name usually repeats it, but renaming the folder changes nothing. The
convention used across the industry is the ISDCF Digital Cinema Naming Convention: one string,
fields separated by underscores, sub-fields by hyphens.
MovieTitle_FTR_F_EN-XX_INT_51_2K_NULL_20260622_NUL_SMPTE_OVTwo rules from the ISDCF registry cause most of the trouble. Never drop a field: some software finds information by counting fields, so a missing one shifts everything after it. And do not put hyphens or underscores inside the title itself; use initial capitals instead.
OV is the original version, a complete package. VF is a version
file that only carries what differs, for example another language, and needs its OV present to
play. If you are sending a VF and cannot confirm that the festival already has the matching
OV, send both.
Encrypted or not
An unencrypted DCP needs no key, although the server must still support its resolution and frame rate. An encrypted one also needs a KDM issued for each specific server and valid for a given period. A KDM made for the wrong certificate, or one that expires before a rescheduled screening, is one of the most common reasons a film does not play. Unless your distributor requires encryption, festivals are usually simpler unencrypted. If you do encrypt, ask for the certificates early and leave a wide date window.
Subtitles, sound and the deadline
- Subtitles are part of the package. A subtitle file sent later means a new package.
- The sound configuration must match what the name says: a 5.1 mix labelled 20 will confuse the projectionist.
- The deadline is for the ingest, not the upload. A feature DCP is often between 75 and 300 GB, and a download started the evening before may not be finished by morning.
Three ways to deliver
| Route | Works well when | Drawbacks |
|---|---|---|
| Hard drive | The venue has a poor connection, or the festival requires a physical copy. | Slow, can be held at customs, one drive per destination, and a failing drive is usually discovered on arrival. |
| The festival's portal | The festival requires it. Then it is the only option, and that is fine. | Upload limits vary, you rarely get a record of what arrived, and nothing carries over to the next destination. |
| A transfer link | The festival accepts an external link. This is where sweep fits. | Needs a decent connection at both ends. Check how the service charges for downloads, and whether it compares the received files with the originals. |
Before you send
- Play the DCP from start to finish in a DCP player, not just the first minute. Problems tend to hide at reel changes.
- Check the package name against the ISDCF convention, field by field.
- Check that the files on disk still match the checksums in the PKL. Every DCP carries them. You can do it in your browser, free and without uploading anything.
- Send the whole folder: ASSETMAP, PKL, CPL, VOLINDEX and the MXF files. A DCP is a directory, and anything that flattens or renames its contents can break it.
- Keep your original untouched until after the screening.
After you send
Ask for an ingest confirmation, not only a download confirmation. Cinema servers can check ingested files against the checksums in the PKL and reject the package if one differs, and a file can download completely and still be refused at that point. Some servers let the operator switch this check off, so it is worth asking whether it ran.
If your delivery came with a manifest listing every file, its size and its checksum, keep it with the film. It lets you, the festival or anyone else check a copy later, without depending on the service that carried it. How to verify a copy with an ASC MHL manifest (in French, with two real examples to download).
Questions
How big is a feature DCP?
Often between 75 and 300 GB, depending on resolution, running time and encoding. A 2K feature with 5.1 sound we delivered in September 2026 was 148.7 GB. A short can be a few gigabytes.
Can I send a DCP through a consumer file-sharing service?
It sometimes works, but it is where many problems start. Some services limit file size, some rename or reorganise folders, and most give no way of checking that what arrived is identical to what left. If you use one, send the folder as a single archive rather than as loose files.
The festival says my DCP will not ingest. What now?
Ask for the exact error message. A checksum or hash mismatch means a file changed between your disk and theirs: send that file again. A structural error points at the package itself, and the fix lies with whoever mastered it.
Some tools also reject valid packages. In September 2026 a complete, conformant DCP made with DCP-o-matic was refused by a recipient's ingest tool with the message "Invalid PKL file Name". Its PKL file name was in lowercase, as DCP-o-matic writes it. What we know about this message, and how to rename safely.
Do I still need to ship a backup drive?
Ask the festival. Some want one regardless. If the venue has a good connection and confirms the ingest well before the screening, a drive is usually unnecessary.
How does sweep fit in?
Only where the festival accepts an external link. sweep reads back the copy stored on its server, compares every file with the checksum taken on your computer, and only then opens the download. Each recipient gets their own link at no extra cost, and an ASC MHL manifest travels with the delivery. sweep does not read the recipient's disk; the manifest lets them check their own copy. More about sending a DCP with sweep (in French).