Case Study: International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) delivers a 100% digital, scalable 50th festival with Platform.sh

Building an innovative virtual event platform

IFFR (International Film Festival Rotterdam) needed to reimagine its 50th‑anniversary festival during the COVID‑19 pandemic, creating immersive virtual experiences that could rival its renowned in‑person event. To do this, the festival and digital agency Burst turned to Platform.sh, leveraging Platform.sh’s scalable hosting and environment tooling to support a rebuilt Drupal 8 site, APIs, and multiple apps that could handle high traffic and complex integrations.

Using Platform.sh, Burst and IFFR developed a headless, API‑first platform—rebuilding the website, launching the Film Finder app, a custom film player/container, and other touchpoints—while spinning up parallel environments for rapid development and migration. Platform.sh powered a 100% digital festival with 132,286 online participants, a 16% increase in reach beyond physical borders, 4,492 attendees for IFFR Pro Days (a 10% uplift), improved ticket conversion, and a flexible, scalable foundation for future digital festivals.

IFFR

Juul Veenboer

Head of IT Department