Film Website Design: How to Build a Filmmaker, Production Company or Film Website That Gets the Reel Watched

Updated October 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

Film website design starts with one question: who lands on the first screen, and what do they need in ten seconds? A programmer or producer wants the reel and your credits, a viewer wants the trailer and where to watch, and press wants the kit. This guide covers the filmmaker website, the film production company website and a film’s own site, with the pages, playback, rights and accessibility each one needs. We design and build these sites for independent filmmakers, directors, producers and production companies in all 50 states and worldwide; if you are planning a release campaign, our film marketing page covers that side.

What is film website design?

Film website design is the planning and building of a site around moving image work: the reel, the credits, the trailer and the pages that help a programmer, buyer, viewer or journalist act in the first minute. Because the video is the product, playback, captions, rights and speed come before decoration.

Three kinds of film site

The phrase covers three different jobs, and most weak sites come from building one while meaning another. A portfolio sells a person, a company site sells a service, and a film’s own site sells a single title.

One visitor, one job on the first screen

Pick the visitor before you pick the layout. A page that tries to serve a programmer, a casual viewer and a reporter at once usually serves none of them, because the three want different things in the top of the screen. The chart below is the order of decisions we use when we sketch a film site.

Film web design versus a videographer site

Film web design and the design of a videographer’s site share a video player and very little else. A videographer sells packages, dates and a booking path; a filmmaker is judged on credits, festivals and the shape of a body of work. If your income is weddings, corporate shoots and event coverage, our guide to videography websites is the closer fit. If your work is judged by programmers, buyers and critics, read on.

How do you make a film website?

How to make a film website comes down to eight moves: decide who it is for, cut the strongest ten seconds of your work, gather credits and stills, choose a platform, write the pages, add captions, launch and keep it current. The order matters more than the tool you pick.

1. Decide the visitor: programmer, producer, viewer or press, and write one sentence about what they should do next.
2. Cut the reel so the strongest ten seconds come first, and decide how long the full version runs.
3. Gather the credits list with exact titles, years and your role, and the stills, poster and headshots with credit lines.
4. Pick the platform by who will maintain the site, not by which template looks best on its demo page.
5. Write the pages in plain text: reel, selected work, about, press and contact, with the logline and bio in your own words.
6. Add captions to every piece that speaks and a transcript where a page would otherwise be silent to a reader.
7. Launch with the video hosting, privacy settings, analytics and contact form tested on a real phone.
8. Keep it current: one dated news line at every screening, award or release beats a redesign every three years.

How to make a website as a filmmaker

Start from your best finished piece, not from your whole archive. A short set of selected projects, each with your role and the year, reads as confidence. Put the contact route on every page, and decide early whether you want inquiries from agents, producers or clients, because the contact wording differs. Our portfolio website design page covers the general portfolio structure, and personal website design covers the personal-brand side.

How to make a website for a film

A film’s site is a short-lived campaign page with a long tail. Build the trailer, the synopsis, the credits, the dates and the sign-up first, then add the press kit. If the film has a defined release window, the build resembles the campaign microsites we design, with a hard date at the end and a plan for what happens to the page after it.

How to make a film portfolio website for editors, DPs and directors

Craft changes what the first screen should do. An editor shows rhythm, so the reel is the page. A cinematographer shows frames, so stills and clips share the screen. A director shows tone and range, so three short pieces beat one long montage. Name your role on every piece, because a viewer cannot tell from the footage alone who made which choices.

What should a filmmaker website include?

A filmmaker website should include a reel, selected work with your role stated, a credits list with festivals and awards, an about page, a press page and a contact route that names representation. Every website for filmmaker portfolios, whatever the craft, comes back to the same short list.

The reel above the fold

Show a poster frame, not a black box, and state the length beside the play button so the visitor knows what they are agreeing to. Let the visitor press play with sound on, rather than starting audio on load. Captions should be a click away, and a plain text line under the player should say what the reel contains and when it was cut.

Selected work with your role stated

For each project give the title, your role (director, DP, editor, producer), the runtime, the year, and where it screened or streamed. Three to six projects, each one a link to its own page, beat a wall of thumbnails. The role line is the one a programmer reads first, so write it exactly the way the credits read.

Credits, festivals and awards

Use the exact titles and years that appear on your IMDb page and on festival listings. A mismatch of a year or a retitled short looks careless to a human and confuses an assistant trying to reconcile sources. Put awards in plain text with the festival’s full name; use its official laurel only under the festival’s rules, covered in the rights section below.

Representation, contact and availability

Name your agent or manager and give a direct route for everyone else. Say plainly whether you are taking commissions, attached to a project, or unavailable until a date. A contact form is fine if the address also appears as text, because reporters and producers copy addresses.

Independent filmmaker website: what to build first

An independent filmmaker website should start with the pages that answer the questions a stranger asks first, then grow. You do not need a blog, a shop or a members area on day one.

Four pages that cover most needs

Most independent filmmakers can launch with four pages and add more only when there is something to say:

• Work: the reel and three to six selected projects, each with role, year and runtime
• About: who you are, the kind of stories you make, and where you are based or willing to travel
• Press: bio in three lengths, photos with credit lines and downloads
• Contact: a form, a plain text address and your representation

A single landing page while the film is in post

While a film is in post, a single page holds the title, logline, a still or two, a sign-up for news and a contact for press. It is the right size for a film with no release date, and it keeps the domain and the email list alive until there is more to show. Our landing pages and one-page sites cover how that page is built.

Links to crowdfunding or fiscal sponsor pages

If a crowdfunding platform or a fiscal sponsor handles donations or pre-sales, link to its page and say so. The site does not need to collect money itself, and routing supporters to the page that holds the paperwork keeps your own site simple. Ecommerce is a separate scope and should be quoted as one.

Film production company website

A film production company website should lead with what the company sells and show the work sorted by type. A film production website also needs a clear answer to who the team is, where it can shoot and how to start a conversation. A website for film production company work follows the same logic as film production website design in general: the buyer is shopping for a service, not a mood.

Services or slate: lead with what you sell

Decide whether the company is selling services (commercial and branded content, documentary for hire) or a slate (films it develops and finances). Many companies do both, and then the home page needs two doors. A branded-content buyer should see commercial work within a screen, while a financier should see development and credits. Our guide to what production companies do explains how those lines of work differ, and what a film production company costs explains how clients price them.

Work by type, with client names only with permission

Sort the work into the types a buyer thinks in: commercial, documentary, narrative, music video, branded series. Name a client only when you have permission, because contracts often restrict it, and describe the project by category when you do not. Where footage is under embargo, offer a password page, and keep it out of search results.

Team, equipment and locations

Buyers want to know who will be on set, what kit the company owns or rents, and where it can shoot without a travel budget. Short profiles with roles and credits beat a staff list, and a locations page doubles as something that can be found by searchers looking for crews in a city. When the company also makes its own work for clients, a link to our video production page shows how a production agency describes the same service.

Film producer website and director websites

A film producer website proves that projects get made: slate, partners, financing history and distribution. A director’s site proves taste. The two share a design language but not a front page.

What a producer site proves

Show the slate in three lists: released, in production and in development. Name financing partners and distributors only with their permission. Distribution history, meaning where and when past films played or sold, is the evidence a buyer wants and is easy to publish as a plain table.

Director websites: tone first, then the work

A director’s site works when the first thing a visitor sees tells them what the work feels like. Film director website examples worth studying tend to lead with one confident piece and a sentence of voice, then a short list of projects. Resist the montage that tries to show every genre at once.

Cinematographer and editor portfolios

Stills grids suit cinematographers, as long as the images are credited to the project and the grade is the one that shipped. Before and after grades make a strong editor or colorist page, provided the client has cleared the footage for public use. Sibling guides on photography websites and artist websites cover the image-gallery mechanics in more depth.

Should a film have its own website?

Yes, if the film needs a place that stays true while platforms, dates and distributors change. A feature with a release plan usually deserves its own page or site; a short can live as a page on its maker’s site.

What the film’s own site carries

The film’s site holds the facts a viewer, programmer or reporter looks up: the trailer, a synopsis, credits, dates and where to watch, a press kit and a sign-up. The release plan behind it belongs to the campaign, and our guide to what a film’s official site carries covers that list. This page is about how the site is designed and built.

Microsite or a page on the production company site

Make one domain decision early. A page on the production company’s domain borrows its search history and keeps credits in one place; a separate domain suits a feature with its own title treatment and a distributor who wants to point at it. Either way, the film’s page should link to the company and the company’s site should link to every film it made. Our microsite design page sets out when a separate build earns its keep.

After release: keeping the film’s site useful

After release the site changes jobs. It lists where to watch as platforms change, records awards and carries educational screening details if the film suits classrooms. Without that upkeep the page sends viewers to a dead link, which is worse than having no page. The chart shows how the same site changes through a release.

What do the best filmmaker websites have in common?

The best filmmaker websites share habits rather than looks: the reel comes first, the design stays out of the way, the credits are a list, laurels are used correctly, the press kit is a download and the contact route is obvious. We describe the patterns and do not reproduce or name any individual site.

Filmmaker website examples by career stage

Filmmaker website examples look different at each stage because the visitor wants different proof. A student needs promise, an emerging filmmaker needs a first body of work, and an established director needs range and recency.

Film portfolio website examples by craft

Film portfolio website examples differ by craft because each craft leaves a different mark on the screen. The table shows what each role should put first and what proves it.

Documentary film website examples

A documentary filmmaker website often needs more than the film: a topic page, a list of partner organizations and details for educational or community screenings. Documentary website design leans on text more than other film sites do, since the subject matters as much as the footage, and documentary website examples worth learning from make the subject easy to find. Our documentary filmmaking guide and micro-documentaries page cover the production side.

Film website examples that date fast

Some film website examples age badly within a year. The patterns that date fastest are autoplay walls that start sound on load, splash pages that make the visitor click before seeing anything, and scroll-jacking that fights the browser’s own scrolling. They also fail the audio and motion rules covered later on this page, so they cost twice.

Best film website designs: layout, type and dark palettes

The best film website designs let the picture lead: dark or neutral surfaces, large stills, restrained type and a menu that keeps out of the way. Film website layout is mostly decisions about what not to show.

Dark designs that still pass contrast

Dark pages suit film because they stop the interface competing with the image, but dim grey text on black is the commonest failure. WCAG 1.4.3 asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text and 3 to 1 for large text, where large means 18 point or 14 point bold. Test the real colors, including text laid over a still, and add a dark overlay behind captions and titles on photography. Our dark mode design page goes deeper.

Full-width stills and type that stays readable

Full-width stills give a site its cinema feel, but they need a crop plan, since a wide frame cut for a laptop loses its subject on a phone. Pick one display face for titles and one plain face for credits and body text. Set credits in a size a person can read without zooming, because that list is the part programmers actually scan.

Menus that stay out of the way of the work

A short menu of four to six items, placed at the edge of the frame, serves the work better than a full-screen takeover. Keep the contact link visible at all times. The minimalist design page covers restraint as a principle, and it applies directly here.

Video hosting and playback on a film website

Most film sites embed video from a hosting service rather than serving files themselves. The choice affects control, branding, privacy and cost, and each choice changes what you can do on the page.

Vimeo, YouTube or self-hosting

YouTube is a familiar player for viewers and publishes its embed settings, but its player carries YouTube’s own interface. Vimeo offers privacy controls such as password locks, unlisted links and limits on which websites may embed a video, according to its own video privacy page, and its help pages say some player customization depends on the hosting plan. Self-hosting gives full control and also full responsibility for bandwidth and format support.

YouTube documents its embed settings on its player parameters page. The autoplay parameter defaults to off, the cc_load_policy parameter set to 1 shows captions by default even if the viewer turned them off, and setting rel to 0 limits related videos to the channel that owns the video. Those three settings alone remove most of the clutter a film site inherits from a default embed.

Poster frames, muted autoplay and sound

Chrome’s autoplay policy lets muted video start automatically at any time, and it allows autoplay with sound only when the visitor has interacted with the site, has previously played video with sound there (on desktop), or has added the site to a home screen, as explained in Chrome’s autoplay policy post. That makes muted autoplay a design choice and sound a visitor’s choice. Accessibility rules point the same way: WCAG 1.4.2 requires a way to pause, stop or control the volume of audio that plays for more than three seconds, and WCAG 2.2.2 requires a pause, stop or hide control for moving content that starts automatically, lasts more than five seconds and sits beside other content.

What to keep off the first load

The first load should carry the poster frame, the title and the play button, and nothing heavier. Defer the player script, the second and third videos, analytics add-ons and any background loop until the visitor has seen the top of the page. The videography guide explains why video sites load slowly, and our site speed work covers the technical fixes.

The press kit page

A press kit page gives journalists, programmers and partners everything they need to cover a film without emailing you: synopses at three lengths, credits, a director’s statement, stills, a poster, a trailer link and a contact. One page that is easy to read and easy to download saves hours on both sides.

What goes in an electronic press kit on a film website?

Publish it as a web page and also as a download, so a person, a search engine and an assistant can all read it. The contents are listed below, and our guide to how the press kit is used in a campaign covers when each piece is sent.

• Synopsis in three lengths: one line, one paragraph and a long form
• Full credits, in the order and spelling used on festival listings
• A director’s statement and short biographies of the key creative team
• Stills with captions and credit lines, and the poster
• A trailer link and, if relevant, a link to a private screener
• Press contact, sales or distribution contact, and festival history

Downloads: stills, poster, one-sheet and logos

Offer stills at web size and at print size, and say which is which. Put the photographer’s credit line in the filename or the caption, and add a plain note on how the image may be used. A one-sheet in PDF and a folder of laurels and logos round out the kit. Keep file sizes honest, so a reporter on a phone can still download them.

Private screener links

Screeners belong behind a password or a private link, never on an open page. YouTube lets an owner set a video to private or unlisted: private videos can be seen only by people you choose, while unlisted videos can be seen by anyone with the link and stay out of search results unless someone adds them to a public playlist. Vimeo offers password protection as well. Whichever you use, set an end date for the link and tell recipients when it will stop working.

Rights and rules on a film website

A film website republishes work that carries other people’s rights: music, clips, laurels, ratings and credits. We are not lawyers, and this section reports what the primary sources say. The filmmaker clears music and clips, and an entertainment attorney answers questions about a specific use.

Music and clip licenses for anything on the site

A license for a festival screening or a sync license for a film may not cover putting the piece on a website. Check the terms for web use, for the territory and for the length of time. The Copyright Office explains in Circular 56A that a sound recording and the musical composition under it are two separate works, so a reel can need permission from more than one owner. The Office also states on its fair use page that there is no formula giving a safe percentage or number of seconds, so assume a clip needs clearing.

Can I use festival laurels on my film’s website?

Yes, if the festival allows it, and the festival’s rules apply. Festivals supply their own laurel artwork and attach conditions. Sundance’s laurel guidelines, for example, say its laurels may be used only for its official selections and award winners and only to promote the film itself, may not appear on merchandise, may not be substantially altered (any altered version needs written approval), and may not be changed to show selection by another festival; see the Sundance laurel guidelines for the full text. Rules differ by festival, so read the one that sent you the file.

Rated films: MPA advertising approval on the site

Ratings are voluntary. The film ratings office says independent filmmakers are not required to have a film rated, though many choose to for theatrical runs. If a film is rated, its advertising comes under review: the Advertising Administration reviews and approves teasers, trailers, posters, billboards, social media ads and similar material, and its submission guidance says promotional materials must display the rating and the rating reason at least 14 days before the release date. The submission page has the current rules. Treat a trailer on a film’s site as promotional material.

Copyright notices and credit lines

The Copyright Office describes a notice as three parts: the copyright symbol, the word copyright or the abbreviation copr.; the year of first publication; and the owner’s name. In its Circular 3 it adds that a notice is optional for works published on or after March 1, 1989, and needs no permission or registration. A line in the footer and a credit line on each still are inexpensive habits that make ownership clear to anyone who wants to use an image.

Captions, transcripts and accessibility

Every trailer, reel and teaser on a film site needs captions, and the page around the player needs to work without a mouse. These are standards you can test, not taste, and they widen the audience for the work.

Captions on trailers and reels

WCAG success criterion 1.2.2 is a Level A requirement that captions are provided for prerecorded audio in synchronized media, with an exception for media that is a labeled alternative to text. W3C says the intent is to let people who are deaf or hard of hearing watch the piece. In practice captions also help anyone watching on a phone without sound. Captioning is a third-party cost paid by the client, and the player on the page should let the viewer switch it on.

Audio description and transcripts for trailers

Criterion 1.2.5, at Level AA, asks for audio description of prerecorded video, and W3C notes it is not needed when the audio track already conveys the important visual information. Dialogue-led trailers often meet that test; image-led ones may not. A text transcript on the page is not a substitute for 1.2.5, but it helps readers, search engines and assistants, and it costs little once the captions exist.

Autoplay, motion and keyboard control

The two rules from the hosting section apply to the page as a whole: control over audio that plays for more than three seconds, and a way to pause moving content that starts on its own. Add visible focus on every control and a player that responds to the keyboard. Our accessible website design page explains how we build to the standard.

Film website template or custom design?

A template is enough when you have one film, one year and little budget. Custom design pays when credits, press and video need to work together across many pages and many releases. Searches for film website templates, a filmmaker website template or film production company website templates are usually the first answer to a real constraint: time.

When a film website template is enough

Choose a template for a first short, a student reel, or a single feature with a few weeks to launch. Pick one built around a full-width video block, check that its fonts and colors pass the contrast test, and strip the demo content. Budget time for image preparation, captions and cleaning out sample text, since that is where the hours go.

Film website builder platforms, compared fairly

A film website builder such as a hosted portfolio platform trades control for speed: setup is quick, the video block is provided and the vendor handles hosting. WordPress and Webflow give more control over templates, structured data and the way credits are stored, with more to set up. We do not rank products here. Our guides compare Squarespace or WordPress and Wix or WordPress, and we build on Squarespace, Webflow and WordPress.

What custom design adds

Custom design adds a reel-first layout built around your cuts, credit data entered once and reused on every page, a press kit system that updates the downloads when you change a synopsis, and control of page speed. It also removes the look every template shares.

How AI assistants and search engines read a film website

People ask assistants who directed a film, where to watch it, or who is a documentary editor in Atlanta. The assistants answer from plain-text facts that agree across sources, so a film website needs credits, dates and links written as text.

Credits that match IMDb and festival listings

Use one spelling of every name, one title and one year across the site, IMDb and festival pages. Write the credits as a list in text, not as an image, and give each person a role in the same words every time. An assistant that finds three versions of a title has to guess which is right.

Movie, Person and VideoObject markup

Schema.org defines a Movie type with properties for the director, actors, duration, trailer and content rating, a Person type for the people credited, and a VideoObject type for each video. Google’s video structured data guide lists a name, a thumbnail URL and an upload date as required, and recommends a content URL or embed URL. Markup describes what the page already says; it does not replace the text.

Getting trailers and reels indexed

Google’s video indexing guidance says a video is eligible for video features when it is embedded on an indexed page, and that a dedicated page for each video, built around that video, helps. The player can be a video, iframe, embed or object element. Give each trailer and each major reel its own page with a title, a description and a transcript. Our video SEO page covers sitemaps and measurement.

What does film website design cost?

Film website design from Progression starts at $1,400 for a single landing page and $9,500 for a five to eight page filmmaker or production company site, and a written scope sets the final price. These are the same fixed-scope prices as our fixed-scope website pricing page.

Progression fixed prices

Pick the row that matches the job. A film’s own site in post or at premiere is a landing page. A filmmaker or a small company usually needs the brochure site.

The market band is the one on our film marketing page. Captioning, video host plans, music and clip licenses, stills and any festival or rating fees are third-party costs, paid by the filmmaker or company to those vendors.

What a template costs you in time

A cheap template shifts the cost from money to hours: setting up the player, preparing every image, writing and checking captions, replacing demo text and updating the site by hand each time a screening is added. If the hours are free, a template is a good deal. If a release date is on the line, they are not.

Hosting, video plans and maintenance

Video host plans are the client’s own account and bill. Hosting and maintenance are separate from the build and optional; our website page says you are welcome to host anywhere, and maintenance runs $50 to $250 a month for a small site. Ask for the domain, hosting and video accounts to be in your name from the start.

How to choose a film website designer

Choose the film website designer who asks about your reel, your credits and your next release before asking about colors. Website design for filmmakers is a narrow skill: the pages are simple, and the playback, rights and accessibility details decide whether they work.

Questions to ask

Who cuts the thumbnails and poster frames? What is the caption workflow, and who pays for it? How are credits stored so one change updates every page? What happens to the site when a screening date passes? Specific answers to these predict a good launch better than a polished pitch deck does.

Portfolio signals that matter for film

Look for reels that start quickly on a phone, dark designs that still pass the contrast test, credit lists in text and a press page that works without a login. Be wary of portfolios that are all motion and no information, and ask any designer to walk you through a relevant live example on a phone.

Who owns the domain, video accounts and files

You do. The domain, hosting, video accounts, design files and source should be registered to you or your company, with the designer holding access rather than ownership. Our website page states that ownership of the domain, hosting, CMS, content, design files and source transfers on final payment, and we would expect the same from any designer.

More services for filmmakers and production companies

These pages cover the work around a film site.

• Film marketing: release campaigns, trailers and the press kit in a campaign
• Videography websites: reels, speed and booking paths
• Microsite design: campaign pages built to a deadline
• Video production services
• Video marketing agency
• Video SEO: getting trailers and reels found
• Entertainment PR agency
• Videographer marketing
• How to make a movie: the five phases
• Event website design for screening and event pages
• Podcast website design
• Author website design
• Musician website design
• Artist website design
• Photography website design
• Video streaming app development
• Creative agency

Frequently asked questions