Host a Hoovie cinema experience to watch an incredible film, meet interesting people and make or raise some money.

Choose a film, create a listing and – boom! – your living room, work space, studio, church, rooftop or backyard instantly becomes a movie theatre for the night!

How to host a Hoovie film screening

Select a film from Hoovie's catalog

Our films are curated for their artistry, relevance and ability to spark conversation.

Create a profile and a listing for your screening

Click "host a screening" and set the event details, including ticket price and details about your space and AV equipment.

Keep or donate $ from ticket sales

You get 50% of each ticket sold, which you can keep or click to donate directly to the filmmaker or aligned cause.

Invite your people (we’ll invite ours too)

Hoovie helps promote your screening and connect you with like-minded new friends. (Private events are also possible.)

Test your AV equipment, clean your bathroom

We'll send you instructions for testing your wi-fi and AV equipment 24 hours before your screening.

Watch, discuss, mingle

Create a magical experience for your tiny audience – with yummy snacks, mood lighting and a warm welcome when guests knock on your door.

Rate the film, the experience and each other

At this time, your feedback will only be seen by the Hoovie team. In future, ratings will appear on user profiles (similar to Airbnb or eBay).

Repeat

Select Your Film
Book Your Screening

Find some answers to your questions below, and reach out to our team anytime.

Why host a Hoovie?

Make some extra $

Hoovie ticket sales support you to bring people together more often by covering your hospitality expenses, better quality AV equipment and even rent!

Host a mini-crowdfunder

Movie screenings easily become low/no-cost fundraisers with Hoovie. Simply click the box to donate your cut of the “box office” to an aligned cause associated with the film.

Support the arts

Making a living as an indie filmmaker is harder than ever before. Support artists to continue their work when you choose to give your cut to the filmmaker.

How much work is involved in hosting a Hoovie?

Screenings can be in tiny venues for tiny crowds – say, 5 people in a condo living room – or in larger venues for sizable crowds – say, 70 people in a church sanctuary.

At a minimum, your job as the host entails: creating an event listing on the Hoovie site, sending out some invites (the Hoovie team also promotes the screening), testing your AV equipment and internet connection, pressing play, smiling occasionally, and then submitting a rating of the experience afterwards.

Anything else you do beyond that is going to make the experience that much more magic.

How do ticket sales work?

Ticket sales are all done through the platform in advance (no cash at the door).

We believe compensating people who build community (hosts) and create art (filmmakers) is essential to a healthy society, so:

  • Hosts receive 50% of each ticket sold, which you may keep (perhaps, to pay for food/bev or invest in new AV equipment) or click to directly donate to the filmmaker or Aligned Cause;
  • Film owners (filmmaker or distributor, depending on the film) receive 30% of each ticket sold; and
  • Hoovie keeps 20%.

What’s an Aligned Cause?

For many of the films in our catalog, Hoovie selects a community partner who is doing great work relevant to the film (e.g. Indigenous Climate Action is the aligned cause for Fractured Land).

As a host, you can click to send your “cut” of the box office to that organization automatically, and indicate to guests where proceeds from ticket sales will be going.

What kind of AV equipment do I need?

That’s up to you really. We love to watch a film on a projector and screen with quality surround sound speakers, but you know what? A decent-size TV can offer a great experience too. Just consider pegging your ticket price to the quality of the viewing experience.

How to create a Hoovie listing

  1. Create a profile. It only takes a minute. Be sure to include a profile pic that clearly shows your face so guests know who to expect when they knock on your door.
  2. Choose a film from the catalog and click “Host a Screening.“
  3. Decide if you’ll keep or donate ticket proceeds (scroll down for more on this).
  4. Set the ticket price, based on:
    • How comfy and/or fancy the space is (and whether you have to pay to use it)
    • The quality of your AV equipment (HD projector? Surround sound?)
    • What you will or won’t provide (popcorn? beer and tacos? potluck? BYOB?)
    • What your guests will/can pay
    • Your fundraising goals (if you decide not to keep the host’s “cut” from ticket sales).
  5. Share some details about the event, the space and what your goals for the screening are. If you’re donating your portion, be sure to include that in the description.
  6. Include any accessibility notes about your space to support folks with any physical disabilities.
  7. Click submit and look for next steps in your inbox.

First time hosts will need to schedule a call with someone from our team. We’ll use that time to answer your questions, get to know you and provide tips for promoting your event based on any goals you’ve set for the screening.