Screening delivery
Delivering your DCP
Three nights at Dendy Cinemas Portside, Brisbane · 15 to 17 September 2026
If your film is screening at Dendy Portside, this is everything we know about how to give it the best chance on the night. The specifications below come from the venue's own technical document and from the projection team who will actually ingest and play your film.
Everything below exists so your film reaches this screen exactly as you finished it.
Four things to get right
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Frame rate
24/25 fps
either is fine
Updated 26 August: Dendy have confirmed they can play either 24fps or 25fps, so send us your film at whichever rate it was finished in. This page previously said 24fps only, and we were wrong about that. If you already changed your film from 25 to 24 to meet the old requirement, you do not need to have done it, and we would rather screen your original: changing 25 to 24 slows the whole film by about 4 percent and shifts the audio to match, so the version you started with is the better one. Send it again and we will use it. Anything other than 24 or 25, including 23.98, please tell us first.
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Resolution
2K
on screen
The projectors will not screen content at 4K. A 4K DCP can be ingested and will play, but it will display at 2K, so there is no benefit on the night to mastering above 2K.
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Aspect ratio
2.39 :1
scope, or 1.85:1 flat
Scope is 2048 x 858 pixels, flat is 1998 x 1080. Either is fine, but every film should ideally arrive in the SAME one: mixing them forces the projector to change lens between clips, and the screen goes black for up to 10 seconds while it does.
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Delivery
Link
not physical media
Send a download link to your DCP on an online drive, through the nominee form below. Tell us the total file size in the same message - it makes a real difference to us before we start the download.
Anything not listed above - audio layout, naming, colour - we have not been given a rule for, which usually means your normal professional settings are fine. If you are unsure about any of it, ask us rather than guess. We would far rather answer a question than troubleshoot an ingest.
On subtitles, one thing worth knowing: closed captions are not the same as subtitles. Burnt-in subtitles live in the picture and always appear. A subtitle track is a separate asset shown on the main screen. Closed captions (CCAP) play to a personal caption device, not to the screen - so a DCP carrying captions alone screens with nothing visible to the room. If your film is captioned rather than subtitled, tell us when you send it and we will work out the right approach for the night.
Professional, or do it yourself?
Our honest advice is to have your DCP created professionally. It is the surest way to avoid problems at ingest and testing, and it gives you a DCP you can use at every other festival in your run - so the cost is rarely spent only on us.
That said, if you are confident with your own tools, you are welcome to make it yourself. We will test it exactly the same way. What we cannot do is guarantee that a self-made DCP will ingest and play correctly.
To be clear about where we stand: AFIN has no DCP conversion partner and no arrangement that charges you a fee to fix your file. We would rather you never had to pay one. We also cannot convert your DCP for you ourselves.
We want to play your film
Your DCP is tested before the festival, at a testing session the venue schedules - everything has to be delivered and tested by Monday 7 September 2026. If it plays correctly in testing, it screens - we absolutely prefer to play your film and will do everything we can to make that happen.
If the projection team raise a concern after testing, we will come to you with what they found, in time to do something about it. You will not find out on the night.
Which night your film plays is on the 2026 programme. The dates, the venue and the running order are all set.
Where to send the link
Everything goes through the nominee form, the same one you used for your film details. It is the one place we check every film against before the night, so nothing gets lost in a mailbox and nobody has to chase you.
Which service should I upload to?
Any of them. Google Drive, Dropbox, MEGA, WeTransfer or your own server are all fine, and so is anything else that produces a download link we can reach without an account.
One thing about WeTransfer: a free transfer expires, and a DCP is large enough that we may not get it downloaded before the link dies. If WeTransfer is what you have, send it and tell us in the same message, so we know to fetch it straight away rather than in a batch. A drive link that does not expire is easier for everyone.
Send us the link, the password if it needs one, and the total file size. If the DCP is encrypted, say so: an encrypted DCP will not play without a KDM, and that is not something anyone can fix on the night.
All other questions are welcome
There is no such thing as a question too basic here. DCP is a specialist format and most filmmakers make one only a handful of times.
or email afinfestival@gmail.com