There are now an estimated 5,000 film festivals every year around the world - nearly 100 a week.

Is that too many? That was one of the questions raised last week at the International Film Festival Summit in Las Vegas, as reported here by Daily Variety's Michael Jones.

At the summit, festival organizers talked about how to stand out from the crowd, how to compete with the big boys (like Sundance, Toronto and Telluride) and how to deal with the demand for sponsors, publicity, stars and premieres.

Sundance's director, Geoffry Gilmore, was among those in attendance. When the discussion turned to film festivals as a growth industry, he was skeptical. "There's no formula," he said. "A festival should be a cultural event, not a business opportunity."