Bundle of synopsis, stills, interviews, and production facts for journalists—distributed before theatrical release or festival premiere. Core tool of film PR.
You're sitting in the production office two weeks before the Berlin premiere, and the editorial department needs material for the first press release. The press kit is precisely for that purpose — your tool to provide journalists, bloggers, and festival coordinators with everything they need to write about your film without having to call you fifty times. It's not advertising in the classic sense, but structured information for media professionals who decide for themselves what to do with it.
The kit begins with a concise synopsis — not just the IMDb version, but one that builds suspense and conveys the emotional essence. Then follow the cast and crew biographies, each long enough to provide context (previous films, awards), but short enough to be scanned. This isn't a data sheet, but a narrative relationship between filmmaker and project. You include production notes — how you cast the location, what equipment you used, what the creative decision behind a scene was. Journalists love this because it gives them talking points they don't have to research themselves.
The visual assets are at least as important as the text: high-res still images (min. 300 dpi), a poster, possibly behind-the-scenes photos. Cinemas and online publications will incorporate this material directly into their announcements. Faulty or pixelated images go straight into the trash, and with them, your film. Modern press kits also include digital assets — download links instead of USB sticks, because journalists work on the go. A good kit has contact information: press contact, distributor, production company, film website.
The difference from classic advertising: The press kit provides facts and leaves the interpretation to the journalist. A reviewer at Süddeutsche Zeitung doesn't want to be sold to — they want a good story to write. Give them that, and they'll like it. A bad press kit (incomplete, with typos, vague data) signals that you don't take yourself seriously. In practice, the press kit is often the first impression established media professionals get of your project. Make it count.