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How to host a virtual screening or watch party for your video project

5 min read

June 21, 2025

What is a “virtual screening” or “watch party”?

A watch party or virtual screening event is an organized session where a group of people—either colleagues, agencies and clients, or even friends—come together virtually to view some previously recorded video content. Depending on the purpose of the screening, the video could be a webinar, film, TV advert, or training material.

If you’re a filmmaker, a virtual film screening with a distributor or the organizers of a film festival could help your work get picked up and shown to a wider audience. 

This kind of gathering happens over the internet, meaning you and your fellow viewers don’t need to be in the same room, city, or state to participate!

For video projects, virtual screenings provide a space for collaborators and stakeholders to review the content together—speeding up the process of gathering and actioning feedback, so you can reach that final version much faster.

Supercharge your video feedback process with Dropbox Replay

Say goodbye to never-ending email chains and version control chaos—there’s a better way to gather and action feedback.

A remote worker uses a laptop and headset to participate in a virtual screening.

Step-by-step to hosting a virtual screening

You’ve edited your video and now it’s ready to present to the client for feedback and next steps. Here’s how to plan and host a virtual screening for your video project, using key tools like Zoom and Dropbox Replay.
 

Step 1: Choosing your screening platform

As the host, it will be up to you to decide which platform to use for your virtual screening. There are a variety of options to pick from, so in making your decision there are a few things to consider:

  • Your audience/participants—will everyone be willing and able to install third-party software or extensions for the viewing? Or will a browser-based tool like Dropbox Replay be more appropriate?

  • Interactivity—do you want participants to provide comments within the review tool, during the screening? What about frame-accurate annotations and on-screen markups?

  • Sync/async—does everyone need to be able to watch the video at the same time? If not, an asynchronous session might be easier to manage.

To host a virtual screening within Zoom, you could share a link to a video in Dropbox Replay with your participants. Inside this browser-based virtual viewing room, everyone can watch the video at the same time and pin comments and markups to particular frames.
 

Step 2: Sending out your virtual invitations

Invite the attendees to your virtual screening at least a week before the event. This gives them time to check and arrange their personal schedules before committing to their RSVP.

Closer to the day of the screening, you can follow up your invitation email with a reminder that contains:

  • A streaming link or link to the meeting, depending on your chosen platform (so this doesn’t get lost in their email inboxes!)

  • A summary of what audience members/attendees can expect at your virtual screening

  • An agenda, if necessary, to ensure attendees are all on the same page

    • For video projects with a lot of stakeholders, having an agenda for the online screening can help keep the meeting focused and organized

    • You can schedule a welcome speech to explain your approach to the project, plan breaks for a virtual Q&A or discussion, and allow time at the end of the screening for wrapping up and proposing the next steps in the project (such as actioning the feedback)

A remote worker reviews a video project from their kitchen table at home.
Dropbox Replay UI showing multiple collaborators comment and reply to timestamped feedback on a video.

Seamless virtual screenings with Dropbox Replay

Dropbox brings everything you need to elevate your video collaboration process, without sacrificing your favorite tools and editing apps. 

With Dropbox Replay, everyone can watch and mark up the same video at the same time—with smooth, high-definition video playback that stays in sync for all viewers.

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