Tag: film festivals

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Truly Free Film

12 Questions Toward The Future Of FIlm Festivals

Yesterday I gave the Keynote Address at the International Film Festival Summit in Austin, Texas.  You can read the speech on Indiewire here.  Or watch the video here. I ended the talk with a host of questions — 12 to be exact, and they follow below.

The abundance of questions I’ve raised, point that we have a tremendous opportunity to unlock all ta new power of film festivals — and I certainly can brainstorm with you they myriad of ways that can be done –but if we seek to begin to recognize the boundaries we can push at the festival level, I want to first shower you with even more questions — not answers — as I suspect they will allow far more solutions to flower.

I have twelve questions I am going to be pondering this year when I look at our festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival, when I come to your festivals, and when I hear the tales of the intrepid filmmaker / traveller ushering their film from one festival to another:

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Truly Free Film

Survival Guide for a Small Film Festival

by Niall McKay
 
Starting film festivals seems to be a disease that I have. I founded the San Francisco Irish Film Festival,  co-founded the LA Irish Film Festival.  But, when I moved to New York last year, the idea of starting another Irish film fest in a town where these things come and go seemed daunting.   But this time last year we did it. We held the first Irish Film New York Film Festival in 2011. We hosted over 1000 people during the three-day event which included screenings, parties and industry panels. Now we’re trying to get to the next stage – to build an organization rather than just an event. 
 
Some things I’ve learned along the way to have our small film festival survive: 

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My Films

Be Among The First To See Sean Baker’s STARLET

Yes, it’s true: STARLET premiered in the USA in competition at SXSW (where it won Best Actor) , and just recently made it’s international debut in competition at Locarno (where it won the Junior Jury Award), quickly followed by Oldenburg (Germany).  And it’s been getting great reviews.  Music Box is set to release in the States late fall or early winter, and we have a whole long list of places you may be able to catch Starlet first.  In fact there are six more prestigious fests that are to screen it that I could not list because they have yet to announce their line-ups.   But check out all the places you can see it first:

Upcoming festival screenings for STARLET:

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Truly Free Film

Life After the Circuit (A New Way Of Doing A Film Festival)

By Antonia Opiah

After the close of our 2011 run last year, we at the Beneath the Earth Film Festival asked ourselves, “What happens to all the films on the festival circuit once their run is over?”

We quickly came to the realization that if a filmmaker isn’t part of the lucky 1% that get distribution, once he’s off the circuit no one really sees his film again. We also realized that even those that get into festivals are likely not seen by a vast number of people. Filmmaker Tod Miro, for example, spent a year on the circuit and estimates his film was seen by about 1,500 people.

Consequently, we decided to make a big change in our submission requirements.

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Truly Free Film

16+ Thoughts On Picking A Producer’s Rep

Toronto, Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, Berlin, Venice, or any small town -- it's all 1 Festival!
Toronto, Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, Berlin, Venice, or any small town — it’s all 1 Festival!

You’ve made your movie.  You’ve even applied to some great film festivals, and maybe they’ve been encouraging.  Now people are calling you, asking to see it, and offering to license it on your behalf.  How do you determine whom to collaborate with?  What questions need to be asked BEFORE you make a deal?

The best thing you can ever do is talk to other filmmakers who have worked with the rep — and not just the ones that the rep recommends.  Make those calls.  The second best thing you can do is to have a face to face meeting with the proposed rep.  The personal approach matters.  Look them in the eye.  Connect.  Have a beer or a cup of coffee.  Ask yourself if you’d like to have dinner with them a year for now.

Now start to ask some questions, ask for some help, and gain a better understanding of both the process and the individual or company you are considering.

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Issues and Actions

The Audience Award Of Audience Awards

VOTE BEFORE SUNDAY AT 11:59PM FOR THE NOMINEES OF THE 1st EVER FESTIVAL GENIUS AUDIENCE AWARD AS A PART OF THE GOTHAM AWARDS

This weekend, voting is well underway for IFP and Slated’s Festival Genius Audience Award for the 20th Anniversary Gotham Independent Film Awards. This first-ever award gives audiences from all across the country the chance to pick five of their favorite films that took home an audience award at one of the Top 50 US and Canadian film festivals in the past year. After you, the people, have spoken, your voices will be heard on November 10th when the five finalists, the first-ever Festival Genius Audience Award nominees, will be announced on both IFP’s and Slated’s websites. This award is a fantastic, unique opportunity for you to give your favorites of this past year one last round of applause, whether you’re just a casual festival-goer or die-hard movie buff. And also, when you vote, you’re also automatically entered to win a one night’s stay at the Andaz Wall Street in New York City and two tickets to the 20th Anniversary Gotham Independent Film Awards on November 29th at Wall Street Cipriani. So go vote THIS WEEKEND at http://gothamawards.slated.com … and then run to tell your friends to vote, too. Awards season starts here…and it starts with you.

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Truly Free Film

Old Problems, New Solutions: Film Fest Rock & Blues

Today’s guest post is by director Allison Anders (Mi Vida Loca, Grace Of My Heart), co-founder of the “Don’t Knock The Rock” Film Festival”
Seven years ago I was given one of the greatest opportunities of my opportunity-rich life — a tenured post at UCSB as a distinguished professor in the Film And Media Department at UC Santa Barbara, where I remain on faculty, teaching one quarter each year. My first quarter I created a class on rock ‘n’ roll films since this had long been my private passion, and called the course “Don’t Knock The Rock”, named for the 1956 Alan Freed, Sam Arkoff, Columbia film of the same name. I loved the experience of sharing these music rich movies so much I didn’t want it to end.

With the help of producer Elizabeth Stanley who was at that time at the DGA, and who connected me to festival producer Gianna Chacere (now with The Hamptons Film Festival) , I began to lay out plans for a festival in Los Angeles showcasing rock ‘n’ roll movies. My musician daughter Tiffany Anders was returning to Los Angeles, after living in Brooklyn for a good chunk of her 20s, so I immediately welcomed her home and enlisted her to curate live music for my hair-brained idea. The first year she delivered Sonic Youth, J Mascis, The Tyde, Dead Meadow, Wayne Kramer, and Ariel Pink before I even knew he had been born!

We are now launching our 6th annual (we took one year off) DKTR Fest July 8th and will run every Thursday of July and August at The Silent Movie Theater, Los Angeles. From our first Don’t Knock The Rock Film And Music Festival, our agenda was, and remains, the same: to showcase music films and live music performances for die-hard fans and music nerds and to get the word out to them. We are dedicated to that agenda, even though the struggles of the niche film festival like ours are many, well actually, money; the struggle is always money.

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