MovieMaker puts this list out every year but this is the first year I can remember agreeing this much with their choices. I don't know all of these fests but there's a lot of overlap with my personal favorites here: Cinekink, deadCENTER, Florida Film Fest, Friars Club Comedy Fest, Traverse City – it's a great list.
Check out the 20 Coolest Film Festivals: 2010 from MovieMaker Magazine.
Thanks for your patience as I untangle the mess that is my previous Wordpress install. The old site was hacked with a pretty vicious spamming virus that kept coming back despite my efforts to whack it down. (You might have noticed certain pharmaceutical ads in the RSS feed or on Google search results. Blerg.) So I'm starting over and will hopefully return it to its prior look and feel in the near future.
Hop on over to the Sundance Film Festival Facebook page for the link to a streaming web broadcast of the Sundance programming team, answering questions about submitting your film to the festival. Should be illuminating.
Ready to submit your questions? Join us tomorrow 9/8 at 12PST for a 30 min live Q&A with programming staff. Come prepared with any questions about submitting your film to the 2011 Festival.
Marie Castaldo, 52, of Queens, New York, was arraigned on Tuesday night on charges of first-degree scheme to defraud, third- and fourth-degree grand larceny, petit larceny, third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and second-degree harassment. "The defendant is accused of duping advertising and film industry vendors into providing their services for free to her film festival by – in most cases – making a small up-front payment and then refusing to make any further payments," Brown said.
Back in January I posted a link to an article in which the charges were first leveled at Castaldo – it seems the wheels of justice have finally rolled around to address the complaints.
It's always a good idea when submitting to any festival to do some research on the festival in question – using Google's blog search tool and looking for the name of the festival with the words "scam" or "rip-off" is a quick way to find out if there have been complaints in the past.
HOW TO GET YOUR FILM INTO FILM FESTIVALS! & What to do When You get There! from Sylvia Binsfeld on Vimeo.
Check out this new instructional video on preparing your film and submitting it to film fests. Some good interviews with filmmakers and festival staffers about how to get ready. It's a fine companion to Film Festival Secrets.
How to get Your Film Into Film Festivals! Insider Video--Trailer from Sylvia Binsfeld on Vimeo.
Life In A Day is a historic global experiment to create the world's largest user-generated feature film: a documentary, shot in a single day, by you. On July 24, you have 24 hours to capture a glimpse of your life on camera. The most compelling and distinctive footage will be edited into an experimental documentary film, executive produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald.
For more information, visit youtube.com/lifeinaday.
Tomorrow is the last day to get your film submission postmarked for consideration at the Austin Film Festival, one of the world's largest and most prestigious events dedicated to the craft of cinematic storytelling. (And I don't just say that because I used to work there!)
If the lure of a laid-back film festival in one of the world's most dynamic cities isn't enough, pile on the festival's Screenwriting Conference, which features intimate conversations and workshops with working screenwriters like Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3), John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side), and David Simon (The Wire). (Personally I'm looking forward to hearing from Jon Lucas, who wrote The Hangover.)
Naturally attending a festival like this one is better (and cheaper) when you're a participating filmmaker, so get your film in today. Details on submitting to the festival can be found on the AFF web site.
LightCube Video is seeking video and experimental film works exploring the themes of Freedom and Independence and their relation to Sustainability: societal, economic and environmental.
Chosen, curated videos will be exhibited at Visual Voice gallery in Montreal, and given online exposure and sales potential on LightCubevideo.com. Online digital formats will be specially formatted for fine art collectors or film distribution.
The FREEDOM SPARKS VIDEO AND FILM Festival will open July 1 (Canadian Independence Day) and run through the 4th of July, (American Independence Day) for two weeks.
THERE IS NO ENTRANCE FEE. Works will be curated by selected independent curators. DEADLINE: May 30, 2010.
After several years of flying under the radar and letting competing showcases take root, the Boston Film Festival is getting organized early and seems ready to take off for its 26th edition.
Translated: the all-volunteer Independent Film Festival of Boston has been kicking the older festival's ass. (Apparently a 19-year head start didn't help.) I don't know much about the fall festival but it seems to me Boston is a town big enough to support (at least) two quality indie film events each year. The current Boston FF site doesn't give any insight as to the festival's past programming, so I'll be curious to see what they come up with for their 2010 slate.
It is with an extremely heavy heart that we are are posting this. After struggling for the past 18 months since the economic crisis, Gen Art has finally succumbed to the recession. During this challenging time we did everything in our power to adjust our business to these new business realities by cutting costs and seeking out alternative funding solutions. However when a major, new, corporate partnership unexpectedly collapsed a few weeks ago, we found ourselves without sufficient resources or time to overcome this sudden and substantial loss of revenue. Their decision had the unintended effect of pushing Gen Art over the edge. We have now halted all operations, have let go all of our amazing staff, and shuttered the business that we hope was in some small way was as close to your heart - as it was ours.
Gen Art's New York-based film festival served as a small but intense launching pad for independent filmmakers. This is a tough one for folks like Jeff Abramson who were the collective heart of a scrappy arts organization, the likes of which are rapidly disappearing in the U.S.
This puts me in mind of an article by William Osborne about the differences in public funding for the arts between the U.S. and European countries. I realize it's difficult to argue for increased arts funding when we can barely get our government to help keep its citizens alive, but it's a conversation worth having.
De Niro colleague Jane Rosenthal stated the ongoing intention of Tribeca to offer “a diverse group of films to a wide group of audiences”—in other words, something for everyone. As a guiding mandate, that declaration rings hollow, especially within the context of the program itself. In a sense, Tribeca indeed has it all, from midsize, star-studded indies to far-flung international selections. But the lack of connectivity makes it difficult to find the movies that are worth a damn, especially since even the good ones tend to divide people.
IndieWire's Eric Kohn spanks the Tribeca Film Festival for trying to please everyone all the time.
According to a YouTube spokesperson via email, “When we announced YouTube Rentals in January we said we would be creating a destination after more partners joined the program. To date, we have nearly 500 partners that have joined our Rental program.
YouTube's online rental concept was introduced at the Sundance Film Festival in January and it looks like their model of presenting films currently running the festival circuit will continue. For example, you can rent Metropia (which has played extensively in Europe, at Fantastic Fest, and is now playing at Tribeca) on YouTube for $5.99.
Overall the quality of films this year is the same as last: hit or miss. There is much that is interesting, little that is great. The Cannes Film Festival still draws the cream of world cinema; the Sundance and Toronto festivals attract the best American independent films.
Ouch. Also see this related video in which Holden narrates a batch of stills from movies in the festival.
This blog entry is way overdue – Amazon applied a discount to the print edition of Film Festival Secrets: A Handbook for Independent Filmmakers about ten days ago and experience has taught me that these discounts don't hang around forever. It's a $6.99 discount off the $24.95 cover price. That's 28%, a pretty decent break. If you've been eyeing the print edition but haven't wanted to pop for the $25, now's your chance to get it for a mere 18 smackers.
Tate English and Lynn Mikeska (writer/director and star, respectively, of The Ballad of Friday and June) spent some time at the Oxford Film Festival recording a series of webisodes to document their festival trip. Rather than making the series a simple travelogue, however, they went out of their way to make each episode funny in a self-deprecating way. Well-made webisodes like these capture some of the local flavor of a festival town and involve fellow attending filmmakers involved whenever possible. (You want to give people a reason to link to your videos, right?) Off-the-cuff video blog entries are a fun, inexpensive way to build a fan base and to draw attention to your film's festival run.
See more Oxford FF travel videos at the Ballad of Friday and June blog.
Feeling left behind because you're not going to Park City this week? Here are a few ideas on how to keep yourself occupied -- either by distracting yourself with other business or by taking part vicariously. In no particular order:
And now, a very special message from Film Festival Secrets and SingleTree Productions: Copies of Film Festival Secrets are available from Amazon.com.
This week Film Festival Secrets got a facelift: the main site and the blog are now consolidated here at filmfestivalsecrets.com. I'll be retiring the blogspot.com blog and working to refresh the extras pages.
There's still some work to be done but I'm happy to be working on a single platform with a new look, thanks to designer/web guru Roger Tinch, aka @cinevegas. If you're looking for help in the graphic design or web site construction department, I highly recommend Roger's work. (He also designed the cover for the print edition of Film Festival Secrets.)
The Sundance Film Festival announces its slate today. I know a lot of filmmakers who submitted to the festival this year. For their sake and mine I don't really go into the nitty-gritty numbers of how few films – no matter how good – get into this most coveted of festivals. Now that most of them have heard a yes or now, however, it might actually help their spirits to know the truth. (Last year I wrote a kind of pep talk piece on this subject that you're welcome to read.)
Let's do some back-of-the-napkin calculations here. According to what a Sundance programmer told me last year when I was writing Film Festival Secrets (the book), about 8,000 titles were submitted to Sundance last year, and that number could have gone as high as nine or ten thousand this year. Let's use the conservative 9,000 for now. Checking out last year's program guide reveals that Sundance programs fewer than 200 films total, including shorts. So 200/9000 = .022. Only two percent of the films submitted get into the Sundance Film Festival.
As John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival put it in a tweet earlier today: "3724 features submitted and we can only invite 113. So many tough choices. For me, a very good news-bad news day."
(It has been pointed out to me that this means that three percent of feature films got in, but who's counting?)
The numbers aren't really much better at any other large-to-medium festival, though I estimate that acceptance rates hover between 3% and 8%. This isn't a criticism of these festivals, merely a statement of the way it is. There are more films being made and submitted than ever before, and the large, well-known festivals can't grow their programs fast enough to keep up. The selection process at a festival like Sundance isn't about finding great films – it's about figuring out which great films you want to show. As I told a client just the other day: "I think you made a film that's good enough for Sundance, but whether it's the kind of film that Sundance is in the mood for right now is the real question."
The good news is that there are now more small-to-medium sized festivals than ever before, and that the number of really great festival-worthy films hasn't kept up with that growth either. So while it may be a programmer's market at the top of the heap, there are plenty of festivals further down on the pyramid who are hungry for quality movies that haven't yet had their world or national premieres. Sure, it would be great to premiere at Sundance or AFI Fest or Berlin. The trick is to stay in the game long enough – and to keep making movies good enough – that you're in the right place when your right time comes along.
One of the more popular pages on the Film Festival Secrets web site is the list of fests that require no entry fee for some or all of the submissions they accept. As festivals fitting this description come to my attention I'll be posting them to that page and highlighting them here on the blog. Boys & Girls Club Aspiring Filmmakers Festival - The BGCAFF was created to showcase films by young filmmakers (21 and under) from across the country. The festival is designed to promote the making of films by youth, especially youth who traditionally do not have the resources to explore filmmaking.
The Archaeology Channel International Film & Video Festival - To exhibit for our audience the wonderful diversity of human cultures past and present in the exploration of our place in history and in our world. To promote the genre and the makers of film and video productions about archaeology and indigenous peoples.
Bicycle Film Festival - The Bicycle Film Festival celebrates the bicycle in all forms and styles. If you can name it - Tall Bike Jousting, Track Bikes, BMX, Alleycats, Critical Mass, Bike Polo, Road Cycling, Mountain Biking Recumbents - we've probably either ridden or screened it. What better way to celebrate these lifestyles than through art, film, music and performance?
Filmed by Bike - Every year the festival features a fresh selection of exciting, creative films that are eight minutes or under. Sure, we like those movies of messengers riding like daredevils in-and-out of NYC traffic, smacking taxi butts and skidding in style, but Filmed by Bike is about so much more than that. An advanced and mature society is one that recognizes, nurtures, revels in and celebrates it's creative class, it's art and culture. Here in Portland, our bike culture is beyond the basics and we are wholely embracing our place in society as more than just bikers. We revel in bringing together movies from around the world for festival that celebrates bike culture.
 | The Better Film Festival Submissions Toolkit has a very simple purpose: to help you improve the way you submit your work to film festivals.
Divided into 7 core tasks with a discussion of each task, the 16-page Toolkit is designed for quick reading and gives you concrete, actionable tasks to make your film submissions package better. Best of all, you'll get the insight you need to better understand what programmers look for and how to submit with confidence. |