You made a great film. Now give it a great run.
A rare glance behind the scenes at the Sundance Film Festival from Roger Tinch. If this wall works anything like the scheduling walls I’ve seen at other festivals, each sticky note represents a film in a particular venue at a particular time. Unsurprisingly, this one is a bit more complicated than most of the others I’ve seen.
Science documentarians take note: this touring science film festival may be the place for your film, particularly if it caters to children.
Cinekink ranks as one of my favorite festivals despite the fact that I’ve never made it to one of their fests. In fact, Cinekink’s visit to Austin later this month will mark the first time I’ll be able to see Cinekink’s programming. So how do I know it’s a great fest? Three reasons: passionate people (pun fully intended), a specific focus on their subject matter, and happy filmmakers.
1. Passionate people: Cinekink is more or less a one-woman show – there are scores of people who help make it happen, but it represents the vision of Lisa Vandever, who founded the fest almost a decade ago. When people approach me about starting a new film festival I generally discourage them from doing so, but Lisa is proof that there’s always room for a great idea. Vandever’s personality, persistence, and razor-sharp sense of humor make every interaction with Cinkekink memorable.
2. A specific focus: Cinekink promotes itself as “the kinky film festival,” but its insistence on representing “the positive depiction of sexuality and kink in film and television” makes it more than just kink. Sex has so many negative connotations in the media – particularly the American media – that it actually ranks above graphic violence in the pantheon of things parents worry about. A defender of good old-fashioned makin’ whoopie (of both wholesome and unwholesome varieties) is needed, and Cinekink fills that void. So to speak. At any rate, if your film has a specific audience or content slant, a specialty festival like Cinekink may be on the hunt for exactly your kind of film, which drives your chances of acceptance way, way up. Even if it’s not Cinekink, be on the lookout for your specialty festival.
3. Happy filmmakers. Whenever I talk to filmmakers whose films played Cinekink or people who have just attended the fest, they get the same coy smiles on their faces as they talk about how much they loved it. I get the feeling that even if there weren’t a special connection in the subject matter, Cinekink’s brand of hospitality and community would still draw rave reviews.
Cinekink’s regular deadline is this Friday, November 18th. If you’ve got a sex-positive film, you should submit. Your film, submit your film! Get your mind out of the gutter.
There are plenty of filmmakers who rush to finish their film for Sundance, fill out the paperwork, send off the DVD, and then… stop. There’s nothing wrong with waiting anxiously to hear from what is arguably the world’s most famous film festival, but if you’re not submitting to other festivals while you wait you could miss out on the entire Spring season. Break out your list of target festivals (see chapter one of Film Festival Secrets for more on this) and get cracking. Here’s a handy (but by no means complete) list of festivals with upcoming deadlines. Check each festival’s web site for their late deadlines, submission rules, etc.
I picked these festivals for their relative prominence and for the fact that their deadlines come before the Sundance notification date (around Thanksgiving). If you’re a festival director and would like to post your own upcoming deadline in the comments, please feel free.
From Brooks Barnes the New York Times Arts Beat blog:
New Route to Sundance
Playboy on Wednesday is announcing a competition intended to give budding film directors a new spotlight at the Sundance Film Festival – along, of course, with the bunny itself. The adult entertainment and publishing company will operate its contest, called the Playboy Shorts Series, viaTalenthouse.com, a social networking site that aims to foster artistic collaboration.
By “at the Sundance Film Festival” the contest producers really mean “at an event in Park City during the Sundance Film Festival.” The “New Route to Sundance” headline implies that winning films will be part of the official Sundance program. They won’t.
A quick check with the Sundance Institute last week confirmed that the contest isn’t sponsored or endorsed by the Festival. I’m sure Talenthouse and Playboy aren’t at all disappointed with the “New Route to Sundance” headline, which implies that the fest is involved. This is confusing at best and deliberately misleading at worst.
Just a word of warning folks – read the fine print on contests like these.
Calling Mr. Leggat’s six-year tenure “transformative,” Society board President Pat McBaine cited his “irrepressible determination, dash and design. His vision, leadership, passion, work ethic, tenacity, imagination and daring, along with his colorful language and wicked Scottish sense of humor, have indelibly marked our organization with a valuable legacy and left it in the best shape – artistically, organizationally and financially – in its 54-year history.”
I only met Graham twice but it’s easy to see he left big shoes to fill.
Todd McCarthy, writing for the Hollywood Reporter:
Virtually from the beginning, Telluride has performed an exquisite balancing act: Between old and new, foreign and American, the esoteric and the accessible, the expected and the unknown. As at a great restaurant, it’s best to just place yourself in the chef’s hands and sample what’s served up. Some dishes are better than others, of course, but you can rarely say something was bad or a waste of time. Because of its limited duration, Telluride can afford to be picky and discriminating, which only works to the benefit of the viewer.
Read the rest at The Hollywood Reporter.
There’s a nice message on the deadCENTER Film Festival blog to the filmmakers who submitted to them.
You didn’t drop your film into a vacuum – someone who loves independent film will be watching your movie. In fact, several people who love independent film will see your film. Every year, we have dozens of very enthusiastic, passionate and informed volunteers who want nothing more than to see the next Winter’s Bone before anyone else, and they’re convinced it’s hiding among the hundreds of films we receive for screening.
For filmmakers who find the “black hole” aspect of film festival submissions frustrating (and I don’t know many who don’t feel that way), this is a comforting message to receive. It doesn’t change the fact that it’s near-impossible to get useful feedback from a festival as to why one was rejected, but it’s good to know that the screening committee at a particular festival is passionate about what they do.
Film Festival Secrets: A Handbook for Independent Filmmakers
Written especially for people trying to navigate the film festival circuit. Start reading now or buy a copy of your very own.