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.)
An insightful interview with one of my favorite festival directors.
I know that when I think of DIY filmmaking, one of the first filmmakers who comes to mind is Tony Comstock, whose wonderful film, ‘Damon and Hunter: Doing it Together,’ played at CineKink a few years back. He and his wife, Peggy, have been producing and distributing explicit documentaries for the past decade – and they regularly top Amazon sales lists for number of DVDs sold. Obviously, they’re doing something right – during a recent distribution/marketing panel I attended, Tony was tweeting me from a sailing excursion through the Caribbean, prodding me to ask the participants how many of them owned a yacht.
Overall, I think Comstock Films exemplifies how many filmmakers on the “porn/erotica” side have—largely through necessity—become proficient in getting their work out there and noticed once it’s been produced. Rather than waiting on the hope of some distributor picking them up, the need is there to reach out to an audience directly, bringing with it a front-running understanding of all the tools necessary to do so, especially staying on top of reaching out through the internet, including supreme mastery of SEO and finding ways to circumvent the many technical road-blocks that are intended to inhibit sexual content.
“At festival screenings in the Palais, folks are deadly serious, dressed to the nines and behave with a generally austere manner befitting the most respectful film-going audience in the world,” League said. “Just 100 meters away, appropriately through the back door of the same building, dozens of tiny rooms are outfitted with 6-foot screens, cheap video projectors and home-grade sound systems. This is the Marche du Film, where I spend the bulk of my time. Instead of tuxedos, folks are wearing sweat pants and T-shirts. Buyers are talking at full volume on cell phones during the screenings. At any given time,one-third of the audience will be either texting or snoring. If a film doesn’t deliver in the firstfive minutes, half of the room clears out and buyers move on to the next room. I start watching about eight movies a day; I usually finishthree of them. If you are a filmmaker with a movie in the [Market], do not attend your screenings. It might break your soul.”
The Vimeo Festival and Awards invites video creators throughout the world to submit their finest original online videos and then come celebrate as we award the best of the best. All the details on how to submit your videos, and/or buy tickets to the upcoming events, coming soon!
I’m not usually keen on online festivals but it looks as if Vimeo will be holding “real world” screenings as well for their awards in Fall 2010. Keep an eye on this one.
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.
Yesterday a scrappy little site called indieWIRE (whose brazen continued use of mixed-case letters in their title makes me think of software titles from the early 90s) released a list of 50 “leading” film festivals, including a look at those they consider to be the top ten. Those events who were included on the list expressed their gratitude. Those who weren’t on the list of fifty pondered their exclusion silently or in public. No one likes to be left off of a list of the best of anything (I’d like to be on this list, for example), but I’m sure the organizers of many of those festivals view being left out as a missed opportunity to attract submissions or just plain attention to their events. To them I say: you probably shouldn’t be as irked as you are. Here’s why.
We’re looking at the usual suspects. To see Cannes and Sundance at the top of the list shocks no one, and even those surprised at the inclusion of South By Southwest at number four did little more than raise their eyebrows. This looks like more of an attempt to collate indieWIRE’s past festival coverage than it is to make a serious effort at identifying the best festivals worldwide. Filmmakers who discover this top 50 list already know about these festivals or will find out about them elsewhere. As interesting lists go this is pretty weak sauce.
If you’re on the list, you don’t need to attract filmmakers to your festival. If you’re not, being on the list probably wouldn’t help anyway. Every informal poll of filmmakers (usually film school students or filmmakers at festivals) I’ve ever taken about their reading habits indicates that their knowledge of “the industry” is limited to what they read in Entertainment Weekly. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a filmmaker who read any of the trades before he started a festival run (and started Googling for the title of his film).To think that your inclusion on a list of top festivals in indieWIRE will affect your submission count is probably a mistake.
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.
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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!)
