Festival Strategy
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The Year of the Hybrid: 9 Ways to Make the Most of a Hybrid Festival Premiere
This is a very weird time for film festivals and filmmakers. During the first year of the pandemic, it was fairly simple: Almost every festival around the world became online only. There were a few exceptions, of course: The Göteborg Film Festival in Sweden stranded one person on a tiny island for a week to watch every film. The Oldenburg Film Festival in Germany had living room premieres. And many festivals pivoted to drive-in and other outside venues (especially where the climate allowed for that). By summer of 2021, the feeling among festival organizers was that now that we have […]
by Dan Mirvish on Oct 13, 2021 -
Report from Big Sky: Tips on Documentary Pitching
Given the recent Presidential threats to refugees and immigrants, it seemed only fitting that The New Neighbors Project: Self-Directed Stories from the New American West, which aims to put cameras in the hands of refugees and immigrants in Montana, won the inaugural pitch competition for Tribeca Film Institute’s IF/Then Pitch competition during the recent 14th annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. Directed and produced by Bryan Bello, The New Neighbors Project plans to create a series of short documentaries through workshops which teach refugees media production skills so they can direct their own stories. Developed by Tribeca Film Institute (TFI), IF/Then is designed to support short […]
by Paula Bernstein on Mar 4, 2017 -
When Filmmakers Dream: A Story of Attainable Success
When filmmakers dream, we dream big. And why not? Shoot for the stars, and hell, you might just get one to act in your next movie. While not every filmmaker has designs for commercial success, one would be hard-pressed to find one that would shun recognition and the opportunity to create more films and get paid to do so. Every young filmmaker would love his or her first film to win Sundance so they can be plucked out of obscurity, handed the keys to Hollywood, and asked to direct every episode of True Detective. And why the hell not? When […]
by Seth Fisher on Apr 17, 2014 -
10 Tips on Festival and Distribution Strategy From Tall as the Baobab Tree Director Jeremy Teicher
The following is a guest post by Jeremy Teicher, who debut feature, Tall as the Baobab Tree, landed him on Filmmaker‘s “25 New Faces” list in 2013. A documentary-narrative hybrid, the film was shot in Sinthiou Mbadane, Senegal – a small rural village with no running water or access to electricity – with nonprofessional actors and a four-person crew. Tall as the Baobab Tree premiered a year ago at Rotterdam and is out now on VOD through iTunes, SundanceNOW, YouTube and a host of other digital platforms thanks to Sundance Artist Services and IFFR in the Cloud. I thought the […]
by Jeremy Teicher on Jan 24, 2014 -
12 Steps to Avoid Going Broke Applying to Film Festivals
The author of this guest essay is a filmmaker whose most recent film is Between Us. He is also the co-founder of the Slamdance Film Festival. — Editor I recently wrote an article about 12 Steps to a Saner Festival Plan in which I suggested the volume-method of festivals: Get your film into as many festivals as you can, and build momentum from one to the next. Unfortunately, a lot of people read that article. And the one consistent question I’m getting is if we’re broke filmmakers, how can we afford to apply to so many festivals? Chances are you […]
by Dan Mirvish on Sep 10, 2013 -
15 Guided Picks for the SXSW PanelPicker
In a saturated festival landscape, SXSW has long distinguished itself through a grounding sense of community and accessibility. The ever-expanding conference put this notion to the test with the implementation of the SXSW PanelPicker, which calls upon the public to curate its panel programming. Originally launched for the Interactive Festival in 2007, before successfully spilling over to the Film and Music arms in 2011, the PanelPicker invites interested parties to upload presentation, conversation, and panel proposals for broad consideration. Weighing the public vote at 30%, alongside 30% for the festival staff and 40% for its advisory board, SXSW will invite […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Sep 3, 2013 -
IFP Distribution Lab Recap: The Final Frontier
It had been two days since the last day of the IFP Distribution Lab – ending the yearlong 2012 IFP Fellowship for 10 documentaries and 10 narrative films from first-time directors. With two days left in New York, I found myself sitting in a small theater in Brooklyn looking nervously at the backs of heads. A small handful of people had cruised over on this rainy Sunday for a test screening of my first feature documentary, Brave New Wild. Every time a punchline went unheeded, I swigged a Dixie cup full of cheap red wine. It’s very scary to show […]
by Oakley Anderson-Moore on Dec 20, 2012 -
CALL ME BERLINALE: A KUCHU CHRONICLE
It’s opening night of the 62nd Berlinale, and we’re tottering down the gleaming red carpet, tipsy with exhaustion after a marathon three-week final push to finish our documentary Call Me Kuchu for its world premiere at the festival. The black tie affair has women dripping in mink and jewels, and men tightly bound in waistcoats and cummerbunds. Just 48 hours prior, we were dripping in sweat and bound by a serious time crunch as we raced to the airport, gripping two newly-minted HDCAMs, still toasty-warm from the tape deck. Our run at the Berlinale marks the culmination of two years documenting the work […]
by Malika Zouhali-Worrall and Katy Fairfax Wright on Feb 17, 2012 -
The Micro-Budget Conversation: Is Enough… Enough ?
When and how did Edward Burns become the mouthpiece of micro budget cinema? That’s a question I asked on Facebook after a late night holiday bender and noticing the ridiculous amount of press Ed got for making a film that certainly didn’t cost him 9K. Then I thought, who really does make a film for 9K? If you add up all the favors and salaries that are not getting paid you’re in the hundreds of thousands. Then I thought, oh man is there any such thing as micro-budget at all? Or is it like the myth of cover girl beauty. […]
by John Yost on Feb 16, 2012 -
Cannes Director Thierry Fremaux on the Future of Film Festivals
To have the presence of Cannes Artistic Director Thierry Frémaux at your festival is like getting a seal of approval from the godfather of cinema himself. Arguably one of the most important players in the film industry today, Frémaux arrived by helicopter with French actress Isabelle Huppert to Emir Kusturica’s Fifth Annual Küstendorf Film and Music Festival, held this January in Serbia. “Sure Cannes is glamorous with its red carpet,” said Frémaux. “This is not the red carpet, it’s the white carpet, it’s the snow. And I think that is Emir’s style.” Küstendorf is a festival free of corporate sponsorship that aims to […]
by Ariston Anderson on Feb 9, 2012
