As a first year festival, the one relief is that the expectations from the seasoned festival goers is typically low. When asked what the usual turnout for smaller festival is for a showing, a colleague of mine gave an instant reply of “10” and then a hard chuckle. I am very happy to say that none of our showings had that few, and our biggest showing on Saturday night had over 120 viewers. If you were to ask me what my main goal with this festival was, it would be to have proper audiences for all the filmmakers. Audiences: Check.
It was also a joy to have a casting agent from one of the films side up to me and ask to be put in contact with the lead actress in one of the films. I hear there were numerous instances like this going on during the festival and it really makes me happy to hear the the filmmakers are gaining use from each other. Networking: Check.
And finally, we of course had many comments, landslidingly good at that. But the most common comment, which I was not expecting, was that people were confused…. they could have sworn we must have been around for at least 3-4 years. They were amazed that we were a first year festival. To be able to convey an image of a 3-4 year seasoned festival in just the first year is an achievement I am ecstatic to have accomplished. Credibility: Check.
So then the big question everyone has been asking: What about next year? I love this question, because it’s a storage facility full of possibilities. I was able to achieve many things that I wanted to with this first year, but I had many more things I wanted to do which were limited by our budget. But now, armed with our credibility, we already have talks going on with financial sponsors for next year to make this festival truly a top tier tool for the independent filmmakers.
Keep filming, my friends,
Festival Director, Darren Levine
