We all know that to get into a film festival you need to submit a film you have made. But have you ever thought about the process as a whole? Have you ever thought about what goes on behind the scenes as they choose the different films? Let's explore the process that the curators go through leading up to the nominations and awards of the Encounters Film Festival.
You have made your film and want to get it out there and now you're faced with the issue of putting it in the right place. Well, the first stepping stone is to look through FilmFreeway at the wonderful festivals around the world and find one that fits best with what your film is. For example, Encounters Film Festival is a showcase of international live-action and animated short films, so it's a great place to start.
With the festival receiving around 4500 films, it takes a long time of scrutiny to get to the nomination phase of the festival. To begin with, a large group of people will take the films in small sections and put forward a few that they like from their pile. This will then go to another group, who will do the same and so on until they are down to their final 150.
Encounters curators are a team of 5 people; Ren Scateni (Head of Programme), Iris Došen (Student Award Programmer), Apostolia Katsiantridou (Student Award Programmer), Gaia Mecci-Astley (Short Film Programmer), and Kieran Argo (Animation Award Programmer). These people are in control of choosing which films come through the doors and are shown at the festival. With such a small team going through films, this is an issue for the curators. They have a set deadline before the festival that they can finalise and rank all of the films, making sure the best of the best get through. However, sometimes this isn't always true.
I had a chance to attend a Q&A with Encounters Film Festival's CEO, Rich Warren, where they explained their process surrounding submissions and how they handle it with their curators. Within this talk, he stated that:
There's no algorithm or formula. What we do, we get 4500 submissions across the world, and our job is to go through all of those submissions and say which ones are of interest to the festival. We consider ones that are of good quality, innovative, inspiring, and different from the rest. - What we show are the films that will be most relevant to our audience, and that's what we're looking for when we are selecting. There are all sorts of things that we take into account; as I mentioned it's all about the storytelling but it's also about what's in the Zeitgeist (the general beliefs, ideas, and spirit of a time and place). We take all of the films, we shortlist them down into which ones are relevant and we are probably left with 1500-2000 films. And then the curators come in, Gaia Mecci-Astley and Kieran Argo, who is live-action and animation programming. The films shown come down to their perspective of what's relevant, what's important, what needs to be seen, what they want to raise awareness of; which filmmakers they want to raise the awareness of. We are a platform; existing to support new, emerging talent.
Rich Warren - CEO of Encounters Film Festival
From this, we can infer that as long as your story has something to say, there is a chance to be nominated and shown at the festival; despite the quality. But even as they alluded to, it is a personal perspective of what is relevant to the current climate of the world. This can be an issue when it comes to multiple curators as they all hold different beliefs of what and isn't topical. There are, of course, some overarching categories that will be obvious to the curators. In the same previous conversation, Rich added to his statement, saying:
When it comes to curation, some years are easier, some years are harder because it's obvious what categories those films should be because those films are coming through. Other years it's terrible. You have sleepless nights about films you are rejecting because you feel that you really want to give that film an opportunity.
Rich Warren - CEO of Encounters Film Festival
Following on from Rich Warren's statement, opportunities can mean different things to different people and that festivals are more for the exposure of the filmmakers rather than the films themselves, in a sense. Although the main parts of a film festival are showcasing the talent, it also is a way to support newer talent and give an entry into the film industry.
We are a platform; we exist to support new and emerging talent. The films that we screen, we are trying to create opportunities for them, so if there's a film that is played at 30-40 festivals around Europe or the UK. It's a question of, yes it's a good film, but are they going to get anything more out of it. Are they going to get anything out of encounters? Or go with this film that no one has seen yet that has completely come out from nowhere, will that filmmaker get more benefit from screening it at a festival.
Rich Warren - CEO of Encounters Film Festival
Rich had a small interview with 'My First Job In Film' on Youtube, discussing very briefly his top tips for entering into the Encounters Film Festival.
Though, having the fate of your project decided on in this way can mean many things for the filmmakers and the curators. The filmmakers fully rely on what the filmmakers deem relevant for their audience, and if they would be a good fit for the wider audience that comes to the festival. While this could easily be guessed, because why would you submit to a festival that doesn't match your project's theme, it is still something to fully consider. The relevance of your film coincides with the relevance of the festival.
From the filmmaker's perspective, you realise that there is very little control you have over it. All you can do is make films and hope that you find the right space for them. But if you do your research, you do your festivals and you understand what type of films festivals are looking for; what that relevance means to that festival. Because what I consider relevant will be very different from what Philip Ilson at London Short Film Festival will view as relevant.
Rich Warren - CEO of Encounters Film Festival
This insight from the CEO of Encounters Film Festival, allows us to see the process of the festival's methods and how they can interact with the rest of the industry. Rich Warren finalised the conversation with a quick explanation of the film industry's approach to the world and how film festival submissions carry on throughout the chain.
You take the submissions, you filter them down into the programme and then you have the festival, and buyers and distributors and commissioners that come to the festival to see the films, and they take that down to another filtering process where opportunities are made. Feature film commissioners will take that down into another filtering process. The film industry is one filter system of content and we have a role to play within that as a festival.
Rich Warren - CEO of Encounters Film Festival
Through this small interview with the CEO, the film industry and the festivals are mostly hoping for the best, being in the right place at the right time and the storyline being relevant to the world's issues. That the festivals are the best way to get into the industry as you first start off, but the careers that come from the event are dependent on what you can make and what inspires others.
Submissions for the curators can be a tiring process, filled with guilt of what could have been, but overall they try to give the best opportunities to their nominees and show the potential of the filmmakers to the attending financers.
To read more about careers and opportunities that come from film festivals, visit my post here.
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