FILMS GONE WILD: 10 Film Festival Programmers to Watch

Occasionally, there will be a film story or Facebook post that gets me fired up to the point that I decide I need to get off my ass and write a Films Gone Wild column on the subject. Well, guess what time it is?

In March, I received an email from Craig Prater, the Executive Director at the Heartland International Film Festival about a story/poll that USA Today was doing on the “10 Best Film Festivals” in North America. There were the likely suspects (Toronto, Tribeca, True/False), some I could understand because I was familiar with them (Seattle, Sonoma) and then there were some seemingly random choices (admittedly, this was in my opinion) like the Chelsea Film Festival and the American Black Film Festival. Now, let’s be clear – these all might be legit film festivals with amazing reputations on the circuit. And maybe, out of more than a decade on that circuit and beyond, somehow even the knowledge of those film festivals existing might have eluded me. It could happen. And even though I represent several of the best rated and thought of film festivals on the regional circuit and know and respect dozens of others just via reputation and word-of-mouth, a few could slip by completely and totally under the radar.

That could legitimately happen. (But come on, it’s pretty doubtful.)

So, I looked at the two “experts” doing the judging that cane up with the top ten list. Tamara Mendelsohn and Zack Sabban.

Who?

Not film fest people. No, one is the VP and GM of Consumer at Eventbrite and the other is the CEO of Festicket. Their mini-bios offered up didn’t even pretend that they had any “real” connection to the world of film festivals. In fact, one made a point of talking about music festivals.

And we all know that is some really different shit.

Now, I’m not saying that each of those ten film festival have something in common, but I’ll bet everyone reading this can easily “do the math” here, right? However, your basic USA Today reader isn’t thinking that hard. On any subject, let alone what the film festival landscape is out there. It’s all about low-hanging fruit, celebrity, trending news, and shiny objects. So, this sponsored infotainment piece is breezed over and accepted as…something…and they move on to some pie charts or other colorful graphics that catch their eye. And, to paraphrase Seinfeld, “There’s nothing wrong with that.” Unless you know better, that is. And unless you are a publicist that has to explain to his executive directors and festival directors why they aren’t included and how can they be considered the next year. “Uh, start using Festicket and “friend” Zack and Tamara maybe?”

The bottom line is that it’s bullshit. Apparently the Ann Arbor Film Festival “won” the poll. I’m sure they are wonderful and this made for great fodder for their website and newsletter, but the whole thing – and I know, I’m a publicist saying this and it’s my job to “create” these hype-able opportunities – is patently false and lazy.

And I thought about writing about it at that time and talking about a bunch of the fests that I am proud to work on behalf of as well as others that I have been to or at least know of that should have been in a real world assessment of the best film festivals across the country. But I got busy doing other stuff and didn’t write that column.

Then Screen Daily posted a “Future Leaders 2019: programmers and curators to watch” roundup of people that they believe we should be keeping an eye on. And naturally, since Screen doesn’t cover regional film festivals, the list was all about New York City, Sundance and international film festivals. Laughably so. If you live in the Upper West Side bubble, it would totally make sense. If you were a filmmaker that had an extensive regional tour of a dozen or more fests and cities across the country, you would be likely be asking yourself “Who are these people?” and also pretty likely, “How would they have any influence over my next project unless I get in a Sundance or IFP lab or actually live in NYC or abroad?”

The funniest part for me, personally (in a rueful, sighing to myself kind of way) was the quote from one of those programmers-to-watch who patted himself on the back for actually programming a film that was submitted to his film festival. You know, as opposed to a film that came from a filmmaker that he and his bosses were friends with or met at parties in Berlin, Cannes, etc. It was like that Chris Rock routine about the dad bragging that he actually takes care of his kids. That’s your “future leader” on the film programming front according to Screen.

And I would make an argument that the vast majority on that list would matter not to most of the filmmakers that I have had at my fests for the past three and a half years when I dedicated myself and my company to the promotion of films and film festivals on the regional circuit. Now, as I discussed via email with Screen’s Jeremy Kay, who I have long had the greatest respect for as a film journalist, I get it. I understand the reality of what Screen covers and what they deem important and newsworthy as it pertains to the business of film and filmmaking. But they have a blind spot. They are behind the curve in a lot of ways. They are not the only ones either. Indiewire is also in the same boat. Chasing click-heavy stories and big studio film business and…celebrity. Listicles and whatnot. It makes sense business-wise for the people that give them their marching orders, I guess. But the reality of how the business of making film keeps shifting, keeps leaving them behind. And their list of “future leaders” is relevant in so many ways only as an identifier of who would be found at the New Directors New Films party at MOMA or in one of those big tent parties on the French Riviera at Cannes in future years as opposed to who is going to find and champion the next great filmmaker to pop without being someone’s familiar at Sundance or Locarno.

There is much to be said about how the impact and influence of the regional film festival circuit has effectively taken the baton as far as true filmmaker discoveries are concerned or how smart and canny filmmakers are utilizing their “tours” to seed audiences throughout the country and lay the groundwork for their eventual theatrical runs or the more-often-than-not purely VOD life of their films. Screen and Indiewire should be digging into those stories, but they won’t. There is no desire to do that because they need to keep up with their personal Joneses – the Varietys, Hollywood Reporters, Deadlines, and The Wraps of the world. And like the USA Today infotainment piece on film fests, that’s all fine as long as we all acknowledge that and don’t pretend otherwise. But the ground keeps shifting under our feet, and eventually they’ll need to do some reporting on that.

In the meantime, now that I have probably exhausted everyone’s patience by blathering on and ranting like an old man carrying a crumpled paper bag and out of date newspaper outside a deli, here is a quick list of ten people that I work with and for that I would suggest filmmakers, film industry types, and people reading the movie industry tea leaves SHOULD be paying attention to:

Melanie Addington – Oxford Film Festival

The Oxford Film Festival in many ways is an oasis for female filmmakers, LGBTQ+, people of color and all ethnicities, and arguably one of the true saving graces for the state of Mississippi. And it is all of those things because of Melanie Addington, the film festival’s Executive Director and soul. Rather than paying supportive lip service to causes, Addington immediately enacts policy changes and new programs, including discounted submission rates for female filmmakers and disabled filmmakers, and creating and then expanding the fest’s LGBTQ+ programming section. She is a prominent leader in the film festival community and beloved among filmmakers and film journalists because she introduces the ideas to innovate, sets the tone, takes action bearing the brunt of any backlash, and then watches as many other fests follow suit.

Jim Brunzell – aGLIFF, Sound Unseen

As fellow film festival veteran Bears Rebecca Fonte put it, Brunzell is a heteronormative cisgender white male who has revitalized the Austin-based All Genders, Lifestyles, and Identities Film Festival (aGLIFF) through his smart programming and emotional investment in that fest the past few years – bringing a greater balance in the programing representing and respecting all within the LGBTQ+ world and helping usher in an atmosphere that opens up the films to everyone. In addition to that, his under-the-radar, but critically appreciated Sound Unseen music documentary film festival in Minneapolis is an end-of-the tour “present” for filmmakers that have their films selected for it and make that trip.

Lela Meadow Conner – Mama Film

The current Executive Director of the Film Festival Alliance and former Executive Director of the Tallgrass International Film Festival is an innovator, pure and simple. Her latest creation is the Wichita-based Mama Film micro cinema. Mama Film delivers both a comfortable and inviting setting for moms/parents to watch films, as well as curates from a selection of not-so-obvious, but winning films that have played the circuit but haven’t been overplayed on TV or multiplexes, such as Brooke and Doug Purdy’s QUALITY PROBLEMS. Watch this idea get franchised within a couple of years. But it’s nothing new for Meadow Conner, as she developed a rep for coming up with and/or championing similar ideas when she headed up Tallgrass, like their DOXX Competition, created to highlight the work of female documentarians.

Shannon Franklin – Naples International Film Festival

Franklin has long been a favorite of filmmakers on the regional film fest tour because she, as they say, speaks their language. The Naples Intl FF has been another beloved stop for the indie crowd for years now. However, that is due to blow up since the Artis-Naples Arts Center has given the film festival AND Franklin a very impressive new home and a big fancy benefactor to surround what was already a tightly run film festival with all the grandeur and import that this “Lincoln Center South”-type arts organization provides. Filmmakers and industry-types will find there is more than sun and fun to be had at the end of October, when Franklin starts using all the polished marble muscle Artis-Naples can deliver on behalf of the films and filmmakers that make the trip.

Jon Gann – DC Shorts, Big Screen Shorts

Along time presence on the film festival circuit and the head of DC Shorts, one of the must-stops on the circuit for a shorts filmmaker, Gann is also a major architect of the Film Festival Alliance – which gains in prominence and membership each year as the organization pushes for better practices and policies among the film festival community. But one of Gann’s most recent projects, Big Screen Shorts, is going to be something to watch, as it attempts to create a real, viable, consistent, and enduring theatrical presentation and distribution circuit for short films. Think Fathom, but with a monthly curated collection of award-winning shorts in theaters across the country. If Gann can crack that nut, we’ll all be richer for it.

Wendy Guerrero – Bentonville FF

The President of Programming at Geena Davis’s celebrated Bentonville Film Festival, Guerrero has quickly built a legit fest out of Davis’ brainchild. With a clear and frequently repeated mission of fostering diversity and inclusion both onscreen and behind the camera, and then…beyond, BFF doesn’t just put its Walmart money where its mouth is in terms of that mission. No, thanks to Guerrero’s leadership and stewardship on the programming side, filmmakers and film industry people see the quality onscreen that goes along with the integrity in the application of the films and filmmakers that are brought out to Arkansas. And Wendy has only just scratched the surface of what she hopes to accomplish there.

Hayley Nenadal – EarthxFilm, SLO Motion Film

Nenadal has been the right hand to EarthxFilm’s David Holbrooke in many ways like the purest sense of the Game of Thrones’ definition of the phrase/position. She is someone very much to watch in the ever growing prominence of the environmental film festival world. The past 3 or 4 years has seen an establishment of the environmentally-focused documentary as an ever-developing and refined pillar in the overall art of documentary filmmaking. And thus, film festivals focused completely on those films for their programming are growing in prominence and adding to their numbers each year. Nenadal is poised to be a become a major player in that world, established as she already is. She recently launched SLO Motion Film which brings her programming sensibility to a year-round program in the San Luis Obispo community, even while she has a hand in EarthxFilm, Original Thinkers, and Mountainfilm.

Chris Lyon – Film Prize

The Louisiana Film Prize and the Memphis Film Prize are truly unique film festival/film competition hybrids that have no match currently in the film festival world. Both involve competitions where locally shot films vie for a huge grand prize (Louisiana Film Prize – $25,000, Memphis Film Prize – $10,000). Both also offer the rarest of experiences for filmmakers and film fans, and the film industry people, veterans, and journalists that take part and participate – because to be at Film Prize means you WILL participate. You will watch every single film in competition in the theater along with a full audience of people, you WILL meet each of those filmmakers somehow and in someway learn about them and their journey, and by the end of it all, you will have an emotional investment in who gets that big check. As his last name might lead you, Lyon is like the Wizard of Oz Lion in that he is the heart of Film Prize. He nearly single-handedly ushers the competing filmmakers to the near-finish line, helping them navigate and develop their films and their talent. It is guaranteed that when some of those filmmakers ascend to greater levels in their careers, he’ll be someone that should/and will be thanked at various podiums.

Greg Sorvig and Julia Ricci – Heartland International Film Festival

The Heartland Film Festival has been actively steered toward a renaissance and even a course correction the past couple of years since Executive Director Craig Prater came onboard and Greg Sorvig took over the film festival’s programming duties – and RAN with it. Saddled/constricted in the past with a bent for programming “uplifting” (read safe, conservative) films, Heartland has broadened its approach to offer some more challenging films and underlined the “international” in its title. It has also brought on Ricci and enjoyed the programming acumen and “movie warehouse” reference-point she has brought to her work with Sorvig. Ricci’s programming influence and presence continues to grow at Heartland, and as it does, so does the film festival viability and vitality as a major stop on the regional film festival circuit.  

Justina Walford – Women Texas Film Festival

In full disclosure, Walford is my wife. She also happens to be the Founder and Artistic Director of the only full fledged female filmmaker-focused film festival in the entire state of Texas. Walford established the film festival not simply to actually be part of a female filmmaker film festival, but also to utilize it as a forum for a specific programming sensibility – one that highlighted and celebrated genre filmmaking, gritty subjects, challenging documentary subjects, etc. – and all with a no-blinking, no prisoners taken approach. Approaching its 4^th year, WTxFF has already quickly become a major player in Dallas (where the film festival takes place) and Walford has become a player and influencer within a regional film festival programming community that looks beyond the films and filmmakers that have been groomed at major fests and their labs and PR machines as the “next big thing” to actually tracking and working to discover filmmakers that (as WTxFF promotes) are “radicals”, “leaders”, and “visionaries.”