This is a website designed to discover new films and the people that make them as well as inform you about the top film festivals where you can find those films and immerse yourself in the love of cinema, discussion of filmmaking, and celebration of all of it.
We are true believers in the value and mission of regional film festivals – the films they screen each year and filmmakers they host. The importance of those film festivals is about discovery and community. It is about finding exciting new talent, seeing film artists develop that talent, trying and succeeding at putting stories on screen and using new techniques and innovating in a number of ways that routinely garner no interest from big studios because it would never satisfy the largest lowest common denominator audience they seek. And they often aren’t included in the larger market film festivals.There are a number of reasons for that including the fact that there are just so many films made each year, and it is all too tempting to stick with the films that have recognizable faces, or that have been made by that fest’s alumni, or that are being pushed by the top sales agents and PR firms out there, etc. And because of that we need more coverage of regional film festivals. We need more attention paid to the filmmakers screening there. So FilmsGoneWild.com will do what we can in that arena: helping you find the titles that won’t pop to the top of your Netflix or Amazon Prime pages or force fed to you by a PR conglomerate at Sundance, SXSW, or Toronto as something they’ve pre-determined to be the “next big thing”.If you are looking for the 59th review of a big budget sequel or offering from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or a listicle about some TV series that “everyone else is talking about” then you’ll want to go elsewhere. Bottom line.
I’ll leave you with two final thoughts regarding our philosophy at FilmsGoneWild.com:
ONE – My personal review philosophy is to try and help the film fan or consumer find the film best suited to entertain or interest them – put the right butts in the right seats. I have no interest in tearing a filmmaker down or laying judgment on their talent or right to point a camera at someone. Something may not be in my personal wheelhouse, but it is very likely that film could be in someone else’s. And we’ll try to steer that person to the right film.
We WILL NOT post a negative review of a film. Other people and sites can trash movies, make “Worst of” lists, etc. Not here. I represent films and film festivals and filmmakers as a publicist. I AM a filmmaker myself. And I also don’t believe I have the right to tell someone not to quit their day job. Now, that doesn’t mean that every review will be a love letter. There will be pragmatic analysis and criticism. We won’t gloss over anything and we will always be honest in our assessment of what’s on screen. There simply will be no bashing. Someone else can do that on another site.
TWO – I am a film festival and film publicist and I do seek to make more films myself. That’s just the reality. I like doing all of those things and will continue to do them as well as write for and edit this website. That freaks some people out. Someone I worked for at a Film Society lost her shit about that fact all the time when I was in her department. Didn’t want me to write. Didn’t want me to do interviews. Didn’t want me introducing films. Couldn’t handle the tearing down of those walls. But that is just the way it is now. I’m certainly not the only one that wears multiple hats in this area. I’m not even close to the most notable people that do that. But I’m acutely aware of and sensitive to the optics. I always have been absolutely transparent about everything I do and the relationships I have, and I will always invite everyone to take my opinions or critiques with as many huge rocks of salt as they deem necessary. I think our readers will be able to figure out what’s what.
Ultimately, we think it is vital that a film news website like Films Gone Wild exists. We need more coverage of regional film festivals. We need more attention paid to the filmmakers screening there. We don’t need more movie star coverage. Monkeys can do that by this point. We need to find the new talent and artists in film, and TV, and VR, etc. We need to give the new voices a forum to discuss their work. We need to help people find the golden film needles in the haystack of VOD titles we scroll past on Amazon and Netflix and iTunes and all of the other streaming sites now.
That is what I believe. If you do as well, then start checking out FlmsGoneWild.com, maybe support us (if you feel that strongly, like I do) and tell everyone you know to do so as well.
John Wildman
Editor-in-Chief
Films Gone Wild
The Team
John Wildman, Founder and Editor-in-Chief
John Wildman is a multi-faceted presence in the entertainment world, known for his work as a film and film festival publicist, consultant, filmmaker, journalist, and critic. Currently, Wildman is the publicist and consultant for independent films and national regional film festivals. He has also been a host on The Daily Buzz NPR broadcast reporting from Sundance, Toronto, and Cannes and co-host of the Fog of Truth Documentary Film podcast. His feature film directorial debut, the grindhouse art-horror thriller Ladies of the House was released to critical acclaim in 2015, The comedy short, SWEAT OF HIS COW is currently winning awards as it makes the festival rounds around the world in 2022.
Wildman was formerly the Senior Publicist for the New York Film Festival, New Directors/New Films, the Chaplin Award Gala, and the Director of Press and Public Relations for the American Film Institute. As a journalist, he was formerly a contributor to Film Comment.com, Film Threat, Movie City News, Beyond Cinema, Fangoria.com, Moving Pictures Magazine.com, and Festworks.com. Wildman also wrote and produced the Vision Awards for several years, which aired on the ION and PAX Networks and benefitted Retinitis Pigmentosa International.
Justina Walford, Managing Editor
Justina Walford loves to start things. Most recently, Walford was the founder and festival director of Women Texas Film Festival, which celebrated a successful 5-year run from 2016-2020. Earlier in her career, Walford served as the founder and artistic director of Split.Id Stage Performances in Hollywood and was writer/producer of the LGBTQ horror thriller, Ladies of the House and her two-person dramatic play, Evolution of Sunday. Justina is dedicated to promoting storytelling in all of its forms. As such, she has served on a variety of boards over her career, including Sunday Assembly NYC, Women in Film Dallas, and Asian Film Festival Dallas. Walford has built a reputation for bringing diverse groups of people together to work collectively in shining a light upon the stories that shape our world, real or imagined.
THE WRITERS
Miguel Cima
Miguel Cima is a veteran of the entertainment industry, crafting film reviews and entertainment pieces where he worked at MTV, Warner Brothers, and DreamWorks.
Jonita Davis
Jonita Davis is a film and culture critic, author, and writer. She has been writing for 16 years on topics exploring the intersection of pop culture, identity, education, parenting, and how those relationships affect our lives as parents, women, Black women, nerds, and people of this planet.
Arianna Farr
Arianna Farr, twenty-two years of age, is an aspiring writer and enthusiast of all things nerdy. Her current passion project is working on her homebrew campaign for Dungeons and Dragons, and trying desperately to rework the game’s magic system. When she’s not racking her brain for new ideas, she can be found either spending time with her partner or playing with her two cats, Mimosa and Percival. An avid reader, Arianna loves nothing more than to curl up with a good story, and prays that one day she finishes writing her own.
Jason Rogers
Jason sold his first screenplay in 1995 when he was fifteen. Since then, he has written screenplays for numerous foreign studios, indie horror studios, visual artists, and directors with unconventional visions. His romantic comedy, Take Me To Banaue, is now available with limited distribution. Jason judges a great movie by its ability to be watched repeatedly in any mood. With three MA degrees in Literature, he is capable of analyzing films in-depth, yet he also appreciates them simply for their entertainment value. Sometimes, movies are just meant to be enjoyable and fun.
Luke Y Thompson
Luke Y. Thompson began the year 1999 hand-photocopying his movie and pop-culture opinions in zines. By the end of that year, he was a critic and assistant arts editor for New Times Los Angeles. Since then, he set the standard for modern Comic-Con coverage under Nikki Finke at Deadline, and has contributed to most major L.A. outlets, including the L.A. Times, L.A. Weekly, CityBeat, E! Online, OC Weekly, Forbes and more. In addition to film, he writes voraciously about toys and fast food, having been a toy blogger and photographer for sites like FreakSugar and Superhero Hype. A former editor-in-chief for Voice Media’s Topless Robot site, and editor at Nerdist, he has also acted in low-budget horror movies, and contrary to stereotypes, enjoys consuming and analyzing all forms of cinema.
Daphne Taylor Street
Daphne Taylor Street is a freelance writer, co-author, editor, and ghostwriter. Formerly, she served as theeditor-in-chief and producer of Forbes Living magazine. Daphne is widely published in national and regional magazines, professional award-winning blogs, and books.