What every filmmaker should know about the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival
Here’s a series of messages taken from the Webcinema NY list. I try to warn people away from the NYIIFV festival whenever possible, so I’m posting the conversation here to keep filmmmakers informed.
Thu, 27 Sep 2001 18:32:42 -0400
joshua bee alafia wrote:
new york international independent film/video festival february 2002
is this festival for real? i remember a while ago someone warning about a fake new york festival. these folks are charging me 300 to show my film, and a minimum 600 for space on their website and a little booth at their opening at madison square garden. they’re rushing me to pay for the marketing now, and the festival isn’t tilfebruary… anyone else screening in this festival, that can verify it for me. i’m not familiar with it. thanks in advance!
-bee
Fri, 15 Feb 2002 09:15:33 EST
SYNC24FPS wrote:
Has anyone heard about this festival and if so, what was your experience with it? Apparently they want $300, $550, and $750 dollars for applications for 3
screenings and conventions in NYC, VEGAS and LA. Has anyone done this route and if so what was your experience with the festival? Was it worth it?
Thanks and I look forward to hearing your reply.
-SYNC24FPS
Fri, 28 Sep 2001 17:01:28 EDT
Dave Miller wrote:
I hope this question doesn’t mark me as hopelessly naive, but: is it usual to pay a fee to show at a festival? I thought there were entry fees (in the $25-$75 range) and that after that if they accepted the film they started being nice to you, not the other way around. So the idea of a $300 fee to show a film seemed really out of left field on this one.
Notice that I’ve never shown anything anywhere, so I really don’t know. But what I’ve read, nothing seems to mention such fees.
Thanks,
Dave Miller
Fri, 28 Sep 2001 12:46:42 -0700 (PDT)
Mike Boas wrote:
The definitive word on the New York International Film and Video Festival: Watch your back!
We entered two shorts in the festival back in 1999. They were both accepted. They were happy to take our money. We chose NOT to pay the additional 600 for a booth. When we arrived in New York, we went to the Garden and checked in. Here’s what you get for your entry fee: a piece of paper with the screening schedule. Not even a program full of detailed information and sponsors, etc.
So then we walked around the main room at the Garden. It was about half-full, with plenty of empty tables. Many of the folks there were performance artists, dancers, and painters, for some reason. Since there were empty tables, we grabbed one and set up an impromptu display for our animation business. No one stopped us.
Screenings were held in clubs like Le Bar Bat and Club Ohm. There was a theater (the Tribeca?) that was also showing films, but you had to work out some sketchy deal with them. People had to pay to attend, and you were responsible for filling the place. Anyway, our cartoons were to be shown at Ohm. We showed up at the appropriate time, and they were doing that New York club thing: keeping people waiting on the curb to make the joint look popular. When they finally let us in, we saw the tail end of one of our shorts on the screen. Without sound.
Hmmm. That was probably just a test, right? They’ll show it again when people come in and sit down, surely. Nope. They went right into the feature film.
Meanwhile, people are walking around, talking, ordering drinks at the bar. Not the greatest atmosphere to show a film. Ten O’Clock came, the feature ended, and the dance music started. No chance to get our films shown at all.
Club Ohm had some deal with the festival: at 10PM they started their club night and no more films. Ours (and someone else’s) didn’t even get shown. We argued and threatened until we got a partial refund for the hassle. I’m not sure if the other guys were so lucky.
We talked to someone else who wasn’t even listed on the schedule. He had to work his ass off to get people to even be aware of his screening.
BOTTOM LINE: the fest is set up to make money off filmmakers. After that, they don’t care about making you happy.
Ahhh. It feels good to get this off my chest.
-Mike
http://www.animatusstudio.com
Fri, 28 Sep 2001 19:58:06 EDT
I35Films wrote:
Here is what you need to know about this festival.
$300 for a screening room is not a bad price. All that other crap (website/Madison Square Gardens/etc) is not necessary.
The Industry and press does not make a priority out of going to this festival and the festival does a shit job promoting it to industry and press.
It can be a valuable experience if you pay your theater rental fee and take it upon yourself to promote the screening OUTSIDE the boundaries of the festival. YOU need to find the industry and press that YOU want to target and either make sure you have enough comps or pay for them to go – or make it CLEAR how they can get their own free industry/press pass to the screening.
Their tactics they use to get your film are mostly bogus. Many times they haven’t even seen your film. If you need a NY screening for industry this is not a bad way to do it but you need to control everything outside of projecting the film yourself. (I recommend you invest another $50 in a Hollywood Creative Directory) or just start to put together a mailing list. AND don’t just mail postcards. I run a film festival in town and I already have over 40 postcards/faxes to the IFP Market. The ones I’ll make special effort to see are the ones who found my email and emailed me or called.
-I35Films
