Cody Calahan and David Koechner on set of Vicious Fun
Off the hop, what is/are your film(s) and when did your film(s) (finally) premiere in 2020?
Cody Calahan (CC)/Chad Archibald (CA): The Oak Room premiered at Fantasia in August and Vicious Fun Premiered at Sitges in October, where it opened the Panorama Fantastic section of the festival.
Jill Gevargizian (JG) - The Stylist -Fantastic Fest (world), Sitges (international), FrightFest (UK)
Elza Kephart (EK) - Slaxx. The Fantasia Film Festival in August 2020.
Lex Ortega (LO) - I world premiered my second feature called "Animales Humanos" at Morbido FIlm Fest 2020.
Jesse Blanchard (JB) - Frank & Zed, October 10th, 2020 as part of the Nightstream Film Festival
Reese Eveneshen (RE) - For the Sake of Vicious, September 2020
Gabriel Carrer (GC) - We were lucky enough that the Fantasia International Film Festival hosted the world premiere of “For the Sake of the Vicious”.
Bao Tran (BT) - My film THE PAPER TIGERS world premiered at Fantasia International Film Festival.
Amelia Moses (AM) - 'Bleed With Me' premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival in August and 'Bloodthirsty' premiered at Fantastic Fest in October. Both virtually!
Natasha Kermani (NK) - Our film is called LUCKY, and while we were supposed to have our festival premiere at SxSW, we ended up first screening with Fantasia - which was really lovely and a great way to introduce the film to the world.
Izzy Lee (IL) - At the Chattanooga Film Festival, virtually, in late May. I was going to attend the physical fest in April, but we all know what happened. Thankfully, CFF did a super-cool job with their Microsoft partnership with rad events — it was a great success, really fun.
Ashelea Wessel (AW) - My latest short, WEIRDO premiered virtually at HORRIBLE IMAGININGS in September. When we started submitting, COVID had already started to spread in North America and the first festivals like SXSW had already taken the hit, so upcoming fests were beginning to work on figuring out virtual screenings and the like. Some held out hope for the possibility of a live fest but I think most of those dreams got dashed pretty fast.
Andrew Hunt (AH) - Spare Parts - my second feature. I directed my first film 10 years ago and it essentially was the start of Raven Banner, so I spent these last 10 years co-managing the company, helping others get their films made, releasing other people's films, etc. So I was really looking forward to travelling to festivals with my own film in tow after all these years, but nooooo... Covid shit all over that. But regardless it's had a good festival run without me present. It had its World Premiere at BIFAN in July.
Luciana Garazza (LG) - Scavenger - My film premiere at “FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CINE DE MAR DEL PLATA” in November 2019, but the COVID situation delayed our local premiere here in Cordoba. Then we were expecting to be able to premiere in Brazil at FANTASPOA FILM FESTIVAL but the same happened there (COVID restrictions). Finally we premiere in Europe at BUTFF in the Netherlands in 2020.
Sandra Arriagada (SA) - An anthology called "APPS" that we filmed with Lucio Rojas, José Miguel Zúñiga y Camilo León, near the end of 2019 and that we planned to release right now in January. Now we are resigning ourselves to a possible online premiere, if there is no effective vaccine, maybe in October.
Justin McConnell (JMcC) - CLAPBOARD JUNGLE first premiered in early June at Canadian Film Fest, which partnered with Superchannel to broadcast it on pay cable across Canada in a one-time-only screening. It was a very unique situation in that it also came with a broadcast sale/window for 2021, so that was a huge financial cherry on top. That's the kind of thing that before this didn't ever come directly from a festival selection. Blood in the Snow had the same partnership later in the year, and I think it's been a very good opportunity for Canadian filmmakers given the huge change in how things are being done.
Jimena Monteoliva (JM) - Fortunately we were able to premiere LAVA (by Ayar Blasco) and TO KILL A DRAGON (by yours truly) in 2019. For 2020 we had to premiere DEEPER WOUNDS by Ramiro García Bogliano. We were invited to premiere at BAFICI but the festival was canceled! So we waited all year for new festivals to come but systematically they were being cancelled or online and we weren't sure about going with that option for a new movie… but finally La Habana Film Festival invited us as well and as it was a hybrid festival we agreed and just got premiered last week. We are beyond happy about that. Also, we were supposed to finish the shooting of my new movie, WELCOME TO HELL with the hopes of sending it to festivals by the end of 2020, but the shooting was cut! We are now crossing fingers to see if we are able to finish the shooting next February, more than a year later.
Amelia Moses on set of Bleed With Me
At the beginning of the year no one knew what the hell was going on and festivals were cancelling left and right. Was it affected by the cancellations? When and where was your film supposed to premiere?
LO (Animales Humanos) - Our plan was to submit to Fantastic Fest and Sitges.
SA (APPS) - In Chile and Mexico, in the summer of 2021 (January and February here)
AM (Bleed With Me, Bloodthirsty) - We knew early in the year that 'Bleed With Me' was going to premiere at Fantasia but we didn't know it was going to go virtual until a few months later.
JG (The Stylist) - Applicable in a different, but interesting way — We actually shot the film in January -February. Wrapped February 10th. It was a miracle we got it all shot and everyone back home before the shutdowns.
JMcC (Clapboard Jungle) - We were set to premiere at Canadian Film Fest regardless, but when they shifted to broadcast from an in cinema festival, we had to opt in, which we did.
AH (Spare Parts) - It was supposed to have its World Premiere at BIFFF in April, I had my ticket booked and itinerary planned and everything. I love Belgium and the festival there but sadly the entire event was cancelled a few weeks before.
IL (Disco Graveyard) - It was supposed to have premiered at Boston Underground Film Festival in March, right after everything hit the fan. We didn’t know what was going to happen for a while, then BUFF sent out an inquiry to selected filmmakers asking if they’d like to be part of Nightstream online. This meant that my film was still a BUFF selection, but among a supergroup fest that also included Brooklyn Horror, North Bend, Overlook, and Popcorn Frights. Nice company to be in.
NK (Lucky) - Our world premiere was supposed to be SXSW '20, which of course was one of the first casualties of the Coronavirus lockdown here in the USA. It was a bit of a surreal experience, watching the rest of the country catch up a few days after we had all processed the loss of the festival. In many ways, SXSW cancellation was the canary in the coal mine, with so many more cancellations to follow.
GC (For the Sake of the Vicious) - We are huge fans of the genre festival circuit. As audience members ourselves, we always go into making a film with fingers and toes crossed that it would play at our favourite genre fests. Since my filmmaking spree started in Montreal at the Fantasia Film Festival over ten years ago, it’s always my first pick. I always make sure I have a good enough screener for their programming committee. So when we got accepted, it was just the start of all this pandemic craziness.
LG (Scavenger) - As I said we have an Argentinian premiere in 2019 but our first 2020 projection was planned at our city in Cordoba, the local premiere. Our movie is the first Science Fiction feature of our city but unfortunately we still couldn't do it. There is a lot of local expectation for that premiere. Our screening date was one day after the lock down.
CC: With The Oak Room we didn’t have a premiere set as we were still waiting to hear back from all the festivals. Vicious Fun was finished this past July since a lot of our post production partners were forced to close temporarily due to the pandemic, it felt like days after we finished we got accepted to Sitges which was great. Thankfully Vicious Fun was able to have a successful premiere. When everything started closing initially, I thought we might have to postpone our submissions and wait until 2021.
CA: We had filmed Vicious Fun and were just about to go into post when the pandemic locked everything down so it threw off our festival strategy. We were hoping to submit it to the summer Genre festivals (Fantasia, Fantastic Fest, Frightfest, Fantasy Fest etc) but once we could finally finish the film, most of the deadlines had passed or tests we cancelled. We sent a rough version to Sitges after their deadline and they loved it, so we just squeaked in. We debated holding the film back for a year, but we already had interest from buyers based on the preliminary marketing we had started releasing. Sitges came back to us and offered an opening night slot so we took it and got to at least have the movie premiere in front of a limited audience at a great festival.
Where else was it supposed to play and it was cancelled?
AW (Weirdo) - We screened almost exclusively at virtual festivals (save one) and WEIRDO is still on the circuit and looking forward to screenings in 2021. Nothing we were set to screen at cancelled, which was nice. I think everything was very in-flux until the day every fest opened though so we were kinda ready for anything.
MIL (Disco Graveyard) - It’s played a bunch of cool fests, particularly FrightFest, but that was geo-blocked to the UK, which I get, but I was still bummed I couldn’t experience it. Disco Graveyard is still playing into next year.
AH (Spare Parts) - Fantaspoa in Brazil.
Elza Kephart on set of Slaxx
Were there any doubts that your film would screen at all in 2020?
EK (Slaxx) - No, we were pretty determined to get it out there.
BT (The Paper Tigers) - No doubts! It was just finding the right timing and strategy with our sales team XYZ Films and AMP International.
LG (Scavenger) - We had lots of doubts about our film screening this year but thanks to Jinga Films and Tanu Distribucion work we manege(d) to participate in the physical edition of some film festival(s) this year.
SA (APPS) - In person, it is clear that not, because they are closed by COVID19. In Chile, the government is relentless with cinemas and theaters (but not with shopping centers ... mhhh paradoxical, perhaps the culture spreads the virus ... )
JB (Frank & Zed) - Yes, we signed on for Nightstream at the last second. We were thinking of skipping festivals all together.
JM (Expansivas/Deeper Wounds) - Absolutely. For a moment we thought about stopping everything and just returning to sending the movie to festivals after all this had passed… but it just took too long! (regarding DEEPER WOUNDS).
JMcC (Clapboard Jungle) - At first, yes, but it didn't take long for Canadian Film Fest to shift to broadcast so things just worked out nicely.
IL (Disco Graveyard) - I had no idea what to expect. I mean, how could one in an unprecedented situation? I hate this dystopia.
JG (The Stylist) - Yes. I started telling my fellow producers back in March that we should all mentally and emotionally prepared for film festivals not to happen at all this year. We began submitting the film to festivals in May when none of them knew if they’d be virtual, in person, or happen at all.
GC For The Sake of Vicious) - 100%. It’s still sort of depressing that we haven’t been able to see our film in a theatre environment. When the pandemic hit, I was confident that it would pass. When things kept escalating, I knew that this festival experience would be a different one. We are just so lucky that festivals pushed on through and continued to put the mark and identity of a festival out there.
CC (The Oak Room, Vicious Fun) - Of course. I thought neither film would get a chance to be seen by audiences. I was pretty heart broken. Vicious Fun is a film that should be watched with an audience, of course we’re still hoping to get that chance, but there’s just a lot of things moving around at the moment. Hopefully one day. I’m staying optimistic about the future and a lot of people are adapting with the times. My friends and family are still safe and healthy, so I’m really thankful for that and I’m just hoping that 2021 will be better than 2020.
AW (Weirdo) - This pandemic has been such an utter shitshow that we weren’t holding our breath for anything at all. We basically just decided to push forward like nothing was wrong and see what happens! The stakes are certainly much lower for a short going into all this because we’re not beholden to anyone’s timelines or sales goals or anything like that.
AM (Bleed With Me, Bloodthirsty) - For 'Bleed With Me', we knew Fantasia would at least happen and that hopefully things would pick up from there. To some extent I think we were lucky that Fantasia (and our other fests) were later in the year so they had more time to adjust and move into the online space. For 'Bloodthirsty', I didn't think we would premiere until 2021 but once we secured the spot at Fantastic Fest, it all fell into place.
NK (LUCKY) - No, I think we were committed to bringing the film to festivals in 2020. At the beginning, we thought maybe that other festivals would proceed IRL, so there was a bit of a mad dash to see how festivals were reacting following the cancellation of SXSW, but of course that soon became obvious that most would choose to go virtual, so then it was just about adapting to that new format.
LO (Animales Humanos) - It was complicated because the distributor company wanted to hold the film until theatres were back to normal but finally they agreed. We discussed that if the festival wanted to show it on a streaming platform we weren't going to accept because there were quite a few cases where people recorded the film for piracy, so when we found out Morbido wanted to make it presential in a theatre we were more satisfied.
RE (For the Sake of Vicious) - When the first lockdown hit in March we were definitely concerned. We had quite literally just started post-production on the film at the very end of February. At a certain point there was only so much you could do without being there in person. Production came to halt for at least a month, and at that point we didn’t know what was going to happen. Even still we had gotten into a festival in early 2020 (with a rough cut), and with news of the lockdowns and festivals shutting down we certainly thought that would be the end of it. On top of that we were being pushed to submit to festivals, while at the same time also watching as very prominent festivals were closing up shop. We wondered if we should wait a year to release the movie and ride the full festival circuit later. However given the production agreements in place, the film had to be sold to market in 2020 regardless.
Izzy Lee with cinematographer Shaheen Seth on My Monster
How did your film premiere? Physical (in house or drive-in) or Virtual?
JB (Frank & Zed) - Virtual premiere.
AM (Bleed With Me, Bloodthirsty - Both were virtual.
NK (LUCKY) - We premiered virtually with Fantasia Film Fest!
BT (The Paper Tigers) - Virtual world premiere
AH (Spare Parts) - BIFAN actually had a physical screening in the theatre. Korea at the time thought they had Covid beat, little did they know there was a sequel in the works.
LG (Scavenger) - Physical, we were only willing to participate in physical screenings due to a distribution agreement. Except for “Frightfest” because of geo block and time (zone) restrictions that made the screening very similar as if it was physical.
SA (APPS) - It has not yet been released, only Coming Soon in Sitges and it will clearly be virtual in one of the class A festivals that are coming.
CC (The Oak Room, Vicious Fun) : The Oak Room was virtual at Fantasia. Vicious Fun had a physical premiere at Sitges along with some digital screenings but, we couldn’t fly over for obvious reasons. I am glad some people were able to see it in the proper setting.
LO (Animales Humanos)- In a movie theatre that usually holds 250 people, the access was restricted due to the pandemic to a very low percentage of the crowd and only 40 people could watch it, not as I used to premiere but it was a good experience keeping in mind all the situation.
JM (Expansivas/Deeper Wounds) - In the case of EXPANSIVAS (DEEPER WOUNDS) with La Habana, it was hybrid (both virtual and theatres), but LAVA and TO KILL A DRAGON had premieres during 2020 in other festivals and except from LAVA in Sitges, that was also hybrid, the rest were online only.
IL (Disco Graveyard) - Virtual, they’ve almost all been online. Some fests have pushed to next year, too, or are still undetermined. I think the one physical festival that I played that took place was GenreBlast in Winchester, VA at the Alamo. Would have loved to have attended.
GC (For The Sake of Vicious) - For the Sake of Vicious premiered virtually! Fantasia had a fantastic system implemented for their program of 2020. It was safe, secure, easy to use and engaging. For the world premiere, I hooked up my digital projector, linked it to my computer, bought some Guru Energy drink, made a huge cheese board and co-director Reese popped over and we watched it together. We also did the live Q&A right after. It was a different experience, the first of the festival run. The first time you sort of realize how different this festival run will be. Lots of basement Q&A live stream sessions.
Reese Eveneshen on set of For the Sake of Vicious
Did your film continue to screen at other festivals after its premiere? (We saw that some films were being picked up quickly after, if not before it’s WP, and taken off the circuit right after the WP.)
CC (The Oak Room, Vicious Fun) - The Oak Room was able to have a decent festival run and it’s still going. It had two physical festival screenings I believe at Mayhem Film Festival in England and Hardline Film Festival in Germany. It was limited to the number of people, but it happened. After that we played virtually at a number of other festivals. (Calgary, Grimmfest, Telluride Horror Show, Ramaskrik, Irish Film Institute, Torino, Other Worlds Austin, Soho Horror Fest, etc.). We were going to play Strasbourg European Fantastic Festival but it was pushed from Oct/Nov 2020 to early this year depending on when they are allowed to hold it in France (that one will be a physical screening as well). Vicious Fun is sort of the opposite, After it played Sitges and Monster Fest it was picked up. I think we might have actually been in talks after Sitges but we did one more festival prior. It might play a few festivals early 2021 but, we’ll have to wait and see.
JG (The Stylist) - Our world premiere was virtual at Fantastic Fest. We had our international premiere in Spain at Sitges Film Festival. It started as both virtual and in-person, but half way through they canceled the physical part. Then we made our UK premiere virtual at FrightFest.
EK (Slaxx) - Sitges, Mile High Horror Film Festival, Frightfest London, a festival tour of several German cities and few others.
It also played in theaters in Canada for three weeks in early September, before the second wave started up and more stringent measures came into effect, shutting down theaters once more.
JB (Frank & Zed) - We also screened at Morbido Film Festival. (Editor’s note: It also had a secret screening somewhere else but could not be announced because another festival was supposed to have the regional premiere after the world premiere at Nightstream.)
JM (Expansivas/Deeper Wounds) - LAVA and TO KILL A DRAGON are still rolling through the festival circuit in 2021 with more surprises I cannot tell yet… DEEPER WOUNDS just started the run, so we’ll see what goes on for it in 2021, but we sure want to do more festivals.
JMcC (Clapboard Jungle) - After that premiere it played Fantasia, Frightfest (where it won best documentary), Sitges, IFI Horrorthon, Night Visions, South African Horrorfest (best doc), Buffalo Dreams (best doc), Terror-Fi (New Zealand, actually in cinema), CUFF.Docs and a couple others. We only played one festival in the US, Buffalo Dreams, because it was an in person event. Our US distributors strongly advised against playing any virtual festivals in the United States out of concern of lost sales in later VOD, so we had to pull out and turn down a decent number of US festivals, unfortunately.
AM (Bleed With Me, Bloodthirsty) - Both films are still on the festival circuit and will be released in 2021. For 'Bleed With Me' we had distributors on board at the beginning of the festival circuit but since it's a smaller film, we felt the circuit would be good for early press coverage and to start getting the film out there!
NK (LUCKY) - So LUCKY was acquired by Shudder and will release in 2021, but we were fortunate enough to keep screening through the end of 2020. Following Fantasia, we were at a variety of mostly genre fests, including Sitges, FrightFest, Torino, and the new Nightstream festival which is comprised of some of the best US genre fests (Overlook, BUFF, Popcorn Frights, Brooklyn Horror, etc). I thought Nightstream was particularly interesting and a brilliant way to combine forces to have a successful "virtual" festival.
RE (For the Sake of Vicious) - FSV was picked up pretty fast, fairly certain it was before the premiere at Fantasia. But we were still able to complete a full festival run before it’s general release. We lucked out with Vicious and had a pretty great run with at least 15 official selections (Fantasia, Frightfest, Sitges, Blood In the Snow, Grimmfest, to name a few). Right now we’re about four months into the festival circuit and it’s now starting to wind down as we head into the new year. Regarding the film being picked up early in 2020 versus any other year, for me it didn’t feel that much different than the last experience on the previous film.
GC (For the Sake of Vicious) - After the premiere at Fantasia, we played Sitges, Hardline, Frightfest UK, Blood In the Snow, Grimmfest, South African Horrorfest, TOHorror Fantastic Fest, Telluride Horror Show and Ramaskrik Film Festival. There are probably a few more I am forgetting to mention! I believe we are still trudging along the festival circuit, but we do have some release info coming soon for 2021!
BT (The Paper Tigers) - Fantasia Film Festival - World Premiere Busan International Film Festival - Asia Premiere Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival - U.S.A Premiere, Special Jury Award - Best Editing New York Cinevision Asian American International Film Festival - New York Premiere San Diego Asian Film Festival Boston Asian American Film Festival - Winner - Audience Award Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival - Opening Night Film Anomaly - The Rochester Genre Film Festival - Opening Night Film Saskatoon Fantastic Film Festival - Closing Night Film Hawaii International Film Festival - Hawaii Premiere International Film Festival & Awards Macao - Hong Kong & Macao Premiere
AH (Spare Parts) - The film has done great on the festival circuit, playing both physical and virtual festivals. After BIFAN it played Sitges, L'Absurde Seance, FrightFestUK, Telluride, CineFest, Kaohsiung, GrimmFest, Oltre Lo Specchio, and is playing SF Indie Fest next.
LG (Scavenger) - This is my first feature, but we sign(ed) very quick(ly) for the movie distribution when we saw that online film festivals were not an option for us.
SA (APPS) - We have been careful with the WIP. We prefer to wait cautiously for the sound post to finish and send it as a finished movie, so that problem does not happen to us.
LO (Animales Humanos) - The distributor has been holding it for theatres, when people can actually (attend). The distributor wanted to hold the film but Abraham Castillo the programmer from Morbido did a great job convincing them (to play at the festival).
Cast & Crew of The Oak Room virtual premiere at Fantasia
How did the festivals who screened your film include you on the day(s) of screenings and in the festival overall?
JB (Frank & Zed) - Nightstream had a great feature called Gather that was like an 8-bit Zelda style interface with zoom chat. That part was really fun.
LG (Scavenger) - Personally I think that online film festivals are not the best for the Directors/Producers, we felt very disconnected (from) all in general.
AH (Spare Parts) - They were all cool, reaching out in advance asking me to tape an introduction or to do a taped Q&A for after the screening. I'm impressed how quickly fests pivoted and came up with a plan B, rather than completely cancelling their events.
CC (The Oak Room, Vicious Fun) - A lot of festivals gave us the opportunity to introduce the films. Fantasia did that while also hosting a live Q&A after the screening which was great. Not the same as being there in person but, their hard work really helped to establish some of that excitement (and anxiety) you get when you’re there in person.
CA (The Oak Room, Vicious Fun) : The Oak Room had a virtual premiere at Fantasia (this was when virtual premieres were still a very foreign concept). It was after the initial lockdown so we were able to gather a few members of the cast and crew and watch it together outside on a patio. After it finished we did a live Q&A from the patio with a few other cast members virtually calling in. It was the closest experience we had to a premiere for ether film. I think a big part was because it was a Canadian festival so we weren't geo-locked out of it. Most of the other festivals screen the film but we can't see it live because it's geo-locked to the country. It's part of the game I guess but we used to be able to at least see photos from the premiere or hear from friends who are there for it. Now it's just waiting for reviews from people who watched it at home. Definitely a different year for us.
EK (Slaxx) - Fantasia did a live Q&A after the screening, Mile High and Frightfest did a pre-taped Q&A, a few others did pre-taped intros. The Fantasia live Q&A was awesome! It was great to have the cast on Zoom, sharing memories and answering questions live. I wish more festivals had done a live Q&A or maybe Twitter Q&As so I could have interacted with the audience. It was still really great to do pre-taped Q&As with Mile High and Frightfest, as I was able to talk to the programmers about the film, to get their appreciation and enthusiasm for the film.
IL (Disco Graveyard) - Q&As. Nightstream was fantastic. We didn’t do anything on the day, but we prerecorded a q&a with the shorts filmmakers in my block. I was glad not to have to do anything on the day so I could just enjoy the festival. What’s more is that this Voltron of fests actually PAID us a small stipend out of their revenue to shorts filmmakers, and that’s never happened to me before, it was rad. The q&a we did as a group with Chattanooga FF was great, most of the filmmakers in that block showed up. I can’t recall if that was live on the day or prerecorded. CFF did have a bunch of rad events that streamed that were quite enjoyable. Portland Horror had a q&a on the day and a public online afterparty. The Charlotte Film Festival was cool and had some surprising genre elements in it. I don’t think I did a q&a with them, but I did run a q&a for them with my friend, filmmaker Brea Grant for her film 12 Hour Shift. That was fun because it was mostly a raucous film discussion into her process.
AM (Bleed With Me, Bloodthirsty) - Honestly, most of the festivals we've been a part of have been fantastic. A big shout out goes to Other Worlds in Austin - they involved both me and the actors in various online events, panels and podcasts. They were super engaged and welcoming. Most festivals did a Zoom Q&A, either pre-recorded or live (post "screening"). As a director, I was a panelist for a few online discussions, usually revolving around the topic of women in horror.
NK (LUCKY) - I think all the fests we screened with did a great job of hustling to create Q&A and panels to create Zoom-style filmmaker participation. Ultimately nothing will be the same as physically being in a theater with an audience, or being able to go get a drink with a fellow filmmaker one-on-one to compare notes or discuss projects, or even just experiencing being in a new city. All of those things were sorely missed this year, but I do think the fests adapted quickly and did well. Nightstream had a fun 8-bit style "virtual bar" that was really unique, and I think Fantasia in particular did a great job putting together some very interesting and diverse panels.
RE (For the Sake of Vicious) - A select handful of the festivals (Fantasia, Cinefest Sudbury, Hardline Film Festival, Telluride Horror Show, Frightfest, Grimmfest, Blood in the Snow) did a pretty solid job of making this feel as much like a real festival as possible given the constraints put upon them. Just in terms of putting together really good Q&A’s, giving the filmmakers access to the other films in the festival, setting up press interviews with other outlets, etc. I was surprised by the number of festivals (specifically some “bigger” ones) that we didn’t hear anything from regarding screenings, access, interviews… I know it’s a difficult ask when there’s so many other films and venues to cater to, but still it would have been nice to be included.
GC For The Sake of Vicious) - Fantasia, Grimmfest, Frightfest, Blood In the Snow and Telluride all did a great job in making the virtual experience fun for both the filmmakers and audiences. I think this has to do with the genre festival spirit, and the people that run these festivals. We are all fans of cinema, we all just want to talk about cinema and the movies we watch. Usually after these festivals in a physical environment, you would be able to go and hang out after with some drinks and talk about all the films (including your own). So these festivals did a real awesome job at trying to bring that to our homes!
Bao Tran on set of The Paper Tigers
How did the festivals who screened your film include you on the day(s) of screenings and in the festival overall? CONT...
BT (The Paper Tigers) - All the festivals made the best of it and involved us with the virtual Q&As. We were able to include a lot of our cast and crew that normally might not have been able to attend the fest if it were physical. So it was nice to be able to interact with the audience that way.
JG (The Stylist) - Fantastic Fest invited us to pre-recorded a Q&A and do a live introduction. We were invited to a filmmakers virtual party. They also asked me to be part of the Fantastic Feud.
For FrightFest we prerecorded an intro. They also did a lot of extra promotion with our lead actor Najarra Townsend, because she is based in the UK. They treated us like royalty. We also prerecorded an intro and Q&A for Celluloid Screams. At one point both FrightFest and Celluloid were hoping to have the festival in person and Najarra would attend, but that didn’t happen.
AW (Weirdo) - Some of the festivals really stepped up for this round and made a huge effort to make the most of the virtual setting. They really tried to include everyone and make it the best possible experience for the filmmakers. Lots of them had extra-long shorts block Q+As, which shorts don’t usually get at live festivals (shoutout to HORRIBLE IMAGININGS and NIGHTMARES) and a few even took the time to pre-tape solo Q+As for the film, with very well thought-out, insightful questions (shoutout to MORBIDO). It’s clearly been a ton of extra effort on the organizers’ parts and I think all the filmmakers could really feel it.
Since the social/networking aspect of the live festivals was the biggest thing on the chopping block, I think it was pretty rad that a lot of fests worked to keep the mingling alive with virtual cocktail hours and stuff like that. HOLLYSHORTS did both Q+As and added networking events for specific groups of filmmakers (I attended a Canadian-specific one that was great!).
NIGHTSTREAM had a little interface where you could walk your avatar into a virtual bar and join conversations as if you were actually there. It was a totally novel move. They really took the virtual angle to a whole new level and made the festival a new kind of entity that’s different from what you would have seen from each individual festival on a normal year.
JM (Expansivas/Deeper Wounds) - I really think overall all the festivals we’ve been doing have done a great job. It is really difficult to do a premiere miles away! The social networks were the real connection and all of the people working on them did a hard work focusing on the good function of the festival and also informed everybody through those web pages. I really can’t imagine how stressful that must have been. For instance, I’ve been talking to some of the guys from Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre (where LAVA and TO KILL are now) and they are really exhausted, being in front of the computer for almost a complete day during the whole week.
JMcC (Clapboard Jungle) - I found it varied by the festival. Fantasia and Frightfest did an excellent job engaging the filmmakers and the audiences together. Fantasia in particular set up a festival Discord channel which had active chats between filmmakers and audiences throughout the fest, there were Q&As, and I even got to do a specialty panel over Zoom with Vincenzo Natali. A lot of the fests mostly just pre-recorded the Q&A and intros and left it at that. But for the ones I had non geo-blocked access to, it was great to be able to stream the rest of the fest from my home. And I got to do a Q&A/masterclass virtually with a live audience of New Zealanders via Terror-Fi. All the feasts tried to do different things, but I think it was easily Fantasia that put the most effort into the community experience.
SA (APPS) - Mónica García Massague from the Sitges Festival and Javier Fernández from Blood Window / Ventana Sur are my angels and they have presented the film in both sections Coming Soon and WIP, the latter for festivals and industry only.
How was your participation in film festivals different from previous experiences you had with your earlier films? Other than the obvious do it from home in sweatpants feature
JG (The Stylist) - It was different in every way, because I would normally attend! Biggest thing I miss is being able to hear the reactions in real time and knowing what moments worked/didn’t work, knowing how people truly feel about it without having to say a word. But there are cool positives to the festivals being virtual, like so many more people having access to it, from much further distances.
The downside is we couldn’t play as many festivals as we would have if they were in person because they’d be available to different audiences each time. But with them being virtual - the same people can access a festival that would normally happen in New York as a festival that would happen in Atlanta.
Justin McConnell and Lora Burke on set of Lifechanger
What changed about the way you received feedback from people who watched your film at a virtual film festival than at a physical film festival? Social media was already a prominent barometer of reactions to films that played at the festival, did you note an increase in that with absence of no one being able to speak to you in person?
BT (The Paper Tigers) - Of course I love and miss the experience of showing the film in a theater and meeting the audience in person afterwards. There’s nothing as pure and instant as a crowd laughing or gasping. But it’s still great to see all the love on social media and private messages.
AH (Spare Parts) - Obviously what was missing most was hearing and seeing people's reactions to the film and then getting to talk to/meet them afterwards. Instead, all we got was the typical love/hate reactions on social media with none of the momentary glow of basking in a spotlight. Thankfully I'm in post on my third feature as we speak so we'll see what 2021 brings.
SA (APPS) - Contrary to what I thought, I had a lot of feedback on my own social networks, people who saw the Coming Soon or the WIP or the panels, contacted me in different ways and I think that has been the only wonderful thing about this pandemic. That we unite through technology seeking human connection, increasingly direct and less "formal" and distant.
LO (Animales Humanos) - There was a lot of buzz about Animales Humanos and when people knew it was premiering at Morbido a lot of people wanted to (attend). But there was a restriction due to the pandemic in terms of seats so only 40 people got to watch it out of the 250 people the theatre holds. The comments were very positive and the audience seemed to enjoy it, right now a lot of people expect to watch it in regular theatres soon.
JG (The Stylist) - We got a lot of great feedback via social media, primarily Twitter, after each screening. A lot from FrightFest and Fantastic, but we got some from each screening. It was exciting to see. Like I said previously, the biggest difference is not hearing the reactions in real time, as the movie plays VS after, and the feel you get where you just know if it was well received or not.
AW (Weirdo) - I’ve gotten a lot less feedback than usual. We’d normally hear from people at the fest who maybe saw us across the room and popped over for a quick chat, but that’s not really something that can be achieved with most current festival formats. I’m hearing the most from other filmmakers in the same blocks, which I’m stoked about regardless, it just represents a smaller (more captive) group. Social media-wise, I tend to hear a tiny bit more about the film generally, but I think for shorts, the visibility has gone down in the current format.
EK (Slaxx) - I didn’t get much direct feedback from audiences who watched Slaxx at a festival, aside from people who already knew me who sent me direct messages. I got a few FB messages from strangers, which was really great, but not that many. I don’t monitor the social media of Slaxx so didn’t have direct contact with the audience through the Slaxx page. To be honest I don’t really love being too connected to social media so I wasn’t avidly checking the Slaxx FB page for comments.
I really, really missed not having live interaction with festival audiences, other filmmakers and festival programmers. This was the hardest part of the lockdown.
JB (Frank & Zed) - We got a great reaction from social media. It really increased our presence on twitter, Facebook, and letterboxd and even got us onto TikTok. However, we certainly miss hanging out with an actual audience.
JM (Expansivas/Deeper Wounds) - Well… what is actually different is the feedback if people liked your movie, because in a movie theatre, they would come to you and tell it in your face. That warmth is lost through social networks. And since I don’t like to look for the critics for my movies, I miss the nice and kind comments. The good part is that I also miss the bad ones.
JMcC (Clapboard Jungle) - That's exactly it - the only way to judge reaction in this environment is social media, Letterboxd, IMDb, and reviews. Maybe the odd phone call. The in person communication was missed, but what can you do?
IL (Disco Graveyard) - I got more feedback online from people via social media than I likely ever would have in an in-person festival. There are times that people will tweet about your film, but usually viewers will run into you randomly at a festival and strike up a conversation. I miss those conversations, but having online validation is so lovely, too.
AM (Bleed With Me, Bloodthirsty) - It's hard for me to say as these are my first films so I don't have a benchmark to compare the experience. Most feedback we've received has been from social media, mainly Twitter. And through talking to press and critics as well, we've gotten a good sense of people's reactions. I think the main thing that's missing is feeling the audience's reaction in real time in a theatre. And then conversations at the bar afterwards!
NK (LUCKY) - Certainly social media response is one of the primary ways that we saw audience response, and of course reading reviews from critics, etc. One kind viewer took a short video of an audience applauding after the film when it screened at Sitges, which was lovely to at least have a few seconds of pretending to be in the room where it happened - ha! I'm not that active on social media, but it was good to be able to get a sense of audience reaction, though nothing will really be the same as being able to engage in organic discussions following a screening in a festival setting. Shudder did something really fun which was a secret screening of the film for their members following their live TV showing of John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN - so, again, it's been nice to see fests and distributors find ways to engage while we all continue to stay distanced. I do look forward to the day we can all enjoy attending festivals again.
RE (For the Sake of Vicious) - The biggest change is that you end up receiving honest feedback sooner than one usually would. At film festivals when you watch a film with an audience there’s a certain energy and feedback you get, that though while honest, is generally jaded by the collective audience experience. Meaning it doesn’t feel the same way when you watch it at home, which is where you’ll probably get the more real experience of what you really feel about the movie. With everyone being at home and watching this on their TV’s, laptops, etc, we got that honest feedback immediately. And all of that came from social media. You could watch audience real time reactions as they live tweeted it (which is disheartening because you’d hope folks wouldn’t feel the need to be on Twitter during your movie). It also depended on the festival as well; generally the festivals that included us in the process of promoting the movie had bigger social media responses than those that did not.
GC For The Sake of Vicious) - Feedback definitely changed. We did notice the lack of conversation that comes with any festival. For example, that post-screening chat in the lobby or at the bar. Social media helped, but the motivation was lacking. What I mean by that is, when you go see a movie physically in person, there is an energy after the movie. People get their phones out and make tweets or posts with their instant reaction. That is missing, or it’s less prominent in our current virtual screening environment. This also goes to show how important it is for that communal watching experience in a theatre. It’s an energy before and after the screening that can only be felt physically, we don’t have that right now. The films and audiences are robbed of that. A major focal point of going to a festival is to be there in person, and to turn off your phone for a short period of time and connect with others. With that said, we did receive emails connecting us with people who wanted to talk about the film in an interview format, but that casual banter and natural dialogue of running into people has disappeared. Until next year.
LG (Scavenger) - When we projected the film at “Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre Film festival” and “Mar del Plata Film Festival” people, other directors and also producers approached me to talk not only about the film but also about the cinema in general and I consider this type of contact fundamental for our field.
On the other hand, we had an online screening at “Frightfest” and although I received messages of people with the intention of talking about the film, I think that this can't replace the experience of attending a film festival. That is irreplaceable because at the end of the day the physical experience of the film festival feels unique and exceptional while online viewing is lost in a sea of digital content in which we are actually immersed.
CC (The Oak Room, Vicious Fun) - I’m not really on social media (I leave that up to the other guys on the team), so it changed a hell of a lot for me. Being there to hear audiences’ reactions, the questions asked later on and hanging around after the screening to chat about the film obviously didn’t happen so I lost a bit of that connection with the audiences. I find the films I’ve made don’t feel completely finished until that happens. For me, that moment prompts me to start thinking about what I want to do next so, without that final stage it’s a weird feeling - like I’m still just waiting for something to arrive that I know isn’t going to show up. You can tell what the vibe is when a theatre full of people watch a film together. When everything is on-line, you’re just not too sure because you’re not sharing that experience with an audience. It’s a much different experience.
Having said that, The Oak Room in particular has really seemed to connect with audiences and took home the audience awards at both Fantasia and Grimmfest. That was great and I’m really glad the film connected with audiences at home. Hopefully Vicious Fun follows suit when it’s finally released.
CA (The Oak Room, Vicious Fun) - It’s hard because the majority of people who watch your film don’t write reviews or post on social media. Filmmakers often push people to talk about films they like while at festivals. Now your film really needs to do all the work on it’s own. It needs to make enough of an impact that the viewer feels the need to spread the word.
Indie films need every bit of support they can get to scream through the noise and this pandemic has really limited the resources filmmakers have to help support their projects in person. It’s great to read reviews and see tweets about your film but it’s often the in person conversations you get to have with the average movie lover after they watch your film that really stick with you as a filmmaker.
Andrew Hunt and Emily Alatalo on set of Spare Parts
If your film is now off the circuit do you know when will your film be released?
JG (The Stylist) - In the US and UK, we are set to release on ARROW PLAYER on March 1 and on VOD / Blu-ray in June.
EK (Slaxx) - Yes it’s off the circuit. It will start streaming on Shudder in spring 2021 in the US, UK, Australia and NZ. Streaming in Canada in Spring 2021 on another platform. It is supposed to play theatrically in Benelux (!!!) this spring but I don’t have the details. International sales are still in negotiation, so the rest of the world is TBA.
NK (LUCKY) - We will be releasing early 2021 with Shudder.
AH (Spare Parts) - It's still on the circuit, but it will be released June 1 in Canada (Raven Banner) and the U.S. (RLJE).
LO (Animales Humanos) - Dates have been changing but the last one I heard was the first trimester 2021
Luciana Garazza and a massive hole in a back on set of Scavenger
Is there anything you want to add before we go?
EK (Slaxx) - It was a really hard thing not to go to festivals with Slaxx. I was so looking forward to this; I hadn’t had a proper festival run since Graveyard Alive in 2003-2005! So this was one of the hardest blows of the COVID. Slaxx did come out on screens in Canada, so at least there was some audience interaction (I went to a few screenings in Montreal to do live Q&As). It was really great to chat with the (limited) audience afterwards, have some of the cast and crew there. We did what we could to recreate a mini-premiere. But it was a big emotional loss and I had to really process this and grieve. I would recommend that all filmmakers who had their films “premiere” online or outright cancelled or postponed acknowledge the importance of, and go through this grieving process, if they haven’t done so already.
A strange upside of festivals going online was that, because I am very concerned about climate change and the impact flying has on CO2 emissions, I felt a sort of relief of not having to negotiate my desire to hop around festivals, and my beliefs as a climate activist. I *might * go to Belgium for its theatrical premiere, if COVID allows. But I'm not sure.
Also, a strange added bonus of COVID was that it gave me perspective on a lot of stuff, and forced me to be more in the moment, less attached to outcomes. To plan, but know that nothing is a given, and that any success (making a film, having a good review, receiving a nice message from an audience member, etc) is in and of itself precious.
JB (Frank & Zed) - Even before the pandemic, the best advice I received was to ‘make a plan and then adapt if it didn’t work out.' That certainly proved to be prescient and, I think, that same advice will hold true long after the pandemic is over.
JM (Expansivas/Deeper Wounds) - There is only one thing I’d like to add and it is that despite the fact that I hate online festivals (since I like the interaction with the people, watch the movie in a theatre, travel!...) it is a good thing that it gets to more viewers. I understand that some festivals are having more audiences watching movies than ever, and for me, getting more people to watch your movie is something good, right?
LG (Scavenger) - I believe we must find the way to continue our lives as it were before COVID situation. It was a really difficult year for all of us but it's time to move on.