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From: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.movies,net.misc
Subject: Re: Film Festivals: A query (also summary of the Seattle Festival)
Message-ID: <6111@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 23-Jun-85 17:04:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.6111
Posted: Sun Jun 23 17:04:27 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Jun-85 06:29:43 EDT
References: <728@vax2.fluke.UUCP>
Reply-To: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (Peter Reiher)
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Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
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Xref: watmath net.movies:6752 net.misc:8156
Summary: 

>This year there were
>about 200 films shown, about 70% of them being foreign.  The
>Festival has a reputation of finding independent films, or films on
>the shelf, and launching them into sucessful independent runs;
>good examples are: _Soldier_of_Orange_, _The_Stunt_Man_ (for
>which I am enternally grateful), _The_4th_Man_, _Choose_Me_ and
>_Blood_Simple_.
>
Filmex is about the same size (apx. 150-200 films).  It used to be up around
300 films, but many people complained that the extra hundred films were of
low quality, and the vast number of films made it all the harder to spot the
jewels among the crap.  Filmex also has a reputation for spotlighting unknown
films and directors, more frequently foreign than domestic.  (By the way,
"Blood Simple" played at Filmex two years ago, but it has been floating around
the film festival circuit for quite some time.  I think it first surfaced at
a Texas film festival.)

>This is definately a festival for movie *fans*; next to no seats are
>reserved, except for the people premiering the film (i.e. no
>distributors).  This strikes me as different than Cannes (and
>Filmex?), as it is not tailored to get the distributor's eye -- it is
>designed to catch word-of-mouth support, which is valuable in

Filmex has always been a film buff's festival, with the added attraction that,
since it's held in LA, some of those buffs are with the studios or independent
film distributors.  I've never heard of any tickets being reserved for 
distributors or anything like that.  (The opening event is vastly expensive,
so the attendees to that are largely film industry people.)  I don't think that
the Filmex philosophy really focuses on getting any kind of support for the
films it shows, but rather tries to bring in films people wouldn't be able to
see elsewhere. I'm sure that the people showing their films have a rather
different point of view, however, seeing it as a chance to display their films
and filmmakers to the Hollywood establishment.  However, there is little talk
in the lobby of distribution deals or anything like that.

>Also,
>they do something here which I have not heard of at other
>festivals of this size: they have producers, directors, writers and
>actors come up after the showing of the film and answer questions
>from the audience.  
>
My impression is that this is a standard part of the major film festivals.
It certainly is at Filmex, where it is usual for someone associated with
the film to show up after it to speak.  For instance, this year I heard
Will Vinton, Vernon Zimmerman ("Deadhead Miles"), Lawrence Trimble (an actor in
"Blanche"), Juliusz Machulski ("Sex Mission"), Allen Edwall (an actor/director
best known for playing the father in "Fanny and Alexander"), Yevgeny Yevtushenko
(Russia's most famous poet, showing off "The Kindergarten", his first film, and
implausibly trying to sell Hollywood producers on a Marxist version of "The
Three Musketeers"), Irving Kirshner, and one of the Kordas.  I missed some
speakers because I went to afternoon showings, which were cheaper.
-- 
        			Peter Reiher
        			reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
				soon to be reiher@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
        			{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher