Three Film Festival Tips for New and Emerging Filmmakers

Every year, filmmakers flock to international film festivals like Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Venice, and SXSW in search for distribution deals that will take their work to screens around the world. 

For many independent creators, the combined cost of travel, accommodation, meals and festival fees may eat up a large part of your marketing budget or personal savings. 

Do the exposure and networking opportunities at festivals for new and emerging filmmakers outweigh the costs? It’s a question filmmakers around the world should ask themselves at the beginning of every festival season. 

Last week, I did double-duty as a filmmaker and journalist at the 2013 Banff World Media Festival. Here’s what I found out from some key decision-makers at this year’s festival (article by BY Sean Horlor): http://bit.ly/19OC4WU

Scarlett Shepard Founder of the Women’s Film Institute on Culture Connect TV

Scarlett Shepard, executive director of the Women's Film Institute (WFI), talks to Culture Connect TV about how she started both WFI and the San Francisco International Women’s Film Festival and her current passion Generation Herstory. 

Culture Connect is a TV and web show based on cultivating peoples understanding of each other locally and globally through the discussion of ideas, performance, art, literature, music, dance, language and experience.

Women in Film turns 40, honors Lucas, Linney

Women in Film is turning 40, and the organization celebrated its milestone birthday at its annual Crystal + Lucy Awards. But while the night was one of celebration, honorees and guests said women's move toward equality in the entertainment industry remains slow, even after four decades of organized efforts.

"There certainly is a wider diversity of roles available to women, (and) careers don't instantly end at 29 anymore," said 49-year-old Laura Linney, who received the Crystal Award for excellence in film. "But the progress in every other area has been so slow, very slow. So there's a long way to go, and not just in this industry, but in every industry."

Host Jenna Elfman agreed.

"The roles are getting better and more interesting and more abundant, but it's slow going still," she said. "And not just (for) actresses, but cinematographers, sound editors, everything."

She said she hopes for the day when billboards for comedies feature just as many women as men. (By SANDY COHEN AP Entertainment Writer) http://bit.ly/19vqK1B

Wonder Woman: Not strong enough for silver screen - yet

Movie lovers debate possibility of movie featuring the comic-book heroine.
 

If only Wonder Woman could whip out her lasso of truth and get an answer from Hollywood.

Why, with her pop-culture icon status, her role as a female hero in comics and a powerful stint on a TV series, can't Wonder Woman get Hollywood to give her a solo shot on the silver screen?

The excuses have flown for decades. She's too Amazonian and feminist. She'll be a bust at the box office. Her storyline isn't interesting enough. Her attire is too, well, skimpy for action-packed scenes.

Meanwhile, guys like Batman and Superman — who have worn some pretty funky, tight tights — have landed dozens of flicks between them.

"Female heroes are scarcely seen on screen, even rarer if you subtract all the Disney princesses," said filmmaker Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, whose documentary, "Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines," aired recently on PBS and was shown last year at the Indianapolis International Film Festival. "Wonder Woman is an obvious choice for a female superhero film, yet she has been overlooked for decades." (Article by Dana Hunsinger Benbow, The Indianapolis Star) http://usat.ly/14PQWwX 

Jennifer Lawrence to Star in and Produce ‘Rules of Inheritance’

Continuing to fill her slate with a mix of prestige and commercial projects, Jennifer Lawrence is attached to star and produce “Rules of Inheritance” for FilmNation.

Susanne Bier will direct with Abi Morgan penning the script.

Story is based on Claire Bidwell Smith’s powerful and honest memoir about a young woman who loses her family but finds herself in the process. Besides Lawrence, Bruce Cohen will also produce.

FilmNation’s EVP, Worldwide Production Allison Silver brought the project into FilmNation, which negotiated its deal with CAA.  CAA will also package the project and represent the film’s domestic distribution rights.

The project would be the first film Lawrence would produce who after a whirlwind 2012 with huge success at the box office with “The Hunger Games” and an Oscar on “Silver Linings Playbook,” Lawrence is now looking for a little more creative control on the projects she is involved in. (Article by Justin Kroll) http://bit.ly/196ZxC9