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Festival Beat
Big Apple Film Festival
APPLE OF THE CITY’S EYE • Out of all the festivals that are held in New York City, the Big Apple Film Festival, held November 14 - 17, 2007, is one of the few that focuses on the city. “Our primary goal is to celebrate the city of New York through local films and filmmakers,” explains festival founder Jonathan Lipp. To that end, a Golden Apple Award is handed out each year to honor one person’s efforts in expanding the local moviemaking community. The 2007 recipient was Alan Cumming, as “much of his work as an actor and artist takes place in the city,” according to Lipp.
Other award winners at the fourth annual event included actor-producer Michael Neithardt, whose Jeffrey took home the Best Short Film award. “Being that my film career started in Tribeca, it felt appropriate to have the New York debut at the Big Apple Film Festival,” he says.
But Stephane Gauger, whose Owl and the Sparrow was, according to Lipp, one of the “few special selections from outside the area,” found the BAFF is just as receptive to outsiders. “Saigon is the biggest, most populated city in Vietnam, where New York is to the U.S.,” notes Gauger. “I try to convey that loneliness is universal and not specific to a certain culture. I’m sure some New Yorkers can relate to that.”—Mallory Potosky
www.bigapplefilmfestival.com
Whistler Film Festival
GETTING BUSINESS SAVVY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA • Sundance isn’t the only fest where participants can hit the slopes after hobnobbing with industry players. The 2007 Whistler Film Festival, held November 29 - December 2, drew more than 7,000 attendees to frosty British Columbia. It showcased 92 films, doled out more than $42,000 in prizes and commissions and hosted the Whistler Filmmaker Forum, a four-day program of workshops and networking opportunities.
According to festival cofounder and executive director Shauna Hardy Mishaw, this year’s Forum resulted in several successful transactions, including a $30 million co-production deal between Movie Plus and PKU Starlight Group. “This level of business activity is a clear indication that Whistler is developing a reputation as a place to meet the players and get deals done,” she says.
As a tribute to its home base, WFF shines a spotlight on Canadian cinema. Director Richie Mehta’s AMAL took the Bell Audience Award for Best Feature while Stèphane Lafleur’s Continental, a Film Without Guns won the Borsos Award for Best New Canadian Feature. Atom Egoyan was honored with the fest’s annual tribute, and presided over the Borsos Competition Jury, too.
“I was able to reconnect with old friends and also make some great new contacts,” says AMAL star Rupinder Nagra. “I look forward to attending the festival again—and perhaps this time I will actually do some skiing.”—Carla Pisarro
www.whistlerfilmfestival.com
Cucalorus Film Festival
A BEACON OF INDIE CINEMA IN WILMINGTON, NC • North Carolina’s Cucalorus Film Festival, which held its 13th annual event November 7 - 10, 2007 in Wilmington, has established itself as a beacon of genuine fun in the sometimes bureaucratic landscape of film festivals. How? For starters, there are no awards, and therefore no hard feelings. “I prefer the non-competitive format because then I don’t feel bad about losing,” says Alex Holdridge, director of the festival’s closing night film, In Search of a Midnight Kiss. “As a filmmaker, I just care about good venues, good audiences and getting the chance to see other filmmakers’ work with other people who are excited about movies.”
The 2007 festival combined festival heavyweights (Anton Corbijn’s Ian Curtis biopic Control) with some local fare (Erica Dunton’s romantic RedMeansGo). According to director Seth Wochensky (Shiner), this balance and the careful attention given to each moviemaker make for a perfect event. “As a filmmaker attending with a five-minute short, which opened before a locally-produced feature, I really appreciated a separate Q&A before the feature Q&A,” he says.
In addition to 206 films, Cucalorus 13 offered a bevy of rather unorthodox events, including a Blue Velvet tour of Wilmington. Concludes director Hope Dickson Leach (The Dawn Chorus): “If you enjoy traditional film festivals, where there are no interpretive dance cum interactive film performances on opening night, or an inflatable slide right next to the Cape Fear River, where no one talks about alligators and you can’t sit on a trolley for an hour just reimagining Blue Velvet, then this isn’t the festival for you.”—Andrew Gnerre
www.cucalorus.org
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This story was published in the Spring 2008 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Festival Beat
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