Avalon, California / September 21-25
A new addition to our list, Catalina is set in one of the most breathtaking parts of Los Angeles County, which Angelenos sometimes forget is only a boat ride away. “For 12 years we’ve kept our original team and pour our hearts into every cycle,” says executive director and founder Ron Truppa, whose reward is the “genuine smiles and comments… when people hear and see what Catalina is all about.” The former home of Marilyn Monroe and playground of Charlie Chaplin, Joan Crawford and Betty Grable now hosts a well-reviewed festival that puts rising filmmakers first, offering generous prizes that have included $25,000 camera packages and grants of up to $10,000 from the Catalina Film Institute, which hosts the affair. Memorable events include direct pitching to investors at the Lions’ Den Pitch Panel, as well as parties on yachts and in mansions. The festival has also drawn distributors including Warner Bros., Magnolia Pictures, Paramount, Roadside Attractions and Amazon Studios. Its home is the Avalon Theatre, an art deco masterpiece that was one of the first theaters built for “talkies.” Our cover star Nicolas Cage, a past recipient of the festival’s Charlie Chaplin ICON Award, calls it his “favorite theater in the world.”
Entry Fee: $15-105
San Jose and Redwood City, California / August 16–29 / A
Cinequest is all about the future, and its Silicon Valley location makes it the ideal fest for exploring not just film but also virtual experiences — and whatever else is next. That includes its online iteration, Cinejoy, a new virtual festival and live events experience from Cinequest and its partner, Creatics Enterprises. Cinejoy launched in March 2021 and included 199 Films (including 111 premieres), virtual red carpets, industry panels, technology showcases, and celebrations. Audiences from across the country and the world joined in. Cinequest will keep the momentum going by holding not just an in-person festival this year, but also two Cinejoy festivals, from April 1-17 and again in October. Cinequest’s love of discovery translates to the festival choosing 95 percent of its films from submissions, and top distributors like IFC, Gravitas, HBO, A24, Roadside Attractions, Magnolia, Netflix, Oscilloscope and FilmRise pay close attention.
Entry fee: $35-80
Cleveland International Film Festival
Cleveland, Ohio / 2023 / A
Since the pandemic prevented in-person editions in 2020 and 2021, CIFF held its latest edition in its new home, the gorgeous not-for-profit downtown arts center Playhouse Square. You can watch highlights from the festival here. Cleveland is a pretty selective festival, but the top-notch filmmakers who get in can earn substantial recognition and rewards. It offers a very impressive $115,000 in prizes, as well as very receptive audiences and strong exposure. The festival is also quite generous in providing flights, accommodations, transportation and even a per diem to accepted filmmakers. But its best attribute may be its work with local nonprofit groups. More than 150 hold Q&As and special events with filmmakers to amplify the messages of the films and the missions of the nonprofits, and to give audiences constructive ways to get involved and make a difference, so they can be not just passive audience members but engaged citizens. Since this year’s festival just concluded, you have plenty of time to plan now for 2023.
Entry Fee: $50-140
Wilmington, North Carolina / November 16-20
Want to prove your film is the all-conquering best of the fest? Then Cucalorus is not for you. This anti-competition festival has zero interest in one-upmanship or awards, and instead emits an intense love of community, filmmakers elevating each other, and good-hearted mischief. Instead of giving out prize money, Cucalorus shares box office revenue with filmmakers. The backyard of homegrown cinema Jengo’s Playhouse hosts bonfires and cocktails into the early hours, and it’s surrounded by three historic houses where filmmakers and seasonal staff stay during the festival. Cucalorus also aims to offer year-round and lifelong support to moviemakers and other artists through stipends, grants and residencies. Wilmington is another of our Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker, and, as we love to point out, the real-life setting of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. But that’s just the beginning of its storied film history, and continued growth as a film hub. Cucalorus has so much to praise that we’ve gotten all the way to the end before mentioning Wilmington’s beloved Riverwalk and proximity to the ocean. “At Cucalorus, we really tried to carve away the nonsense and focus on what we do best — which I think is bringing brilliant filmmakers together and making sure that the energy is low key and weird,” says chief instigating officer Dan Brawley. “Real weird. And fun but serious.”
Entry Fee: $25-50
Edmonton International Film Festival
Edmonton, Canada / September 22-October 1 / A
Celebrating its 36th anniversary this year, Edmonton is all about helping filmmakers connect, learn and celebrate the best of Canadian and international Cinema. “Our festival is always here to make filmmakers feel welcome and special for sharing their talent and vision with the world. Our alumni and our guests often reflect on the special memories they’ve made while attending our festival, and we’re often governed by our will to create a fun, caring environment for cinephiles and filmmakers to connect,” says artistic director Vincent Brulotte. It’s thoughtfully curated, and recent screenings included Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria. Edmonton gives out 17 jury awards, and offers airfare, lodging and transport as much as possible. The networking opportunities include galas, pub chats, and tours. This year’s event will take place both in-person and virtually, through the popular Eventive screening platform.
Entry Fee: $15-65
Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival
Palma de Mallorca, Spain / October 26-November 1
Evolution Mallorca Film Festival
Set in perhaps the most beautiful location on this list, the largest of the Balearic Islands of the Mediterranean, Evolution Mallorca embraces its mission of “Bridging Cultures – Bridging People.” As you’ve read before in these pages, founder and director Sandra Lipski personifies the concept of uniting people through film — she’s a German-born moviemaker who grew up partly in Mallorca and was living in Los Angeles when she realized Mallorca didn’t have a festival. In 11 years she’s turned Evolution Mallorca into a destination for cinephiles from around the world, including Oscar winners and first-time filmmakers alike. Past guests have included Danny Devito, Ana de Armas and Mads Mikkelsen, and everyone tends to let their guard down and socialize in a tight-knit group, so that everyone goes home with new friends and glowing memories. Evolution Mallorca is very generous in helping with travel and accommodations, welcomes several significant distributors, and offers 24 awards (including three for screenplays) as well as nearly $30,000 in prizes. “A gorgeous setting with an impressive line-up of diverse, international cinema,” says Erik Jungman, director of the 2021 “Body of the Mined.” We’re happy to welcome the festival back to our list for the fifth consecutive year.
Entry fee: $20-70
Fantasia International Film Festival
Montreal, Canada / July 14-August 3
Fantasia Film Festival
This very prestigious, immaculately run, and altogether fun festival is always a summer highlight, and even managed to maintain a sense of mystery and wonder during virtual pandemic times. This year it hopes to return to an in-person festival, when it should shine even more brightly. “We’re especially proud of the fact that almost every film in our lineup manages to find its audience here and get noticed – no small feat with so many titles screening over such a long stretch of time,” says artistic director Mitch Davis, who can also tick off an impressive list of films that found distribution after their Fantasia appearances. The festival runs for three weeks each summer to make sure every fim gets the attention it deserves. Matthew McManus, co-writer and co-director of The Block Island Sound, says the festival’s online edition in 2020 yielded “more press… than we’ve ever gotten at any festival. The community is rabid, even from the comfort of their own homes. With the press and buzz generated from Fantasia, our film was able to catch the eye of several distributors and we were lucky enough to get scooped up by Netflix. In a difficult year, Fantasia was such a bright spot.” Other fans include writer-director James Gunn, who screened The Suicide Squad at last summer’s Fantasia, two days before the film arrived in theaters. “Fantasia remains to this day one of my very favorite film festivals in the world,” Gunn proclaims, and we feel the same way.
Entry Fee: $55-105
Austin, Texas / September 22-29
This kinetic festival aims for “an atmosphere where audience, industry, and filmmakers are constantly interacting in a fun, organic way,” says programmer Lisa Dreyer. “Our festival is full of boundary-pushing films you won’t see anywhere else, epic experiences, and tons of surprises.” Its recent U.S. premieres included the daring Titane and Lamb, and it hosted the world premiere of V/H/S/94. Fantastic is quite difficult to get into, but if you do earn a spot, you’ll have great access to press and distributors: Neon, A24, IFC, Utopia and Magnolia have all been known to attend. Prize packages vary from year to year, and the good times include parties aplenty as well as podcast recordings, interactive contests, live music, and VHS swaps. Toby Poser, director of the very buzzy 2021 horror film Hellbender, writes that Fantastic Fest “BLEW ME AWAY,” praising a “non-stop, no B.S., no-attitude FUN and inspiring festival experience. This fest is a well-oiled machine that still makes me smile thinking of it.”
Entry Fee: $40-80
Toronto, Canada / June 9-12
“FeFF’s been celebrating women directors on screen for 20 years, and was way ahead of its time in terms of gender equity and inclusion,” notes founder and artistic and executive director Leslie Ann Coles. Known by the tagline “Always Honest, Not Always Pretty,” Female Eye marks its 20th anniversary this year. Its reputation for transparency — and championioning its filmmakers — means it gets a lot of submissions relative to the number of films it can accept. But it takes extremely good care of the filmmakers who get in. It’s very generous with airfare, accommodations, transportation and per diems, while also paying screening fees. That means filmmakers can focus entirely on the films, and the packed program, which includes panels like Meet the Decision Makers, Meet the Distributors and Meet the Guilds, Agencies and Orgs. There’s also a script development program that includes a script reading series, Good to Go speed-dating sessions between writers and industry folks, and a Live Pitch session. The winner of the latter receives $2,500 in cash as well as help developing the project from industry executives, while winners of feature film awards receive $5,000 equipment grants from production services company William F. White International. The event was all virtual in 2021, and looks forward to this year’s hybrid return.
Entry Fee: $25-55
Provo, Utah / October 28-November 5
Festival founder and director Jonathan Martin loves when guests describe FilmQuest as “film camp” — a place where they can “go, forget about everything else, and just celebrate each other and everyone else’s work in a haven for genre film with like-minded individuals.” Its picturesque location between mountain peaks and Utah Lake doesn’t hurt the camp feel. Scan its reviews on FilmFreeway and you’ll see lots of phrases like “BEST FEST I’VE BEEN TO. PERIOD.” Why? FilmQuest distinguishes itself by programming all of its films through submissions, and lures distributors like Saban Films, Gunpowder & Sky and Gravitas Ventures. There’s a strong emphasis on networking, with Q&As, speed-dating-style introductions, and a green room for filmmakers and press that includes ice-breaking vintage arcade games and snacks. How genre-loving is it? Its signature award is called the Cthulhu Trophy. If you get the reference, you’ll probably love the festival.
Entry Fee: $25-75
Continue for more of the 50 film festivals worth the entry fee in 2022
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