26December

Maximize Your Film Festival Strategy

September 8th 2023

WATCH VIDEO

8September

Fest and Furious

Maximize Your Film Festival Strategy

September 8th 2023

WATCH VIDEO

Revisit this Film Fatales online workshop about maximizing your film festival strategy led by Kathy Susca and Jeffrey Winter from The Film Collaborative. Moderated by Lagueria Davis (Director/Producer, Black Barbie: A Documentary). Film festivals can be elusive and confounding. They are also opportunities to advance your career, grow your network and expand your audience. But how does it all work? Which festival is the right fit for your film? How do you get your project to stand out to programmers? Once you get into a festival how do you create buzz about your project? What are useful techniques for getting your film in front of sales agents and distributors? We’ll cover all this and more to help you curate a strategy for your film to find success on the festival circuit. Three audience members were invited to share their current projects to be used as a case study for live feedback during the webinar. With support from event partners The Film Collaborative, Ghetto Film School, Minorities in Film, Portrait Creative Network, and NYWIFT.

Details

Date:: September 8, 2023
Event Categories:: Featured, Programmers

Details

Date:: September 8, 2023
Event Categories:: Featured, Programmers

Additional

All That Breathes

Bentonville Way Entertainment

Black Documentary Collective

Cherry Picks

Chicago South Asian Film Festival

Directors Discuss Distribution

Distribution Advocates

Film Event Accessibility Scorecard

Film Fatales Upcoming Deadlines

Film Festival Alliance

Film Independent

FilmFreeway

The Film Collaborative

Firelight Media

Free The Work

Ghetto Film School

The Hive Mind Unified

Minorities in Film

Navigating Virtual Festivals

NYWIFT

NYX Horror Collective

Parity Pipeline

Portrait Creative Network

Programmers of Colour Collective

Rotterdam Lab

Roundup of Deadlines and Festivals

The Future of Film is Female

Panelists

Kathy Susca coordinates operations for TFC’s festival and non-theatrical distribution program, spearheading TFC’s 2020 transition to virtual festivals, and served as the editor of How Not to Sign a Film Contract: Know What You’re Saying Yes To. Kathy was the founding Director of Operations for the diversity initiative the Jane Bolin Project and consulted on the joint USC/Shoah Foundation film-based project Teaching Genocide Through Media. She earned her Master’s in Cinema Studies from New York University.

Jeffrey Winter oversees TFC’s Film Festival Distribution Program. Jeffrey’s areas of specialty include niche distribution, niche marketing, and festival/non-theatrical/special events distribution. He is especially passionate for social justice and environmental docs, and for LGBTQ+ content. Jeffrey has worked in the film business over twenty years, 11 of which he served as a panel programmer / programming consultant for the Sundance Film Festival’s Digital Center (now called New Frontiers).

Lagueria Davis attended the University of Oklahoma double majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Three years and three internships later, her need to create consumed her, and she left the engineering program and landed in the School of Art. After graduating with a BFA in Media Art, she worked in production until landing a Writers PA position on season two of The L Word: Generation Q. After wrapping The L Word, she was selected to participate in the Mentorship Matters Program. She was also hired as the Director’s Shadow on Season three of The L Word: Generation Q, where she shadowed all ten episodes and five directors. Lagueria has several feature specs and four original pilots under her belt, was a 2016 Academy Nicholl Quarterfinalist, and is a four-time Austin Film Festival Second Rounder. Currently, she’s gearing up for the premiere of her first, feature documentary about the first Black Barbie at the 2023 SXSW film festival.

Event Partners

The Film Collaborative is the first nonprofit focused on distribution-education. TFC educates filmmakers about and helps filmmakers with all aspects of distribution without taking rights. TFC believes in and stands by our three taglines: “filmmakers first.”, “nonprofit, on purpose”, and “we don’t own your rights…you do!”

Ghetto Film School is an award-winning nonprofit founded in 2000 to educate, develop and celebrate the next generation of great storytellers.

MiFILM is a community that values the quality of life of filmmakers. We are dedicated to the increased equity, inclusion and representation of marginalized groups in entertainment.

New York Women in Film & Television connects, educates, and advocates for women to accelerate diversity in media. As the preeminent entertainment industry association for women in New York, NYWIFT energizes women by illuminating their achievements, presenting training and professional development programs, awarding scholarships and grants, and providing access to a supportive community of peers. NYWIFT brings together more than 2,500 women and men working both above and below the line. NYWIFT is part of a network of 60 women in film organizations worldwide, representing more than 15,000 members. NYWIFT is a nonprofit 501c3 public charity.

Portrait Creative Network is the invite-only creative network that makes it easy to keep up with favorite collaborators- and meet their trusted peers as well. Stay connected to talented people, portfolios, jobs, events, and funding across leading communities in film, TV and digital media.