Festival Update - Rejection from Cannes

I received a rejection email from the Cannes Film Festival today. Cannes was a super long shot but I would have been upset with myself if I didn't at least try.

By the way, rejections are quite pleasant in French.

I've applied to several big festivals so far. Many may not accept this kind of project (super low budget, no names, no connections etc.), but it's better to try than not to try. I've applied so far to the Mill Valley Festival (Northern California), the Hamptons Film Festival, Raindance (in London), Locarno (in Switzerland), Venice, and Vancouver. I'm also going to submit to Telluride.

These are the big ones which I'll try first. I should hear back from all of them by the end of the summer.

I'm also looking into film markets, where distributors, festival programmers, and sales agents come to see films. I was hoping to apply to the IFP Market in NYC, but they're inexplicably no longer accepting feature films, just screenplays, shorts, and documentaries.

I'll post again when I hear back from any more festivals.

Rejected!

The Changeling was rejected from its first festival last week.

I had rushed to finish the film in time to qualify for New Directors / New Films, a festival here in NYC which is run by the Musuem of Modern Art and Lincoln Center.

The festival was a long shot; they only choose a few films and most of them are made outside of the U.S. And all of them have budgets, which while small, are huge compared to mine.

I found out that I didn't get in when I saw a full page ad in the New York Times on Friday listing the lineup for the festival, which does not include The Changeling.

New Directors said it would let each person who submitted to the festival know if their films were accepted or not. I expected a letter, not a full page ad in the Times (how did they know I'm a subscriber)?

Well now I feel like a real filmmaker! I'm in the fray now, dealing with rejection.

I've submitted to two other festivals so far. I have a good inside contact at one of them so hopefully that will help. This is all very much new to me. Figuring out the festival circuit is a lot more perplexing than figuring out how to make a movie. But I'm going to keep at it. Now that I have this movie, I really have to do everything I can to make sure it's seen.

Photos from Screening

Here are some pictures from our screening at the Pioneer Theater on January 28th. The pictures were taken by Nadya Gurevich, our Production Designer, except of course the pictures she is in. I don't know who took those. But whoever it was used Nadya's camera.

Nadya Gurevich (production designer), Alan Smith (director of photography) and me


Nadya, Mickey Ryan (Tomazo), and Ramona Floyd (one of our producers)


Wendy Herlich (Beatrice) and Nadya


Clyde Baldo (De Flores) and Chris Brady (Alsemero)