Rejections Continue!

Our latest rejections come courtesy of three European festivals, two of them powerhouses: Locarno, Venice, and Flanders. The headline film at Locarno this year, which has a reputation of being more filmmaker-friendly with a wider range of smaller films than other large European festivals, is "Miami Vice." And the selections at the Horizons section at the Venice Film Festival which shows "indie" films by young filmmakers include new movies by Ethan Hawke and Spike Lee. So it's hard to believe how "The Changeling" could stand a chance there.

We still have some big long-shot festivals to hear from: The Hamptons, Sundance, Slamdance, and Raindance (all the dances), plus Vancouver and Rotterdam.

In other news, we recently received additional funding from a group of 28 funders in LA, organized by Marina Zusman, our new West Coast producer! This funding will allow me to submit the film to many more festivals.

The festival experience so far (or non-experience as it has been) has been both depressing and enlightening. I've commiserated with all kinds of filmmakers from many different countries about similar troubles getting into festivals. What is inspiring is that there a lot of amazing filmmakers out there who are finding nontraditional homes for their work. Some of them are even banding together and forming their own festivals, production companies, and distribution channels. I've been talking to people about doing this kind of thing. If anything comes of it, imaginary readers, you'll be the first to know!

For now, check out this link:
www.intruso.org

Festivals, Festivals, and More Festivals

It's been a while since I've written anything here and that's due to the fact that I've been playing the festival waiting game. I've been waiting to hear back from festivals I applied to which require that the film has not been previously been screened at other festivals in the same region.

I've heard back from most of those festivals and I've been rejected from all of them (at least the ones I've heard from), so I've started widening the net. I've applied to about 30 festivals by this point and have another whopping 150 festivals I am considering applying to. It all takes time and money, so I'm trying to stagger the process.

I've been told by more than one person that The Changeling is at least as good, if not better, than a lot of what's out there at festivals, but so far festival programmers don't seem to think so. A lot of it is that the film doesn't fit into any simple categories. And it's certainly not trendy and has no name actors or flashy set pieces. And I don't have any high powered (or even low powered) agent out there trying to sell it for me. That said, I hope to get some bites from this next round. I'll report more as soon as I get any news.