Without a Box

I had the pleasure of sitting in on a roundtable, which was put on by SAGindie at the American Pavilion. The roundtable was with Christian Gains who works for IMDB ( Internet Movie Data Base ) and Without a Box, a website that helps filmmakers find festivals that would best fit for the film or script they want to submit. Without a Box invites some of the top film festivals from around the world to join the site, so that they may promote themselves, but to also build their reputation in the festival scene. He also stated that IMDB uses festivals to get the rights to an IMDB page. In basic terms because IMDB and Without a Box are partners with certain festivals  they are allowed to create IMDB pages for films on Without a Box and in Festivals on IMDB……I hope that makes sense.             

                They also have over five hundred news desk partners, so that films in Gains also stated that Without a Box likes to focus on international film festivals because they cater to more niche markets, that certain  films may do better in.

Gains is also the director of the AFI Film Festival in LA. This means he understands how the festival circuit works. He gave us a brief history on the festivals from all over the world. The Venice Film Festival is the oldest one in the world that started in the late 1930’s, and still goes to this day. The Venice film festival also gave rise to the Cannes International Film Festival after a film at the Venice Film Festival that was based on the superiority of the Arian Race won the main award. This sparked French directors to pull away from the Venice Festival and start the Cannes International Film Festival, which is now the biggest festival to date. Festivals started popping up in the 1960’s and 1970’s and then took off in the 80’s and 90’s. In 1989 the Sundance Film Festival hit the scene with a movie called  Sex Lies and Videotape, this launched the concept of independent film. Sundance has been the headquarters for independent films ever since.

                Along with all this we received even more information on what to expect and do when entering a film festival. Gains said one needs to think about the publishing they can use before they even start filming. He said that people should use publicity stills that are interesting and generate hype about a film, and when sending out copies of your film do not dress up the DvD case. Festivals would rather see that you put more time into your film and the publishing for it rather than making the DvD look pretty.  Most importantly he stated we should not be afraid of rejection; it happens to everyone and is just a way of life. Along with that he said one should be well prepared, so that we may deal with whatever the outcome may be.

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