Editor's blog

9:30 - 9:45 am  Opening Remarks by Bryan Lhuillier
Founder & Chief Product Officer
Shiftboard, Inc.

9:45 - 10:45 am  Panel “In the Trenches: Festival war stories”
This panel will provide a curated discussion of the best and worst of festival war stories.  Panelists and the audience will share stories from decades of dealing with filmmakers, sponsors, and party crashers. (Names will be changed to protect the guilty and innocent) The spirit of this panel is meant to be a highly interactive and fun discussion of why we all love (and sometimes hate) this industry. Attendees will have the opportunity to submit their stories in advance and be selected as a panelist.

Moderator: Laurie Kirby, Esq., Executive Director, International Film Festival Summit

Nancy Schafer, Executive Director, Tribeca Film Festival
Carl Spence, Artistic Director, Seattle International Film Festival
Robin Bronk, CEO, The Creative Coalition
James Chippendale, Producer, More to Live For

10:45 – 11:30 am

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 Morning Break

11:30 am - 12:15  Keynote Presentation “The Film Festival as Cultural Activist”

What priorities govern the programming choices film festivals make? How do personal taste and personal politics promote certain films over others to media, industry and audiences? In the decisions we make as advocates or even activists, what's at stake?

Cameron Bailey
Co-Director
Toronto International Film Festival

12:15 pm- 12:30 pm  A Tribute to Graham Leggat for Outstanding Leadership in Independent Film and Film Festivals

12:30 pm- 1:45 pm  Break for Lunch

Afternoon Breakout Tracks

1:45 pm - 2:45 pm  Small Fest Track (Under $500k) - Capital Ballroom A 
  Panel “Film Festivals as Producers: How festivals can bring films to the community while bringing the community and sponsors to film”
Learn how the Oxford Film Festival increased attendance, sponsorship and buzz about their festival by making its own film. 

The directors of Oxford Film festival were looking for a way to increase awareness in the community about what it means to make a film – as well as to find a creative new way to involve sponsors. Thus the idea of the community film was born. 

This short film was produced in less than two months before the festival. Kodak donated the film stock; Panavision donated the equipment.  OFF hired crew from Memphis and Los Angeles and all actors were local volunteers. Local volunteers handled set design, craft services, transportation and other important areas of the filmmaking process. The result was a 10-minute short that world premiered at the festival and subsequently packed the theatre five times during the course of the weekend, increasing overall ticket sales and festival attendance.  Additional screenings held post-fest, dvd and poster sales helped offset the cost. The main result was happy sponsors and a stronger awareness of the film festival and the process of filmmaking for the Oxford community.

 
Molly Fergusson
Executive Director
Oxford Film Festival Micah Ginn
Production Director
Oxford Film Festival

1:45 pm - 2:45 pm  Large Fest Track (Over $500k) - Austin North Meeting Room

 Panel "Programming: The Fine Art of Film Selection"
This discussion will address the selection process and the merits and de-merits of programming based on talent. This seasoned group of professionals will share their insights and secrets surrounding the art of programming. Attendees will walk away with a cursory look into the behind-the-scenes decision-making process.

Moderator: Peter Belsito, Co-founder, Film Finders

Laura Henneman, Senior Programmer, Napa Valley Film Festival
Meira Blaunstein, Co-founder& Executive Director, Woodstock Film Festival
Jon Fitzgerald, Founder & CEO, CineCause
Evan Saxon, Partner, D & E Entertainment
Eleonora Granata Jenkinson, Production Executive, FilmMaster

2:45 – 3:45 pm Small Fest Track (Under $500k) - Capital Ballroom A 
  Panel Presentation “Event Management and Streamlining Festival Operations”

Dealing with tight timelines? Shrinking budgets? Looking for new venues? This panel will challenge you to evaluate and streamline festival operation methodologies with the goal of maximizing efficiencies and profitability while maintaining the audience and filmmaker experience.

Moderator: Dana Harris, Editor-in-Chief, indieWIRE

Deidre Haj, Executive Director, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
Barbara Morgan, Executive Director, Austin Film Festival
Donald Harrison, Executive Director, Ann Arbor Film Festival

2:45 – 3:45 pm Large Fest Track (Over $500k) - Austin North Meeting Room
  Panel “Marketing Strategies: Integrating Social Media and Technology”

Now that you have your film program completed, web site and traditional media all ready to go, don’t forget to engage your biggest fans via social media. Engaging your audience to attend your festival and visit your web site is critical for a successful campaign. This year the IFFS is presenting a timely social media workshop to help festivals optimize content and buzz around their festival.

Moderator: Mark Pogachefsky, President, MPRM Communications

Brian Newman, Founder, Sub-genre
Kristin McCracken, Director of Digital Content & Operations, Tribeca Enterprises
Lee Ann Kim, Executive Director, San Diego Asian Film Foundation
Susan Johnston, Founder & Director, New Media Film Festival
Paul Cohen, Director, Torchlight Program, FSU College of Motion Picture Arts

3:45 – 4:30 pm

Brought to you by:

  Afternoon Networking & Coffee Break on Exhibit Floor

4:30 - 5:30 pm Small Fest Track (Under $500k) - Capital Ballroom A 
:

 Fire-side Chat “A Conversation with Matthew Modine:  How to Attract Above-the-line Players to Your Festival”
Join actor and filmmaker Matthew Modine as he screens his new award-winning film, Jesus Was a Commie, and provides an actor's point of view on film festivals and what attracts above-the-line players.

Matthew Modine's roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, and the oversexed Sullivan Groff in Weeds. Most currently he can be seen in HBO's Too Big to Fail and will be appearing in the The Dark Knight Rises directed by Christopher Nolan.

Matthew's new purposefully provocative short film, Jesus Was a Commie won the Founders Prize for Best Short Film at the Traverse City Film Festival. It was also awarded the Oldenburg Star recognizing bravura and compassion in visionary filmmaking at the Oldenburg International Film Festival in Germany. In addition to festivals, the film has screened at the Society of Illustrators, NYC and LA Soho Houses, Yale University and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.  Jesus Was a Commie elegantly and intelligently captures an audience desperate to understand what is happening across our country. Using unambiguous language that openly presents two swamplands America is presently bogged down in; environmental degradation and partisanship.  Modine's words are as plain and simple as a parable from his films title character. Jesus was a Commie is an avant garde dialectial conversation about the world and the prominent issues of modern society. Co-Director/ Editor Terence Ziegler, Producer Adam Rackoff, USA/ 2011. Interested media please contact Workhouse, CEO Adam Nelson directly via email nelson@workhousepr.com or by telephone +1. 646. 205. 2540

Robin Bronk is CEO of The Creative Coalition, the national, nonprofit advocacy organization of the arts and entertainment industry. The Creative Coalition's Spotlight Initiative champions the art and craft of independent filmmaking by providing alternative marketing and public relations resources that allows the film’s message to reach beyond the movie screen through its outreach to leaders in business, entertainment, arts and policy. Robin also is the producer of Barry Levinson's Poliwood, currently airing on Showtime, and the author of Five Minutes With the President (Harper Collins) and the recently released Art & Soul (Hearst Books).

To invite Jesus Was a Commie to screen at your festival, please contact: jesuswasacommiefilm@me.com.

Hosted by: Robin Bronk, CEO, The Creative Coalition

4:30 - 5:30 pm Large Fest Track (Over $500k) - Austin North Meeting Room
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 Panel Discussion “Festivals & Digital”
Make no mistake. This is a digital world and there is no going back. Since the Cannes Film Festival broadcast “The Last Broadcast” digitally at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999 , this technology, like a freight train, just keeps coming.  As of June, 2010, there were close to 16,000 digital cinema screens

With top Independent Art Houses in the United States including many Landmark Theaters, The Angelikas in New York and Houston, The Charles in Baltimore and many others now using digital technology, festivals have to grapple with yet another format.

And the digital issues aren’t just at the screening. There are digital online submission companies now, festival apps and digital distributors that want to represent your filmmakers. By replacing film prints with hard disks the issue of how to do this and with whom is a big question.

Hear from the experts on apps, digital servers, digital submissions and exhibition as well as festivals that have mastered this tricky minefield. Learn from soup to nuts about the digital world and how to control it and not let it control you.

Moderator: Paul Cohen, Director, Torchlight Program, FSU College of Motion Picture Arts

Anne Chaisson, Director of Development, Nantucket Film Festival
Brad Carroll, VP, Sales & Business Development, Cinedigm
Chris Holland, Director of Festival Relations, Festival Genius
Eric Bergez, Director of Sales & Marketing Americas, Qube Cinema, Inc.

5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Cocktail Reception & Presentation of the Fourth Annual Excellence Awards

After a full day of presentations, interactive panel discussions and networking events take the edge off with a cocktail and toast an end to the second day of this year's summit.   

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