R&P Post 7: Researching Film Festivals

Welcome to my sixth Research and Planning post! In this post I will look at different independent film festivals that would be suitable for playing a role in distributing my groups' film project. Enjoy reading!

London Independent Film Festival:

The London Independent Film Festival (LIFF) is an annual British film festival which takes place in April. It was founded in 2004 by Erich Schultz and focuses on low-budget independent films. The combination of this concentration on independent film-making and low budgets makes this film festival ideal for our film as we only have a small budget and are choosing independent UK-based film production companies to create our film.

 LIFF winners from 2016 include:

British Independent Film Festival:

Organised by the Film Festival Guild, an international company who specialise in organising events that feature the best film and animation from across the world, the British Independent Film Festival is run by independent filmmakers for independent filmmakers. It provides the opportunity for these filmmakers to have their movies screened at red-carpet-style venues which attract a wide audience including journalists, film professionals and students and also the general public. This film festival would be a good distribution choice for our groups' films as well as it focuses on the talent of independent filmmakers which is what we are. Also, we will have access to a wider audience, enabling us to expand beyond our own target audience which will mean that more people will see our film, hopefully allowing it to get a wider and better critical reception.                         
            


British Independent Film Awards (BIFA):

The British Independent Film Awards is an annual film ceremony which looks at the most creative and inventive filmmakers and their films in the UK. It was founded by Elliot Grove and Suzanne Ballantyne in 1998, who founded the Raindance Film Festival, a worldwide-famous independent film festival located in major cities across the world, in 1993 as well. Winners of the BIFA from 2016 include Moonlight (won Best International Independent Film), I, Daniel Blake (won Best Actor) and American Honey (won four awards including Best British Independent Film). This film festival would also be good to distribute our film because it highlights the skill and creativity of independent filmmaking, and as we are ourselves independent filmmakers, BIFA would be a suitable choice for our film.