A International Film Festival Summit Fireside Chat with Matthew Modine: How to Attract Above-the-line Players to Your Festival

Hosted by: Robin Bronk, CEO The Creative Coalition

Laurie Kirby, Executive Director of the International Film Festival Summit, has announced that Award-winning actor Matthew Modinewill be joining the 8th annual event and participating in a special ‘Fireside Chat’ – How To Attract Above-the-Line Players to Your Festival, a dialogue with IFFS participants to provide an actor's view on film festivals, and what attracts above-the-line players to those festivals. The chat will be hosted and moderated by Robin Bronk, CEO of The Creative Coalition. The 8th Annual International Film Festival Summit will take place in Austin, Texas,December 4-6, 2011.

“I've had the pleasure of working in a profession of my choice for 30 years. During this time I've worked in both studio and independent films. I've witnessed the incredible rise of film festivals andseen the ebbing and flowing influence of independent films (clearly an oxymoron, as nothing could be more dependent than filmmaking). Twenty years ago the issue was how to get money to produce a film; today it is how do I get my film distributed? With inexpensive camera and sound equipment and plug and play editing programs widely available, there's now a sea of films for festival directors to wade through. As a filmmaker, I'm now exploring the festival world and learning about the people that make the decisions that can, with a letter of acceptance, change a person's life. I look forward to sharing my insights about working on both sides of the camera.” Matthew Modine

Mathew 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 oversexedSullivan Groff in Weeds. Most currently he can be seen in Too Big to Fail and will be appearing in the The Dark Knight Rises directed by Christopher Nolan.

The Fireside Chat will be preceded by a preview screening of Matthew's new provocatively titled short film Jesus was a Commie, which recently won the Founder’s Prize for Best Short Film at the Traverse City Film Festival and the Oldenburg Film Festival. The short movie delivers a positive story of love and forgiveness, responsibility and hope at this challenging time of history. www.jesuswasacommiefilm.com.

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 andpolicy. 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).

The International Film Festival Summit (IFFS) is the largest international organization representing the film festival industry. The IFFS mission is to promote and strengthen the global film festival industry through education, networking, dissemination of information, and the cultivation of high standards for the industry. The IFFS was founded in 2002 and provides the only annual conference and symposium for film festival professionals and entertainment executives to network, learn from one another, establish partnerships, and understand the latest trends in festivals and independent films.