Staged for the fifth time, the New York City Independent Film Festival show cased this year from October 15-19 over 254 films from 38 countries covering feature films, documentaries and short films. Aimed at new, underground and experimental independent filmmakers the NYCIFF has established itself as a festival platform for domestic and foreign independent producers and directors. Panels of more than 100 judges selected from 1000 submissions 47 features, 132 short films and 75 supe...
Presented by New York’s Asian Cinevision, The Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) had its 37th edition from July 24 – August 2. There are now 22 Asian film festivals in the United States programming films for the communities they serve. The strong link to community based partners is also one of the defining marks of AAIFF and the program lists one or more partners for each selected film. What is also striking is the festival events designed to involve the audien...
Presented by New York’s Japan Society with some corporate support from UNIQLO, Sapporo, Sony and private assistance, the eighth edition of Japan Cuts, The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema was held from July 10-20. Its program featured 27 feature films, of which 17 were not shown before in the US, and overlapped with the New York Asian Film Festival which carried 13 of the Japan Cuts selections. Among the few festivals celebrating Japanese films in the United S...
Acquisition of half of Tribeca Enterprises for $22 million by the Madison Square Company, MSG, will permit Tribeca to expand. The festival and some related ventures have grown so much since the festival was founded in 2002 that funds for the expansion seem necessary. Apart from the festival, its principal venture, Tribeca enterprises is involved in a digital studio, theatrical and non-theatrical distribution using traditional and digital p...
Sponsored by the Sikh Art & Film Foundation, the Sikh International Film Festival was held in New York City for the tenth time on May 2 – 3. As reflected in the selection, the foundation’s mission is to use films to make Sikh culture and values accessible to a larger public; with the goal of overcoming preconceptions and prejudice which the Sikh community has been experiencing. The festival also serves to raise awareness about the issues and problems the Sikhs face h...
As suggested in earlier articles, in order to survive the growing festival scene in major metropolitan areas niche festivals need to have an unmistakable profile offering a program others do not have. These fests’ niche must be successfully branded, offering more than just a marginal differentiation from other fests. In New York the international Latino Film Festival announced its demise. As the founder Calixto Chinchilla explained the fest cannot meet the economic ...
Claus Mueller: You noted several years ago that too many films are produced. At the changing market panel I mentioned the overproduction issue because some panelists seem to encourage more production though there is hardly a market for all these films. What do you think accounts for this problem?
Beki Probst: One reason they are producing so much is that there has been a reduction in the cost of making a film. Frankl...
