The Film Festival Insider

On 21st October Dustin (Kino Film Festival), Neil (Manchester Film Festival) and myself spoke on the Film Festival Strategy panel at The Global Film Funding & Distribution Conference. Ran by the amazing Cine Circle. Here's what went down.

A few weeks ago I caught up with Dustin to talk about his journey into film and his involvement with the Kino Film Festival.

And the show is back after a years break to focus on other things. On this show - I'll update you on a recent festival visit, the AIFF, demise of a festival and a look at what's coming up.

Having spent 3 full days at Mia here is my report on the event, is it worth your time and your considerable money? In this episode we cover "Italian time", sales, press and purchasing. The niggles of the film market and in some ways the barefaced lies. 

Enjoy!

In this slightly different episode I'm at Mia Market in Rome and yesterday I attended a talk in called Something Is Rotten In The State Of Denmark in which we learn about how union control can literally bring a whole nation to its knees. The sound quality is a little bit iffy, the subject matter a little dry, but have a listen to this incredibly important message. The talk was hosted by Alexandra Lebret thew managing director of EPC, Lars Hermann the EP and COO of Apple Tree and Phillippe Kreuzer CEO and Producer at Maze Pictures n Germany.

This week I did a fly by of the New Renaissance Film Festival in London to support Alex Rollins Berg and Renwick Palmer and their film Hold Up. The festival was an absolutely lovely environment to be in, with welcoming hosts and great audience engagement. 

In this show I talk to the love Dympna who shares a bit about her film Wool and how its doing in the world of festival-land. 

This week after a two week break, I caught up with Hugo Santa Cruz the creative mind behind My London Lullaby, we talked about his movie, what he's working on now and his experiences on the film festival circuit. 

After talking to Oscar Harding in the previous episode I thought it was a good time to talk about my encounters with the Oaxaca Film Festival

In recent years its been labelled a scam festival, with hundreds of filmmakers outraged. I'd love to say my experience was different but it really wasn't, while I never attended the festival, I outline the increasing levels of financial demands made upon me from this apparent acclaimed festival.

During the podcast I read an except from an article published by The Hollywood Reporter you can read the full article here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/how-below-radar-film-festivals-can-prey-struggling-filmmakers-1250714/

A Life On The Farm is a breakthrough documentary charting the latter life of Somerset farmer Charles Carson, in this episode I talk to Oscar Harding who in my opinion totally knocked it out the park with this compelling documentary. We talk the film, how success and he offers some great advice through learning curves that we really help filmmakers. 

Rodrigo Moreno-Fernandez is a Mexican born filmmaker who moved into Texas and invested everything he had into film, with his wife firmly at his side and with 2 films under his belt, he now moves onto his next project the short horror film Strings. In this episode Rodrigo shares his valuable advance to filmmaker following his time on the circuit. 

In todays episode, Spencer talks to Alasdair MacKay about his movie Anonymous, a film currently on the circuit that focuses on addiction. They talk about the highs and lows of the circuit and what festivals could do better. 

Kelly Smith has a number of films under his directorship and a history of working on films like The Queen, Frankly, In Bruges and History Boys. This week Spencer caught up with Kelly to talk about his time on the film festival circuit as he prepares to once again venture onto it with his latest film The Fallen woman. 

In this episode Spencer Hawken runs through a series of handy hints about how to choose which film festival to submit to. Then in an archive interview  recorded at the Romford Film Festival in 2021 Spencer caught up with the creative director of Evolutionary Films Ross Boyask and ask him how filmmakers can make their film more attractive to film buyers.

In this show Spencer talks to Peter Blunden about the film festivals he has worked on, the importance of submitting to film festivals and how to avoid those school boy/girl errors. 

In the first episode of The Film Festival Insider host Spencer talks about his journey into film, his film festival experience, why he set up a film festival and why he is the film festival insider.