Something significant happened this week; film festivals died a little. What I mean by that of course is the fact that Shrek Forever 3-D is opening the Tribeca Film Festival. Wait a second here . . something smells fishy about this, and I don't mean the abnormal smell of a giant green ogre.
I think it is fair to say that most film festivals have gone way too Hollywood lately. The days of festivals looking for emerging talents and taking chances on films that may otherwise not have seen the light of day may be behind us.
I've been hearing through the film-maker's grapevine for many years now about how festivals just aren't what they used to be. However I really started to take notice of the backslide of the festival world in 2006 when The Da Vinci Code opened the 59th Cannes Film Festival. I mean really, did Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Tom Hanks need any extra publicity for their bloated
I wonder if there would have been room at Sundance back in 1994 for Kevin Smith's Clerks if it had to fight for screen time against some big budget films of that year like Forrest Gump or Legends of the Fall.
Not to say that there are not film festivals out there still fighting the good fight. In fact there are several; even some notable ones here in the sunshine state. However it feels disheartening to hear how some unknown filmmaker lost a slot at Sundance this year because of a Spike Jonze short film. I mean Spike Jonze is great don't get me wrong, but can't he just add his short film to the DVD of his next feature?
Look, I understand “festival people”, it’s a numbers game right? What worries me is that film festivals used to be a nice alternative to big budget
Point taken, but (as one of those festival hacks) I also see TFF's perspective. The name of the game is both ticket sales AND good relations with distributors. But, it is also worth noting that ANY kind of kid friendly programming at festivals is a good thing. I think this year's TFF is showing 132 films, in two weeks, a good percentage of those films are "indie," and world premieres. Times are tough, and in the arts they are even tougher - TFF is doing what it has to do to be around for another year. - Chris
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