Steve Rainbow tells us about submitting to the Madrid International Film Festival:
My second feature film, iWitness, has just been officially selected for competition in five categories at the Madrid International Film Festival, which I am very excited and pleased about ‒ not just because the film has been recognised in the Best Film Award category, but because the other people involved have also been recognised, particularly the Editor (Phil Arkinstall); the Producers (again Phil, David Proud and Justin Edgar); and the DoP, Lauren Hatchard. All are local to the Midlands and all contribute to the economy of this region and the film industry in general.
One of the reasons I chose to submit the film to Madrid came down to economics. I didn’t have that much of a budget to spread my net too wide, so I had to be selective as to the few festivals I was going to submit to. I submitted it to the Southend Film Festival, which is one of the few film festivals outside of the big London one that recognises Independent British Films and gets regular features in the Guardian. It got official selection in that festival and screened there last week.
I also submitted it the Disability Film Festival because of the film’s strong links with disability and it screened there a month ago. Now down to my last pennies I submitted it to the London Independent Film Festival, but it didn’t get selected and so with what little budget I had left, I wanted to give an international festival a go.
Madrid appealed because firstly, it’s a great city (with arguably the best art gallery in the world) so attending wouldn’t be a hardship, but more importantly, it is relatively new on the scene and therefore might not be so eager for recognisable film formulas with faces that sell, but more considered stories that have been crafted by smaller budgets but with ‘eager and talented filmmakers’ to build up its portfolio. And my hunch was right; it got officially selected. What I didn’t expect was the nominations in five categories, but as they say in Madrid “Nada aventurado, nada ganado, pero siempre tener en cuenta un presupuesto de marketing desde el principio.” Adios!
This article first appeared in the JUNE 2015 newsletter.
You can see an archive of all the Producers' Forum newsletters here.
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