Ask a Programmer: Movieline's Guide to 5 Major Fall Film Festivals
Just ask Movieline Chief Critic Stephanie Zacharek, who is already stationed in Venice for the season's first major film festival: Fall is the happening time for these organized movie galas. In honor of this fest upswing -- and Movieline's week-long seasonal cinema celebration -- we contacted authorities at the Telluride, Toronto, New York, London and AFI film festivals to pick their brains about the programming process, their events' unique identities in the fest circuit and much more. For festival novices, consider this a primer for the autumn film festivals. And for the seasoned vets out there, enjoy these behind-the-scenes accounts of the rigorous preparation that goes into selecting tomorrow's award-winning films.
Julie Huntsinger
Telluride Film Festival (Sept. 2 - 5)
Title: Co-Director
How many years have you been with the festival?
Five
How many films are in this year's festival?
Approximately 50 including special programs; core program is 24
Approximately how much time is spent planning your program each year?
360 days
What are you looking forward to most this year?
Seeing our audience enjoy the films -- best payoff ever.
How would you define your festival's identity, and how does it fit into the festival circuit?
Intimate, pure, no business show business
How has festival programming changed since you started? (In terms of politics, number of fests, volume of films, etc.)
We have stayed true to our original mission. There are more festivals, economy has seen a few disappear but we hope to keep doing what we do as well as we can for as long as we can.
Has awards season's ascendancy impacted the fall festival climate for better or worse?
We try to pay it no attention.
Place us in a selection committee meeting. What are the conversations? What are the disagreements? How are they resolved?
Top secret -- we don't always agree!
What do you most look forward to at each year's festival? What do you least look forward to at each year's festival?
Getting underway; special favor requests!
What's your favorite festival memory?
Colin Firth and Claudia Cardinale reconnecting -- they had worked together on a film in South America on which Colin met his wife -- cool moment to observe.
What's your advice for aspiring festival programmers?
Be adventurous, balanced and brave.
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Comments
This is great. Thanks for this.
Thanks very much for this. I happen to be flying into New York for a few days the night their festival opens. Don't know how feasible it is to hope for a ticket to something.