Ask a Programmer: Movieline's Guide to 5 Major Fall Film Festivals

Sandra Hebron

BFI London Film Festival (October 12 - 27)

Title: Artistic Director

How many years have you been with the festival?

Fourteen years, and Artistic Director for nine.

How many films are in this year's festival? How many films were submitted?

We will be screening 204 feature films (including documentary features) and 110 shorts. Just under 4,000 films were submitted/considered.

Approximately how much time is spent planning your program each year?

We spend pretty much all year, in that as soon as we've done wrap up from one festival we start working on the next one. However, our festival team here at the BFI also organizes The London Lesbian and Gay Festival, so roughly twenty five percent of our time is taken up with that. But the LFF is a year round job.

What are you looking forward to most this year?

Seeing films I love screen in front of London audiences for the first time. When audiences respond well, that's the very best thing that can happen. I'm also looking forward to welcoming some of my favorite filmmakers back to the festival, such as Fernando Meirelles, Terence Davies, Frederick Wiseman, Jonas Mekas, Lynne Ramsay, Azazel Jacobs, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the Dardenne Brothers, Carol Morley, Michael Winterbottom, Nanni Moretti, Bouli Lanners, Nicolas Klotz and Elisabeth Percival, as well as a host of up and coming directors. And our series of screen talks and masterclasses are always fascinating, and I love how generous the people taking part always are with their time and their ideas.

How would you define your festival's identity, and how does it fit into the festival circuit?

We're a public festival, historically known as a 'festival of festivals' but now also garnering a reputation where films can be launched. Our program is broad based, from previews of anticipated films to more under the radar work, and includes a program section on artists' film and video and one of restorations from the world's archives.

How has festival programming changed since you started? (In terms of politics, number of fests, volume of films, etc.)

As we're not an A-grade competitive festival with a requirement for world premieres, we are refreshingly free of politics for the most part. Of course there has been a massive proliferation of festivals in recent years, but that hasn't really had much of an impact on us. Volume of films has definitely increased, mostly thanks to the changes in production technology, but that's led to some interesting work coming through that would have been impossible to make even five years ago.

Has awards season's ascendancy impacted the fall festival climate for better or worse?

It has certainly had an impact for us, and a beneficial one. Our dates and location mean we are very well situated to platform many of the most likely awards contenders and many film companies tie in their LFF screenings with their BAFTA and Academy Award push.

Place us in a selection committee meeting. What are the conversations? What are the disagreements? How are they resolved?

We don't work with a selection committee. As well as the programming that is done in-house by Michael Hayden our Festival Programmer and myself, we have a group of around twelve program advisers, each of whom has expertise in a particular area of cinema. They make recommendations, and it's my job to determine the overall shape and balance of the program. I wouldn't describe them as disagreements, but we do have robust discussions when advisers invariably recommend more titles than we have space for. But we're all in a situation of having to prioritize our titles, and hopefully no-one ever feels too disgruntled!

What do you most look forward to at each year's festival? What do you least look forward to at each year's festival?

I think what I look forward to is pretty much covered in my answer to Q4. In terms of what I least look forward to, that would be the lack of sleep.

What's your favorite festival memory?

I've got lots of them so it's hard and a bit invidious to choose. I love it when audience members come up and tell me that they've liked a film or that it's resonated with them, so I suppose one cherished memory is the first time a film received a standing ovation in my time here. It was a packed out screening of The Straight Story, and when David Lynch brought on Richard Farnsworth at the end of the film, 850 reserved Brits got to their feet. Not a dry eye in the house.

What's your advice for aspiring festival programmers?

Oh goodness, that's a tough question. I think "go with your gut instinct" is probably the best I can do. Never make the mistake of thinking that anything is more important than the films and filmmakers (certainly not the programmer!). And learn how to let people down gently.

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