Monday, April 24, 2017

Story Is King at Edmonton Festival of Fear

Canada's newest horror film festival, the Edmonton Festival of Fear, will screen for the first time this October. The festival's founder and director, Barry J. Gillis, says that films are more likely to be accepted at his event if their stories are original and entertaining.

"We are looking for movies that will captivate the audience," said Gillis. "This starts with a great story. Original ideas. Stories that keep us on the edge of our seats and entertain the audience."

While story is king, Gillis also stresses the importance of accomplished acting, cinematography and sound. "Sound is important. We would like to see less films with bad sound. And less experimentation that doesn't work. Experimentation is fine ... when it works."

But an entertaining story can overcome even rough production values. "We don't reject all bad films," said Gillis. "Some bad films are what people like to watch, even if the cinematography or sound is not the greatest. We are more likely to reject a movie because it is boring as hell."

Finally, Gillis confirms that the world of film festivals is highly competitive. "There are great movies that we cannot get into the festival because of time slots, and time constraints."

=================

For a behind-the-scenes look at horror film festivals and the festival directors who manage them, see Horror Film Festivals and Awards. This book also includes a directory of over 200 horror film festivals, and a list of festival award winners from dozens of festivals over several decades.

Friday, April 14, 2017

Buck the Trend to Increase Your Film's Chances for Festival Acceptance

Want to increase your film's chances to be accepted in a festival -- or even win an award? Then try to figure out what other filmmakers are doing -- and do something different.

Every year certain styles and subgenres dominate festival entries. Ten years ago everyone was making zombie films. Film festivals were deluged with the walking dead. Torture porn was prevalent after Saw and Hostel were released. Twilight produced a flood of vampire clones. And they're still making found footage films, often about ghosthunters, shot in the unusual green nightvision.

Film festival directors like to program for variety. If they receive five great slasher film entries, and one mediocre ghost film -- and they only have screening time for five films -- they'll take the mediocre ghost over one of the great slashers. They still have four more of those.

At least six excellent actresses were considered for Best Actress in the 2013 Tabloid Witch Awards. Five had turned in excellent dramatic performances, playing similar sorts of characters (strong, but long-suffering, women). The remaining actress gave an excellent comedic performance, playing an entirely different sort of character (a gonzo mad scientist). As against the five long-suffering women, the mad scientist stood out -- thus Guenia Lemos won that year. Had it been five excellent comedic performances and one excellent dramatic performance, the dramatic performance might have won.

To win it helps to have both talent and luck. The luck that all the other contestants coincidentally arrived in blue dresses, whereas you happened to wear a red dress. The judges couldn't help but notice you.

You can't guarantee luck. But you can watch for trends so as to not follow them. What's currently hot in horror? Are there many ghost films out there featuring strong, but long-suffering, women? Chances are other filmmakers are already "taking inspiration" from those films. If ghosts and slashers are hot, consider doing a mad scientist or alien abduction film. Or better yet, stretch your imagination and scare us with something no one's seen before.

Film festivals are competitive. It helps to produce an excellent film. Even better if your excellent film stands apart from all the other excellent films

=========

For a behind-the-scenes look at horror film festivals and the festival directors who manage them, see Horror Film Festivals and Awards. This book also includes a directory of over 200 horror film festivals, and a list of festival award winners from dozens of festivals over several decades.


Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Are Gender Specific Acting Awards Offensive?

Since the 1970s feminism has been remarkably successful in purging English of gender specific words. Waiter and waitress are out. Server is in. Steward and stewardess are out. Flight attendant is in.

Yet despite feminism's success, gender specific acting awards have proven amazingly resilient. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences still presents Oscars for Best Actor and Best Actress, for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.

Are these sex specific categories sexist? I've never known a Best Actor or Best Actress Oscar recipient to complain. Yet when the Screen Actors Guild introduced its acting award in 1995, it argued that actor and actress were inaccurate and outmoded terms. The "proper" term was actor, whether that actor was male or female. Thus SAG's award categories are for Best Male Actor and Best Female Actor.

Most film awards still follow Oscar. In researching my book, Horror Film Festivals and Awards (which records the names of horror film award recipients from the 1960s up through 2010), I learned that Best Actor and Best Actress remain the preferred terms among most film festivals. But some festivals are following SAG's example. Australia's A Night of Horror film festival presents awards for Best Male Performance and Best Female Performance.

Are Best Female Actor or Best Female Performance less offensive terms than Best Actress? I don't see how. You're still recognizing the performer's sex, despite using more words to do it.

And these newer terms still fail to address the increasingly complicated issue of gender. How many genders are there now? How do you categorize them in terms of awards? How do you even know what gender any actor identifies as, unless the film comes with notes for the awards committee? Some people claim to be "non-binary" (i.e., having no gender). How do you honor a "non-binary" performer? SAG's Best Male Actor and Best Female Actor categories fail to address that issue.

MTV's solution is to abolish "gender specific categories." The Associated Press reports [April 7, 2017]:

NEW YORK (AP) — MTV has scrapped gender specific categories for its upcoming Movie & TV Awards. In place of the Best Actress and Best Actor categories, this year's awards will honor a non-gendered Best Actor in a Movie and Best Actor in a Show.
The move follows the Grammy Awards' decision in 2011 to dump gender distinctions between male and female singers, collaborations and groups.

This trend has the potential of reducing acting awards by half. Up until now, actors competed against other actors, actresses against other actresses. (Like Oscar, I use the old terms.) But now actors and actresses will compete against each other for one award. 

This contravenes a longstanding trend among film festivals to increase the number of award categories every few years. Everyone loves getting an award. The more you present, the better liked your festival becomes and the more publicity it receives.

If more festivals go gender neutral, they might compensate for it by increasing the number of acting categories (e.g., Best Actor in a Slasher Short Film, Best Actor in a Zombie Feature Film, etc.) But for now, Best Actor and Best Actress remain the preferred terms among most film festivals.

===========

For a behind-the-scenes look at horror film festivals and the festival directors who manage them, see Horror Film Festivals and Awards. This book also includes a directory of over 200 horror film festivals, and a list of festival award winners from dozens of festivals over several decades.