There are only five days left to submit your film to the Strasbourg International Film Festival.
If you are an independent, new and emerging filmmaker who does not have a distribution deal in place we strongly encourage you to submit your work now as the majority of our films fit into this category!
Strasbourg International Film Festival is a Discovery Festival. I’ve been very reluctant to use that phrase (Discovery Festival) previously because it is thrown around so much and seems to be the latest catch phrase. Nonetheless, there is no better phrase that truly and honestly states what we do.
It is our mission to help independent, new and emerging filmmakers gain (further) recognition and build a global community and audience. It is also our mission to bring films into our community (both our local and global communities) that our audience has not had the opportunity to experience.
One of the things we’ve learned is that many films that deserve to be available to audiences have simply fallen through the cracks due to reasons other than the quality of the work. This is perhaps a failure on the side of the industry and definitely a shame for audiences seeking innovative film experiences that simply are not currently available to them.
Our goal is to help independent filmmakers reach their audience. We focus more on films that need a helping hand, than films that already have the machine behind them. Our favoritism goes toward quality work that can use the exposure. We prefer films that work outside the system. We believe filmmakers should profit from their work and there are a lot of conversations that need to happen and few places that truly facilitate such communications without alternative motives… such as pleasing industry people, governmental entities, sponsors, etc. or simply by putting such people on their panels hence hindering true change which can benefit independents.
The Strasbourg International Film Festival is free and easy to do as we please and what we choose to do with this liberty and freedom is to promote the works, values and ideas of independent filmmakers to the best of our ability.
While we do not favor films with star casts over films without names, we also don’t deny them. We pick the best films. If the best film has a star, fantastic! But honestly, we’re in our second year so those films are probably already in a situation where they might not be coming to us (although we are so pleased with the ones we have received and grateful to be considered worthy of consideration). This is wonderful for the filmmaker who has a fantastic film without stars because it means you have an honest and true shot at being chosen for our festival based on the quality of your work! It also allows fantastic new talent to be discovered!
Our thoughts on stars… we want filmmakers and those who work on films to make money. We want the cast to make money. We strongly support an economically viable film industry which directly supports filmmakers financially! We believe independent filmmaking can and should be financially viable for filmmakers, their cast and their crews. This model may be a new conversation, but the industry – particularly distribution models – are changing. It is time to have a new conversation. Join us in being part of the process!
The Strasbourg International Film Festival considers each film on it’s own merits. There are no hard and fast rules that apply to all films therefore we work within a flexible framework. Why? Because we don’t want quality films to fall between the cracks!
The time is coming when we must shut down our submission process for 2009. Our final submission deadline is June 8, 2009. We have tried our best to put the Strasbourg International Film Festival name out there and are very pleased with the response we have received to date. If we haven’t received your film, feel free to submit now! There is no time to wait! If you have questions, ask! We are here for you and want to hear from you.
Kindest regards,
Christine Scott, Festival Director
Strasbourg International Film Festival
Christine@strasbourgfilmfest.com
StrasbourgFilmFest.com
Final Submission Deadline is June 8th!
