MicroCinema Scene

The Blue November MicroFilm Festival has announced it is seeking entries for its sixth annual festival. The festival is an intimate affair, held in a Coffee House in Seattle. Best of all, there is no entry fee. Here are the details straight from festival organizer Captain Chambers:

The Sixth Annual Blue November MicroFilmFest is a totally free festival that supports the artist first and foremost, with a dedication to vision and artistic integrity in cinema, music and the arts. Designed for the truefilmmaker and the art of film, this festival focuses on the people behind the creation. It is free to those who attend, and it is always free for the artists.

Anyone can enter, and submissions will be carefully considered before being accepted or rejected. All art forms are open for submission: poetry, dance, performance, music, art exhibition and film. We are searching for the unique and the overlooked; we want to see it all!

The Call-for-Entries is open March 5th until August 15th of 2008. Participants can visit www.blue-november.com for the official rules and entry form. We encourage involvement from the local community, and invite anyone who submits an accepted film or artistic work to speak at the event. The promotion of the artist remains a primary goal of Blue November.

The Blue November MicroFilmFest has a tradition of working hand in hand with the people, organizations and businesses of the arts community. The Festival has maintained a standard of supporting the art of cinema and the creative vision of the director, the support of art in all forms and the tradition of a free festival for artists, filmmakers and patrons.

This coming November, the Green Bean Coffee House will play host to the further development of the Blue
November MicroFilmFest in Seattle. We have expanded yet again, and this year will include a broader reach
into supporting charity and the Greenwood neighborhood. Working together, like minds have coordinated an event that will exhibit unique cinema, local artists and Seattle musicians. The tradition continues.

Visit Blue November for the Official Entry

Microcinema heavy-hitters Lance Weiler (The Last Broadcast, Head Trauma), Arin Crumley (Four Eyed Monsters) and M dot Strange (We Are The Strange) have joined forces to create From Here To Awesome - a film festival that truly addresses the changing filmmaking landscape. Exploiting new internet-driven distribution models, the festival’s intent is to connect films to their audience. The festival itself will consist of 10 features, 10 shorts and 10 virtual panels and will be screened via on-line channels and alternative real-world venues such as mobile drive-ins, microcinemas and the occasional living room.

Have you made a film you think the world should see? From Here To Awesome is a discovery and distribution festival that might be the perfect system to get your film blasted to audiences in theaters, living rooms, online and via mobile phones. All filmmakers are welcome to be a part of the festival. There are NO submission fees, filmmakers retain their rights while receiving revenue directly from the distribution outlets. A wide range of major promotional partners and distribution platforms are on board. All we need now is your film. Please submit ASAP to give the festival’s audience time to vote your film into the top 10, so it can be a part of the April Showcase.

Best of all… there are NO entry fees.

For more information, visit From Here to Awesome.

We’re a few days behind on this one, but just in case you missed it, MicroCinemaFest 2007 has announced their lineup of this years films. There are a lot of movies I’m unfamiliar with, but a few that I’ve heard great things about. I’m really interested in Imprint (the new feature from the Linn Brothers) and Midlothia which I have been hearing great things about ever since the beginning of the year. Click here to check out the full list of MCF2007 entries.

This is just a quick reminder that the deadline to submit something for MicroCinema Fest 2007 is this Friday, July 27th.

If you are a low-to-no budget movie maker looking for a place to exhibit your work that isn’t shrouded in red tape and self-serving intentions, look no further. Formerly known as the REwind International Media Festival (Or “Camp REwind” for short,) this annual event will be held in Palatine, Illinois for the third year in a row.

Over the past seven years, the festival has acted as a showcase to low-to-no budget movie making. In 2004, founding organization REwind Video changed the name of the festival when they joined forces with fellow no-budget movie making site MicroCinemaScene. The merger helped to better promote and expand the reach of the festival to the ever-growing community of MicroCinema movie makers.

Shriekfest, the Los Angeles International Horror/Thriller/Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film Festival & Screenplay Competition, and Pretty/Scary, the organization and website that encourages women in the horror genre, have joined forces for the 7th annual Shriekfest Film Festival happening September 28-October 7, 2007in Hollywood, California.

Pretty/Scary will sponsor an award for the film that best symbolizes innovative, interesting, provocative, and groundbreaking representations of women in the horror, sci-fi, or fantasy genres. Eligible films will either be outstanding examples of genre filmmaking and have been written or directed by a woman, or have a radically amazing central female character. Since the award will be given to the film and not the filmmaker, films by men and women both are eligible for the Pretty/Scary award, which will be given out at the closing night awards ceremony.

“I’m really excited about this,” says Pretty/Scary owner and editor Heidi Martinuzzi, “because Shriekfest is the best indie-friendly genre film festival in California. Not only does it draw a huge crowd, but also it has integrity and I love that. I am really looking forward to working with Denise Gossett because she just totally kicks ass.”

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Matt Dentler, producer of the SXSW film festival, announced that the latest edition of the festivals online shorts festival is coming soon. SXSWclick bills itself as a mobile media festival "created to showcase short-form storytelling via mobile devices and the web." Here’s the info from Matt’s blog:

The 2007 edition of our online shorts festival, SXSWclick, will return next month. That’s right, folks. This will be year number four in the SXSWclick history, and we’re really excited to see what submissions are offered up this time around. A couple of basics to know: Call for Entries begins April 30, and submissions can be any kind of category, under 10 minutes in length. Stay tuned to the official SXSWclick site for updates as well as checking out last year’s winners.

The 2nd Annual International No Budget Film Festival has announced its last call for entries. The final deadline is May 1st, 2007. Films may be submitted in 2 categories: Short (3-15 minutes) and Extremely Short (less than 3 minutes).

In focus stand narrative and fictional shorts. The manner of development can be various: we like accurately planned films, spontaneously done projects, exercises and inventive products which came into being by accident. Filmmakers who are not willing to fix their creativity into a kind of commercial frame are invited to share their work with our festival audience! Originality of narration or progress are the crucial factors of evaluation.

For more information, visit filmsharing.eu.

This is the first I’ve heard of BendFilm, but based on the buzz I’m getting, I think this is definitely a festival to keep an eye on. It also seems like a fest that would be very friendly to Micro Filmmakers. The festival is held every October in Bend Oregon. Their mission is to celebrate “the brave voice of independent cinema though films, lectures, and education.” Their Call For Entries information is now available and registration is only $30 if you do it before April 5.

BendFilm puts its focus on filmmakers first, with more than $25,000 in cash awards. All competitive entries, regardless of length or category, compete for the $10,000 “Best of Show” prize. Additional cash awards are presented for Best Feature ($2,500), Best Documentary ($2,500), Best Short ($2,500), Best Student Film ($3,000) and the Conservation Award ($2,500). To top it all off, the Audience Award winner receives a percentage of the festival’s gross ticket sales (the 2006 prize was $4,776).

The Robert Rodriguez sponsored GRINDHOUSE trailer competition made all kinds of noise prior to SXSW, but then kind of dropped off the radar. I did some investigating to figure out who the winner was and didn’t find any mention of it on the SXSW or GRINDHOUSE sites. So I made a few phone calls to people who attended the presentation and I can now confirm that the winner is: Hobo With a Shotgun.

Hobo With a Shotgun was the grand prize winner out of three finalists which also included The Dead Won’t Die and Maiden of Death. All three trailers were screened during the presentation. We’ve already posted the trailers for Hobo and Maiden, but just so we don’t leave anybody out… here’s the trailer for The Dead Won’t Die.

Don’t have enough money for a feature? Is a 5-minute short film too big of a commitment?

The 1 Minute Film and Sound Awards could be just the competition for you. It’s a contest for movies that are exactly one minute in length. Also: the soundtrack must play as important a role as the image. Three prizes will be awarded by a jury in the amounts of 1000, 500 and 250 euro. There is also a prize awarded by the public in the amount of 1000 euro. The 1 Minute Film and Sound Awards have been around for a few years and you can view entries from previous years at the official website. The deadline for the 2007 awards is September 8, 2007.