Before we get to our list of the 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee in 2024, can we share some quick thoughts on film festival strategy? A lot of filmmakers have the exact same strategy: Submit to Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, Berlinale, Venice and the Toronto International Film Festival, and prepare for fame and fortune. Unfortunately, this strategy doesn’t work out for many of these filmmakers, because — that’s right — so many have the same strategy, and programmers can only pick so many films. To be sure, the festivals above can be a springboard to success and acclaim. But they aren’t the ..read more

Born in Berlin and raised in Mallorca, Spain, Sandra Lipski is the founder and director of the Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival, located in Palma de Mallorca, Spain and founder of The Festival Key, a consulting agency that creates film festival strategies for filmmakers and consults film festivals to innovate and grow. Sandra splits her time between Mallorca and Los Angeles. In this article, she gives some honest advice about festival strategy.—M.M. When Does the Film Festival Journey Begin? It commences when you pen your film script, envisioning the film festivals where it will ..read more

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the movie set armorer who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the accidental 2021 shooting death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday. The decision was handed down from Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer in a Santa Fe, New Mexico courtroom. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who loaded a gun containing live ammunition that went off in actor Alec Baldwin’s hand, killing Hutchins, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in March. Her sentence of 18 months is the maximum penalty she faced following the trial. She has been held in ..read more

The Sarasota Film Festival winners have been announced for the 2024 jury and audience awards, and they include Thelma and Sugarcane. The 26th annual festival ended on Sunday after a 10-day lineup from April 5-14, including many film screenings, filmmaker Q&As, panel conversations, and educational outreach in Sarasota, Florida. The closing night screening was Steve Buscemi’s The Listener, with the director in attendance alongside his co-producer Wren Arthur for their Olive Pictures production banner. Following the screening, Buscemi sat for a career retrospective conversation moderated by D ..read more

A Chris Farley biopic is in the works, with Richard Jewell star Paul Walter Hauser attached to play the Saturday Night Live comedian and Frozen actor Josh Gad set to make his directorial debut, a representative for Gad confirmed to MovieMaker. Farley’s family have given the movie their blessing, and in addition to Gad and Hauser, SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels is also attached to produce the biopic via his Broadway Video banner. The movie is in the early in development at this point. Currently, its the package stage with key players attached, and it’s being shopped around to potential ..read more

Blackmagic Design on Friday unveiled the URSA Cine 12K, an update to its existing cameras designed for a high-performance digital cinema workflow that includes its best sensor yet and the ability to shoot and do post at the same time. In its 12 years of making cameras, Blackmagic has established itself as the go-to for very user-friendly, high-performance, reasonably-priced cameras, explained business development manager for the Americas David Hoffman, who previewed the camera for MovieMaker ahead of its unveiling Friday at the NAB Show in Las Vegas. He calls it “probably the most sophisticate ..read more

Vera Drew, the co-writer, director, editor and star of The People’s Joker, says the trans, transgressive Batman parody tells her true life story — except for the whole thing where she becomes a scary clown. “The movie is ridiculously autobiographical,” she says. “I’ve done so many interviews now where it always gets printed that it’s a ‘semi-autobiographical’ Joker movie or whatever. And I’m like, no — I can’t watch it because it’s kind of traumatic for me to watch. It is pretty much just my life. But the only difference is I’m not, you know, the actual Joker.” The film — whose layers of metap ..read more

How to handle rejection from your favorite film festival? If you’ve ever made a movie and submitted it to film festivals, chances are, you’ve experienced some rejection. It can be demoralizing when a piece of art you’ve put so much love, care, time and energy into… is turned away.  But instead of looking at rejection as failure, Dr. Rebekah Louisa Smith encourages indie filmmakers to look at it as an opportunity. She’s worked with countless filmmakers through her festival submission strategy business, The Film Festival Doctor, so named because of her PhD in Film & Audience Studies fro ..read more

The Overlook Film Festival has announced its 2024 audience and jury award winning horror films, and among the biggest winners are Damian Mc Carthy’s Oddity and Cricket Arrison’s “Some Day All This Will Be Yours.” The 2024 Overlook Film Festival took place from April 4-7 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The eighth annual horror festival welcomed 90 filmmakers and featured 36 sold-out screenings and approximately six thousand audience members in attendance — the festival’s highest number of attendees to date. Taking home the feature film Audience Award, Oddity follows the stor ..read more

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has set its 2025 dates, and there will be two extra days in celebration of the 40th anniversary. Going on for 12 days instead of the usual 10, the festival will take place from February 4 – 15, 2025 in Santa Barbara. The additional days will feature more exciting programming, including screenings, filmmaker Q&As, industry panels, and celebrity tributes. These will be held throughout the city, including at the historic Arlington Theatre. Santa Barbara International Film Festival Adds Days to 40th Annual Event “As we embark on our 40th year ..read more