Palm Beach Women International Film Festival

Inaugural Dates Set for April 7 - April 10, 2011

Call for Entries is open

Contact Info

http://www.pbwiff.com/
Telephone: + 1 561 712-1113

Co-directors of the festival are
PJ Layng
Terri Neil

The artistic director:
Karen Davis
and Barbara Magosvsky

The video blog with dailies on fest21.com

The Mission

Four local women entrepreneurs with over 35 combined years of film festival experience have united to present the Palm Beach Women's International Film Festival set for April 7 through April 10, 2011.

The inaugural event will present an entertaining and educational platform to see and appreciate independent, American and international film seldom seen in commercial theatres. Although these full-length features, documentaries, and shorts are made by women directors and producers, they reflect universal, gender-free themes in addition to women's issues and concerns.

The mission of the festival is to produce a world class film festival that will inspire, promote and support women filmmakers, is equally devoted to supporting and enriching local women filmmakers and to serve our community by contributing to the economy and its diverse cultural population.

The team
The co-directors of the festival are PJ Layng, a Lake Worth based special event and development executive and founder and executive director of the Provincetown International Film Festival in Massachusetts. Terri Neil, a Jupiter based marketing and public relations professional who has worked for the Palm Beach International Film Festival, the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, SunFest and Planet Hollywood. The artistic director responsible for programming the four days is Karen Davis, a West Palm Beach resident and longtime executive director of the Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival and Barbara Magosvsky, local campaign fundraiser and longtime assistant to Ms. Davis at the Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival.

The festival  
"We conceived the idea of presenting a women's film festival as a chance to present a niche festival not readily produced throughout the United States and because there are a tremendous amount of films made by women that should be seen by everyone, men included," said PJ Layng, co-director. "An additional goal is to empower, promote and nurture young women filmmakers by enriching these women with educational platforms through seminars, networking and through scholarship opportunities in the Young Women's Film Competition."

The festival kicks-off on Thursday, April 7 and runs through Sunday, April 10 with an expected 30-40 films screened from around the world at various venues from Palm Beach to Boca Raton including Muvico Parisian 20 at Cityplace, Lake Worth Playhouse Stonzak Theatre and the Living Room Theatres in Boca Raton. Special celebrity events, a young women's film competition and screening, educational seminars and exciting parties will round out the weekend's activities.

"Our ultimate goal is to present a film festival in downtown West Palm Beach where attendees and filmmakers stay and play within a few mile radius' impacting the city by filling downtown hotel rooms, visiting eating and drinking establishments and seeing world class films throughout the week," Layng added. "We will always embrace the cultural diversity of our county and present side bar events in near-by cities but most successful film festivals take place in a thriving cultural location within walking distance to everything."

Funding for the inaugural event will consist of two major fundraisers prior to the festival, a Red Carpet Premiere Party at the Brazilian Court in Palm Beach on November 19 and an Oscar Night Pajama Party in downtown West Palm Beach. However, a majority of the funds will be raised through individual and corporate sponsorships and through ticket sales and ticket packages. "We have planned a reasonably fiscal budget for the first year of under $200,000; with the quality of films that Ms. Davis will acquire for the festival we are confident our surplus will allow us to aggressively plan for the future," Layng stated.

The competition
All films screened at the festival will be eligible for competition in the categories of Best Short, Best Documentary, Best Feature and Audience Favorite. The festival also hopes to present a local film award to one outstanding local women filmmaker and award cash and/or prizes to all award winners.

Submit your film
Women interested in submitting their films can do so by visiting the festival web site http://www.pbwiff.com/.
Entries are open to women all over the world who have produced, directed or written shorts, documentaries or feature films.
The young women's film competition is open to young women in two age categories: college and high school or younger in three categories animation, short form (PSA, television ads, music videos and shorts) or long form (music video, documentary or feature longer than 3 minutes and less than 60). Awards will be presented to the winning entries in each category at a special event on Saturday, April 9.

The categories

Best Short (Film)
Only films made by women are eligible for submission.

Best Documentary (Film)
Only films made by women are eligible for submission.

Best Feature Film (Film)
Only films made by women are eligible for submission.

Young Women's (High School) (Film)
Any young women who is a senior in high school or younger may enter this category.

Young Women's (College) (Film)
Any young women who is a student enrolled in a college, university, film school, graphic or art trade school.

The Palm Beach Women's International Film Festival is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to producing a world class film festival that will inspire, promote and support women filmmakers. The inaugural event is April 7 - April 10 at various venues from Palm Beach to Boca Raton.