New York : New Film Festival FIRST TIME FEST
More than 5000 film festivals are officially tracked by filmfestivals.com and hardly a week passes without a new one being announced.
Festivals are set up to attract support for the local economy, for film students by an ever growing number of colleges and universities with popular film and media departments , for self serving individuals seeking occupational film festival opportunities, and for new subject areas. With current digital technologies anyone interested can become a travelling film festival director with a suitcase full of DVDs. In most cases festivals no longer serve the curatorial and selective function they used to have. They increasingly meet the social needs of their audience and absorb the steadily growing number of film productions prompted by low cost technologies and rapidly increasing contingents of film school graduates.
As a result it is rare to find a new festival that transcends the traditional festival model with its standard themes and sections. When I attended a meeting last year featuring the First Time Fest I was a bit skeptical that it could be set up as outlined given its ambitious intentions.
The First Time Fest will actually take place this year in New York from March 1-4 with a number of innovative features rarely found in other fests. Dedicated to discovering new film makers the Fest has delivered on its promise. For once the program is restricted to first time film makers with the commitment to arrange for theatrical distributions of the best first feature shown. That group includes twelve feature films and documentaries. Following that logic the First Exposure section will screen ten first films from distinguished film directors including Wes Anderson, Barbara Kopple, John Huston, Melvin van Peebles, Sofia Coppola, Todd Solondz and others with several of the directors attending. Parallel to the Screenings are a series of panels themed ‘How They Did It’ focusing on case studies of award winning film makers, funding, marketing and the role of criticsuston Melvin van Peebles, Sofial Coppola, and Todd Soloncz as well as individual meetings with film professionals. Darren Aronofsky will receive from Martin Scorsese the John Huston Award for his outstanding achievement, an awards created by the First Time Fest. Other noteworthy program components are a tribute to Morris Engels (THE LITTLE FUGTIVE. 1953) and the screening of the Mexican feature DAYS OF GRACE which received the 2011 Cannes Camera d’Or.uston Award for his outstanding achievements , an awqard created by the
The jury consists of four film makers including Christine Vachon and Fred Schneider, the fifth juror is the live audience which has watched the 12 competition films,
The First Time Fest has a clear profile and unique new programming approach. Judging from the participation of established innovative film directors and professionals, the fest is well connected to the film industry and the independent sector. The inaugural edition is most alluring.
Claus Mueller
