Together with Encounters Film Festival, we dove into how festivals work, how to find the right one for your film and what programmers look for, hearing from people on the filmmaking side as well as programmers.
1hr
Film festivals are great ways of boosting your career as a filmmaker and getting your films seen by the right people. Getting your film into festivals isn’t always a walk in the park, and with so many festivals to choose from it can be tricky to know where to start.
In this panel discussion we spoke with a range of people who were involved in this year’s Encounters Film Festival, one of the UK’s biggest short film festivals to learn more about how you can make the festival circuit work for you. From finding the right festivals, to knowing what programmers do and what they look out for, to knowing how to make the most of being selected for a festival, our panel covered all the big questions you’ve wondered about!
About the panellists
Host: Anastasia Bruce-Jones
Anastasia is an award-winning writer and director, with over 6 years’ experience in theatre and film. Their first short film ‘All Girls’ is an Official Selection of Aesthetica Film Festival 2022. Their most recent short, ‘Microwave’ was commissioned by BFI Film Academy and Exeter Phoenix and is currently in post. In theatre, they have worked in the West End, Almeida theatre and Edinburgh Fringe. Their productions have received exclusively 4 and 5* reviews, and won both OnComm and OffComm awards. Anastasia’s work explores the depth and strangeness of experience, often by way of dystopia, magic realism or folk horror.
Ren Scateni
Ren Scateni (they/them) is Head of Programme at Encounters Film Festival. They are also a freelance writer and curator mostly interested in experimental and artists’ moving image works whose writing has appeared on ArtReview and ArtReview Asia, Hyperallergic, MUBI Notebook, and Sight & Sound among others.
Clarenz-Gutierrez-Badlis
Clarenz Gutierrez Badlis is an aspiring writer and director at the start of his career. His short film, ‘My Name Is Yours’, has been selected as a part of Encounters Film Festival 2022, and moving forward, he wants his work to voice unfamiliar voices in a poetic and surreal way.
Monica Wat
Monica Wat is a filmmaker, actor and musician from Hong Kong, now based in the UK. Starting out as an actor at 7, she has since starred in, written, produced and directed several short films and music videos about issues like racism, immigration and transition based on her personal experience. Her short film ASSIMILATION is selected to be part of BFI’s SCENE Programme. She is also the founder and co-organiser of arts festival MOON FEST, which celebrates East and South East Asian creatives in the UK.
