Film Festival Alliance

Call for Panelists: Art House Convergence!

Posted on: October 10, 2019

We’re excited to announce the film festival track panels for the 2020 Art House Convergence, and are looking for a wide variety of film festival professionals who are interested about speaking on the topics below. If one of these panels speaks to you, please complete this very brief form by October 15th.

Panel Description (with working titles):

Shared Responsibility: Filmmaker & Festivals
It’s time to end “us” vs. “them” mentality and foster a collaborative environment. What responsibilities do festivals owe filmmakers, and vice versa? Dive into the economics and ethics of this relationship including ever-present discussions like screening fees and programming transparency. We’ll also examine our power as micro-distributors, the value festivals can bring to filmmakers, and the value filmmakers bring to festivals. How can we effect change and achieve mutually beneficial outcomes for us all?

Cultivating Your Community The Other 360 Days A Year
Many festivals take place once a year… so how do festival organizers maintain their curation aesthetic for audiences and filmmakers, when their physical presence disappears for 11 months, and why is this so important? From finding people and touch points in our community for collaborations, to social media and non-traditional or abstract ideas, we’ll hear how festivals are uniquely maintaining their brand presence within their communities and securing buy-in for next year.

Mission, Vision & Leadership
An organization can outlast its founder, and sometimes needs to. How can leadership change affect, develop or reinforce the values upon which an organization is built… or go terribly wrong? When is it time to evolve to enable growth? How do we shape leadership change and legacy planning, particularly when staff and board have an even faster turnover? We’ll give panelists and attendees permission to speak in rough draft about this potent, often emotional topic.

Know Your Role
Just because we aren’t a ‘Market’ Festival, or don’t have high-profile industry in attendance doesn’t mean we don’t matter. In fact, we may be the most important tastemaker in town! As part of the majority of festivals sustaining our industry, we can drive a dialogue where premiere status and red carpets aren’t of tantamount importance, but collaboration is. Let’s discuss how we fit in to our communities and the larger eco-system of film consumption, and how we can sustain our role within both.