Posts Tagged ‘distribution’
Festival Submission Strategies for Dance Filmmakers
Jody Oberfelder
So you’ve just finished a dance film, and you think it’s pretty good. You raised funds and invested in talent, crew and high (for you) production values. The final cut has just been completed and you are ready to show it to the world. But how? For most dance filmmakers, the first step in their distribution plan is to have their film shown in festivals. While some festivals offer cash prizes, the primary benefit of having your film shown in festivals isn’t to earn money but to gain recognition and acclaim from the festival communities that could lead to future opportunities for you.
Besides the 100+ dance film festivals around the world there are tens of thousands of other film festivals that you could submit your dance film to. The options are overwhelming, and no one has the time or resources to submit to them all, so it’s important to develop a strategy and take it step by step.
New Dance Films Now Playing in German Cinemas
Choreographic Captures screenshot
Joint Adventures, a German dance and theatre production company has launched an ambitious project called Choreographic Captures to distribute short dance films to German movie houses. To start out, they had an international competition for one minute films. The five winners were just announced and will be played in dozens of cinemas this fall during the ads and movie previews that proceed the feature films.
The motto of the project is “art for those who didn’t ask for it.” This connotes a wonderful guerilla-marketing approach to delivering dance to main stream audiences. Short and snappy, the one minute duration is perfect for web-viewing, and just long enough to give someone a taste for the potency of dance on film. In 2009 they want to expand the reach of the program to international partners. Let’s lobby cinemas State-side to play dance films here!
Check out the winners and all the entrants’ films on the Choreographic Captures website. Forms and information to become a screening partner in 2009 are also available there.
