editor's blog

Just to offer my opinion, as director of a short film festival

It's an interesting point regarding Entry Fees: on one hand, there's the resentment that is often associated with charging for entry (with film-makers often saying "Why should we pay to enter when we've done all the hard work making this films?") and the realities of the business: whilst they may seem easy (after all, all we need is a big screen and a projector - cue all the Festival Director's rolling their eyes), Film Festivals need money or we can't survive. It's that simple. It's definitely difficult in England as not only is the recession biting but money is being taken out of the arts to pay for the Olympics.

For GLIMMER: The Hull International Short Film Festival we decided to throw it out there by letting film-makers choose exactly how much they wanted to pay to enter - if they wanted to pay at all (and, yes, we were slightly inspired by Radiohead). It's certainly been interesting the response: with the onus on the film-makers to pay how much they want to pay, it's seemingly given them pause to think about their works, how much they want to pay and how much they think film festivals are worth. And, whilst we're still waiting for figures, it would seem a large number have decided to send some money they think is equitable,

And by offering money for prizes and also industry events, we hope we're putting something back into the industry (though it should be argued that, by screening works and promoting discussion and debate, we're already putting a lot into the industry)

The biggest reason of doing this was hopefully to create some dialogue between film-makers and the festivals - something that, after 10 years of working at Film Festivals, still doesn't happen enough.

Now, wouldn't be interesting if companies who introduce screening fees would do the same thing...

Would be interested to hear anyone's comments,

Laurence Boyce
Director - GLIMMER: The Hull International Short Film Festival