What is an 'independent film festival'?
There are really two types of independent film festivals, in my opinion. There are the big festivals where films are being sold to studios and to distributors. Of course there's the Cannes Film Festival in the South of France every summer and there's the Tribeca Film Festival, and Sundance. A lot of the famous ones we already know. Then there are other film festivals that are really just there to expose independent film-makers, where independent film-makers can come together, meet and exchange information and collaborate on the next project. They're smaller in size. They're not necessarily geared toward selling films, but giving films some press and attention. If you do five or six of those festivals, if you do Palm Beach, Palm Springs, Palm Desert and Breckenridge, you may get a little heat on your film and people in the business are talking, and then you can go out and maybe sell it. Every film festival is different in its size and its scope. A lot of these film festivals have completely lost their focus and they're not even about movies anymore. They're more about parties and going to the club and getting free trips to Mexico and 'swag', or whatever they call it. Sundance has received a lot of criticism over the years for losing its focus on the independent films and becoming too caught up in Puff Daddy performing with Pharrell - nonsense that has nothing to do with the movies.
