Finalists for the 10th Annual Film Fest

The DIY Film Fest is proud to announce this year's finalist's for the 10th annual DIY Film Festival.  Thank you all for your submissions, we had films from across the planet this year, and we're glad to be able to include links to almost all of them below, so people can see this amazing crop of films for themselves.

The Gala is scheduled for March 3rd here in LA, the results (Best Film in each category) will be announced then, but meanwhile, here's the full list of Finalists for this year's festival.  Everyone will be getting either an Honorable Mention or a Best Film award. We will be showing clips, trailers and some shorts during the Gala, and we'll be in touch to make sure we have the most up to date trailers.  

DIY FILM FEST 10th Annual FINALISTS  

ANIMATED SHORT FILM

Gerald Grunow’s “999.999.999”

Ike Ahloe’s “CLOCKED IN”

Christopher Jarvis’ “THE BIRD UPSTAIRS”

(Student Film)

COMEDY SHORT  FILM

Nicholas Plagman’s “THE HAM SANDWICH THAT CHANGED THE WORLD”

Derek Frey’s “BALLADOF SANDEEP”

DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM

Jessica Vecchione’s “ROBERT   -   PORTRAIT OF AN ART-ER”

Cara Feinberg’s “WORKING BLIND: THREE STORIES” 

Ryan Claver’s “AMEND” 

(Student Film)

DRAMA SHORT FILM

Daniel Watson,Rafael Cortina’s “DOUBLE TRUTH”

Puppet’s “TIME SPENT”

Misha Sunovkoskiy’s  “THESUNSET”

Craig Macnaughton’s  “COME HEREGO WAY” (Canada)

Rodolfo Novaes’ “JUSTIN TIME”

(Student Film)

NARRATIVE/DOCUMENTARY

Brian Paul Higgins “CURE FOR THE CRASH”

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Jennifer Hitchock’s “Dreams Deferred:The Struggle for Peace and Justice in Israel and Palestine” 

Leo Grillo’s “THE RESCUER”  

Gary Null’s “DEATH BY MEDICINE”

Kevin Malone’s “CHRISTY MATHEWSON DAY”

DRAMATIC FEATURE  

Flavio Parenti’s “QUANTUM BUTTERFLY” “SognoFarfalle Quantiche”  (Italy)   

Rachael Yaeger’s “NO LOST CAUSE”  

Robin North, Kelly Preeper's “DEAD SAINTS”

WORLD CINEMA

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE - Mirel Bran’s “ONE-WAY ROUND TRIP”(Romania)

DOCUMENTARY SHORT - Mia Mullarkey’s “HALLS WITHOUT WALLS” (Ireland)   

DRAMA SHORTSTUDENT FILM - Shahar Amit’s “JOHNNY LOST HIS GUN” (Israel)

DRAMA SHORT- Artemis Preeshi’s “PANCHA RATNA - FIVE GEMS” (India)

Congratulations to the filmmakers for their talent and hard work!!!

DIY FILM FEST GALA MARCH 3RD

Along with our sister events, the DIY Book Festival and the Los Angeles Book Festival, we're announcing our gala of celebrating the best in DIY Filmmaking will be held in Los Angeles on March 3rd.

Last Year's DIY Fest winners Cody Blue Snider and Jesse Griffith at the Gala

We're sending out individual notifications to filmmakers to let them know that they're finalists for the best picture in their category, and we look forward to seeing all of you at the event if you can make it.

And congrats to all you filmmakers for finishing your film - it's not easy to finish a movie, and there's many film festivals out there - so we appreciate your thinking of us.


Details about the Gala to follow!  (Time, place, etc).

Here are links to the DIY Book Festival and the Los Angeles Book Festival.

2011-2012 Los Angeles Book Festival

The Los Angeles Book Festival celebrates the best of world publishing in the world entertainment capital. When: March 3, 2012 Where: Los Angeles, CA. United States. Visit Website

The 2011-2012 DIY Book Festival

The 10th annual DIY Book Festival honors the best of independent and self-published books. Part of the 11th annual DIY Convention: Do it Yourself in Film, Music & Books. When: March 3, 2012 Where: Los Angeles, CA. United States. Visit Website

Congrats to the 2012 Sundance Winners!

Sundance 2012: 'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' Wins Top Honors

By SANDY COHEN   01/29/12 07:02 AM ET   

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PARK CITY, Utah -- A mythical film starring an 8-year-old girl and a documentary about the war on drugs took top honors at the Sundance Film Festival.

"Beasts of the Southern Wild" won the grand jury prize in the U.S. dramatic competition, and "The House I Live In" won the same honor in the U.S. documentary category Saturday at the independent film festival's awards ceremony.

Directed and co-written by 29-year-old first-time filmmaker Benh Zeitlin, "Beasts of the Southern Wild" follows a girl named Hushpuppy who lives with her father in the southern Delta. The film also won the cinematography prize.

Zeitlin said he was grateful to the Sundance Institute and labs, where he worked on the film for more than three years.

"This project was such a runt, this sort of messy-hair, dirty, wild child, and we just have been taken care of and just eased along until we were ready to stand up on our own," he said in an interview after the ceremony. "It's just great that it happened here. This is the right place for the world to meet the film."

Zeitlin described his spunky young star, Quvenzhane Wallis, as "the biggest person I know." She said she is ready to be a movie star, but first will be going back to third grade.

Fox Searchlight acquired the film earlier this week.

Eugene Jarecki's documentary "The House I Live In" examines the social, human and financial costs of the war on drugs. The filmmaker won the same award in 2005 for his documentary "Why We Fight."

As he accepted his award, Jarecki called the war on drugs "tragically immoral, heartbreakingly wrong and misguided."

"If we're going to reform things in this country, putting people in jail for nonviolent crime, in many cases for life without parole, for possession of a drug, for sentences longer than is now given for murder in this country, must end," he said.

Kirby Dick's documentary about rape in the military, "The Invisible War," won the audience award, as did Ben Lewin's heartfelt drama "The Surrogate," which stars John Hawkes as a paralyzed 38-year-old man who hires a sex surrogate, played by Helen Hunt, to help him lose his virginity. Fox Searchlight acquired that film, too.

"I don't think most people have ever seen this sort of story before," Lewin said after the ceremony. "I think it was very new and unexpected... From the experiences I've had seeing it with an audience, it seems to be a real emotional ride."

"The Surrogate" also won a special jury prize for its ensemble cast.

World cinema jury prizes went to the documentary "The Law in These Parts," about Israel's legal system in occupied Palestinian territories, and the drama "Violeta Went to Heaven," about Chilean musician Violeta Parra.

The audience favorites in world cinema were the documentary "Searching for Sugar Man," which also won a special jury award, and the drama "Valley of the Saints," which also claimed the Alfred P. Sloan film prize. A second winner of the Sloan Award, which recognizes films with science as a theme or a scientist as a major character, was "Robot and Frank." The film, which premiered at Sundance, stars Frank Langella as a retired jewel thief who befriends the caretaker robot his children have given him, eventually bringing the robot along on his illegal outings.

Other winners:

_ U.S. drama directing award: Ava DuVernay, "Middle of Nowhere."

_ U.S. documentary directing award: Lauren Greenfield, "The Queen of Versailles."

_ World cinema drama directing award: Mads Matthiesen, "Teddy Bear."

_ World cinema documentary directing award: Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi, "5 Broken Cameras."

_ U.S. drama screenwriting award: Derek Connolly, "Safety Not Guaranteed."

_ World cinema screenwriting award: Marialy Rivas, Camila Gutierrez, Pedro Peirano, Sebastian Sepulveda, "Young & Wild."

_ U.S. documentary editing award: Enat Sidi, "Detropia."

_ World cinema editing award: Lisanne Pajot, James Swirsky, "Indie Game: The Movie."

_ U.S. documentary cinematography award: Jeff Orlowski, "Chasing Ice."

_ World cinema drama cinematography award: David Raedeker, "My Brother the Devil."

_ World cinema documentary cinematography award: Lars Skree, "Putin's Kiss."

_ U.S. drama special jury prize for producing: Andrea Sperling and Jonathan Schwartz, "Smashed" and "Nobody Walks."

_ U.S. documentary special jury prizes: "Love Free or Die," "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry."

_ World cinema drama special jury prize: "Can."

_ Short film audience award: "The Debutante Hunters."

_ Best of NEXT audience award: "Sleepwalk With Me."

___

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

We've been getting in quite a few films from around the planet - first off, congratulations on finishing your film! It's so very cool to be able to actually sit back and watch your finished project.  So congratulations are in order and its key to celebrate every step of the way!!!

DIY Fest co founder Rich Martini with FFC, Dean Tavoularis, Ed Bradley foto by John Glenn, NOLA

We at the DIY Film Fest are thankful for all the terrific filmmakers who take the time to find us and submit their films. We've been around for ten years, and the reason is because we do really care about completely independent film - if you build it, they will come.  If you film it, and cut it, and finish it - it will be seen.  Okay, not as catchy, but true either way.  As you may know, we began as an offshoot to the DIY Convention - (www.diyconvention.com) which highlights the best indie projects in music and books.  They're still going strong as well, and we join forces every year for a mutual love fest of do it yourself filmmakers and authors.

One of the biggest questions we get asked is about DIY Distribution.  We usually point people in the direction of those who've been really successful at it.  CD Baby is still going strong in the music world, and has spawned a number of other DIY music labels - (www.cdbaby.com) - but the model makes sense in finding a way to market and sell your product.  We're also a fan of Create Space (www.createspace.com) which has been purchased by Amazon - so if a filmmaker decides to market and sell the product by themselves, create space is a logical outlet as the resulting product is listed through Amazon.com.  They offer DIY packaging in simple (well, not totally simple, as little knowledge of how jpgs and photoshop helps) ways to producer your music, book or film and get it into the marketplace. They also offer live streaming of those films.

We've got submissions from Italy, Romania, Hungary, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand!

That puts the publicity into the filmmaker's own hands - and is key.  Let's say you can get your film into a festival at a college near you - you approach the college paper and ask to do an interview for the film, and list the website for the film when its shown. If the website includes a way to purchase the film, it's just another way to maker and sell your product.  Certainly putting up clips or trailers at youtube helps (see the panel to the right) but to include a link to the film's home page where someone can purchase it with a click is also a way to go.

The world is your oyster, and that's why we folks at the DIY Fest are happy to encourage any and all filmmakers to get their vision out into the planet. There's never been a time like today where anyone can pick up a camera and create something for people to see.

 "When the cost of filmmaking is as much as a pencil and piece of paper, then we'll see true art." Jean Cocteau

DIY FILM FEST NEWS

 Yes, we're back online at withoutabox.com - Thankfully!

This statue to the left depicts how I felt the past couple of days, while I waited for someone in management to manage our site.

By the way, this photo was taken in Juhu, one of the soundstage complexes for Bollywood films outside of Mumbai.  Not far from it was a hand painted sign depicting a black jaguar and the warning "Don't wander off the set, as people have died here."  So - if you're ever lucky enough to make a Bollywood film, these are the kinds of things you need to consider.

Meanwhile, we're back to celebrating the DIY filmmaker and the DIY film.  We've got entries from all around the world.  Documentary Filmmaker MIREL BRAN from Romania, won last year's winner for Securitate Hunter  

has submitted two new documentary films.  We've got entrants from as far away as New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

We like to feature and promote filmmakers who create their own DIY experience - and we believe that everyone who has a story to tell and a camera, should be encouraged to pick it up and show and tell.

Here's a photo of a cappuccino made by a barrista in Santa Monica the other day.  Looks like a golden laurel.  An appropriate award for someone who puts all the effort into one small cappuccino - and yet, it's a work of art.  You can find art anywhere if you only look for it.  And the more we can encourage people to look for art in their own lives, a better place the planet will be.