Competition has variety of awards

Now is the time to start analyzing your work for the 2019 FilmFest competition, which has opened. Awards include Gold Camera, Silver Screen, Certificate for Creative Excellence, Student Certificate, and, of course, the Grand Prix, or Best of Festival.

In addition, consider proposing a work for the One World Award, sponsored by the International Quorum of Motion Picture Producers (iq.com). This special award is given to the production that best exhibits cinematic excellence and innovative storytelling, and engages the audience with universal themes.

Elsewhere on this website, you can read about the 2018 One World winner, as well as get a look at other past winners. Since 2012, (awards for which is pictured here) One World recipients have been:

2012	“Heritage Saved is History Preserved” Henk van Mierlo VOF for NV Bergkwartier, Deventer, The Netherlands
2013	“Counterfeit Culture” Tell Tale Productions, Halifax, Nova Scotia
2014	“Brigada (The Brigade): Gintong Krudo (Black Gold)” GMA News TV (GMA Network, Inc.), Quezon City, Philippines
2015	“Front Row: ALS GMA Network Inc., Quezon City, Philippines
2016	“Wattway – Solar Roads” Arizona Films, Brussels, Belgium
2017	“Dare To Think” Director Peter Bostoen and Producers Marc Van Eyken and Jo Goossens of Bozo Film Company, Rotselaar, Belgium

 Spend some time exploring, and then get your entries ready. We look forward to hearing from you. 

Advice: Find ways to expand project audiences

US International Film & Video Festival (USIFVF) Chairman Lee Gluckman spoke recently on film making at a gathering of the Russian Association of Communication Directors and Corporate Publishing (AKMR) group in Moscow. He discussed filmmaking trends based on his personal experience as a filmmaker and as head of the annual film competition, which accepts Corporate, Documentary, Education and Entertainment films.
Gluckman’s film competition is more than 50 years old and, as he noted, has seen all of the changes in the film industry driven by technology. What has not changed, he stressed, is the need for storytelling. He also encouraged the audience to think about how a specific project might be expanded for greater use.

“I’ve never come across a project that doesn’t have the potential for another audience or two,” he said.

“Often nothing has to be changed in the production to communicate to those other audiences. However, many times a small additional investment in narration and editing can bring the same message to an expanded audience without having to start from the beginning again. In this way, you can spread the expense of the initial production across multiple audiences.”

AKMR was established in 2004; its president Igor Ignatiev, is vice chairman-director of Cooperation with Governmental Authorities at Shell Exploration & Production Services.

The trade group provides opportunities for executives in communications to exchange experiences and expand their professional development and compete with their projects.  Gluckman also announced that FreeMotion Group, one of AKMR’s members -- and a winner in USIFVF competition -- is the newest member of the International Quorum of Motion Picture Producers (IQ). Gluckman is the longest-standing member of the global network of producers.

LBL Production (FreeMotion Group), Novosibirsk, won Best of Show in Corporate Films in 2017 with “Breadwinner,” work done for Minsk Traktor Works, Belarus.