Interview with Festival Director Jacques Paisner (Santa Fe Independent Film Festival)

Originally posted on Festival Reviews:
The Santa Fe Independent Film Festival was named Moviemaker Magazine’s “50 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee in 2014 & 2015”. Santa Fe Independent Film Festival is invested in Santa Fe as a destination for film. Bringing cutting edge programming, the latest independent films and directors, Native cinema, New Mexico and Student…

Film Festival Events and Videos from May 2013 to Present

Since taking over full reins of the WILDsound Festival in mid-2013, I have been fortunate to moderate 27 film festival events. We have showcased over 200 of the best short films from around the world – 37 countries to date.

Take a look at each film festival month by month. An audience feedback video for each film presented:

Interview with Cinematographer Natasha Braier (The Neon Demon, The Rover)

I think working with Nicolas Winding Refn is a gift for any cinematographer, because he is interested in visual story telling, in poetry, in suggesting rather than narrating. He doesn’t care about the conventional established representational mode of film story telling, he goes beyond, and for me thats what always been exiting in film making. I always tend to look for directors that are working in this direction, but Nic is probably the most extreme of them, and that’s what I love about him. He pushes me to get the bravest part of myself, to jump the abyss, he doesn’t care if we fall and crash while trying, he would rather try and fail than to stay in a safe territory. So, I love jumping with him, and most of the time, we don’t fall but we fly.

Interview with Festival Director Simon McGuire (Limerick Film Festival)

Originally posted on Festival Reviews:
The Limerick Film Festival is about to enter its 7th year. https://limerickfilmfestival.net/ Interview with Festival Director Simon McGuire: Matthew Toffolo: What is your Film Festival succeeding at doing for filmmakers? Simon McGuire: The Limerick Film Festival has always tried to achieve recognition for film makers locally. Limerick and the mid-west…

Interview with Editor Jake Roberts (Oscar Nominated film BROOKLYN)

‘Brooklyn’ was a great experience. There was a really positive energy throughout the shoot and it felt like we might be working on something quite special. It was personal to a lot of the people involved and that seemed to come through in the material and that makes you want to raise your game, especially when you’re watching a performance like Saoirse’s unfold you feel a huge pressure to do it justice. Once John and I were back in London we cut for about 3 months and obviously there was plenty of back and forth but at the same time it was quite a calm and controlled process. We had a very strong first assembly and we never deviated too far from it or went down too many experimental cul-de-sacs. This is largely a testament to Nick’s script which only needed the subtlest of refinements so essentially it was about distillation, making it as tight as possible and all the while carefully calibrating the emotional journey through the performances. As for the Oscars it is all a surreal bonus, like I say you hope as you work on something that it is special and obviously a nomination suggests you did something right but the most thrilling thing is that a wide audience gets to see it and thankfully it seems we managed to strike a chord with a lot of them.

Interview with Festival Director Teresa Hollingsworth (Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers)

Originally posted on Festival Reviews:
Selected as one of MovieMaker Magazine’s ’50 Film Festivals worth the Entry Fee, 2015,’ the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers brings the best of independent film to communities across the South. Audiences have seen over 300 films and have engaged filmmakers in post-screening discussions in more than 100 Southern…

Interview with Festival Director Sam Berliner (Translations: Seattle Transgender Film Festival)

Originally posted on Festival Reviews:
Translations: Seattle Transgender Film Festival is not only a groundbreaking film festival that provides the Pacific Northwest with a venue for films by, for, and about transgender people and the issues facing the transgender community, but one of only a few transgender film festivals in the world. The goal of…

Interview with Cinematographer Mitesh Mirchandani (NEERJA)

Mitesh Mirchandani is a rising cinematographer in the industry who is currently based in based in Mumbai. Only 26, he DP’d the feature film Neerja, which could be the sleeper hit movie of 2016. From here on out, his future is bright. http://www.miteshdop.com/ Interview with Mitesh Mirchandani: Matthew Toffolo:  How is the film scene in India? What… Continue reading Interview with Cinematographer Mitesh Mirchandani (NEERJA)