Indieburgh Fest is a brand new one-day film festival launching in Edinburgh, which aims to showcase independent films created by both professional and amateur filmmakers. The event is being run by a group of Festival and Events students from Edinburgh’s Napier University, who all have a passion for cinema and hope to inspire others with their passion. As this is the first year that this project is running, you may be wondering why you should bother submitting your work - what’s in it for you?
The main reason we see for wanting you involved is to help us target areas not covered by Edinburgh’s bigger film festivals. While we’re taking submissions from everyone, we’ve had a focus towards our peers - other students. When we talk about “independent cinema”, we don’t just mean those films that don’t have million dollar budgets, we’re looking for films made with love by a handful of people who are doing it for the love of the art-form. We want to give fellow students a platform outside of their own course, where they can exhibit and screen their work. This stands for filmmakers who are not students and don’t have the means to exhibit their work on their own.
Another important factor is networking and this goes for us all at Indieburgh too. As events students, we’re always looking to make connections that can aid us in future events planning, but as a filmmaker, this should be vital for you as well. We’ve been in contact with a wide range of people involved in film, as well as a variety of different courses. Our hope is that on the day, you will get the opportunity to meet like-minded film lovers and start a dialogue with them. You can never know too many people and you might just find the perfect contact to help with your next project.
What’s exciting us is that we get the chance to see a range of films that we wouldn’t otherwise get the chance to see - cinema is all about showing off your work after all! Not only do people get to see your efforts, but you get to see theirs as well. This is also a chance to screen to people who may not be your usual audience, but also to gain feedback and reviews from everyone at the event. The event will hopefully be a learning experience, where you can gain insight into what other people are doing.
While you might be wary about submitting work to a brand new film festival, there’s absolutely no need to be. Think of it this way - it’s free to submit, you’re in with a chance of winning one of our awards and a whole bunch of people will get to see and appreciate your hard work. If nothing else, you get to come along and appreciate some great indie cinema and you get to say you were a part of the very first Indieburgh Festival.
So what are you waiting for? Get involved!
Watch the teaser trailer for our Festival here
https://vimeo.com/108949668