Niagara Canada International Film Festival

I went into this festival with high expectations and I was extremely impressed by the quality of the festival, the great organization, and the commitment of the festival to the participants. I was made to feel very welcome throughout the entire process, as I made my submission for the festival.
In addition, the attendees were avid film enthusiasts and the degree of engagement was high, both before and after the screening of the entries. It was a great opportunity to mingle with people involved in the industry, both behind and in front of the camera. I was able to network with key individuals and also learn a lot from other entries that participated in the festival. It was great to see the strong support from Mayor Diodati who was on hand for the ribbon cutting and also stayed to engage with participants. Other surprise guests showed up as well -- the star power at his event was real so have your cameras ready!
All in all, this was a great experience for any filmmaker or enthusiast. Whether you're entering your own creative pieces or wish to attend a high quality event and watch some great fims, the Niagara Canada International Film Festival is the perfect venue. I highly recommend submitting your films to this prestigious festival and attending in person for an unparalleled experience!

Speaking as a past "award winner" at this festival, I strongly advise any filmmaker considering a festival run to invest their hard-earned money elsewhere. Do not fall for this scam.

I'll stick to the highlights, though the full experience was even worse:

This is a festival more concerned with celebrating its own organizers than its nominees and winners. When a group of generous film professionals took the time to visit Niagara for a panel, the interviewer—one of the festival’s own—spent more time talking about herself and inflating her own ego than asking meaningful questions. The Emmy and Golden Globe-winning producer on the panel, whom we were all eager to hear from, was asked just three questions—and even then, he was interrupted mid-answer by the interviewer.

The award ceremony itself was similarly disappointing. The majority of it was spent with festival staff members thanking other festival staff members and sponsors, while the actual awards were handed out in a rushed, impersonal manner that felt more like a fast-food assembly line than a celebration of filmmaking.

There was no catering, only a single popcorn machine placed outside the conference room where the films were screened—on a projector, rather than in the actual theater space downstairs. That popcorn machine was being operated by a student filmmaker who was nominated in the festival. He didn't know any better, and that was quite shameful from the festival.

I received the award for Best Cinematography—an issue, considering I’m not a cinematographer and didn’t shoot the film. The organizers didn’t bother to read the film’s credits or the credit sheet we submitted. Our film was also nominated for Best Student Short... except it wasn’t a student film.

I reached out over a year ago asking them to reissue the award to credit the actual cinematographer. I never received a response.

I won’t be returning, and I highly recommend others steer clear of this festival in the future.

After spending the last month and a half trying to get clarification from the festival, without success, I’ve decided to leave a review of my experience.

SCREENING EXPERIENCE
I was originally very excited to be screening in the 7:00 block. Being slotted right after the red carpet, the audience at the start of the screening was very impressive. However, it was extremely disheartening to see almost the entire crowd walk out, and be left with only a handful of people remaining (Including myself and who I assume were the jury members) by the time my film screened. I believe this is due to the curation of the screening block, as the first few films (two of which were produced by the curator, and one of them doesn’t even appear to be an official selection) maintained the audience, but then a series of questionably placed films saw the audience leaving in groups. I was also aware of the organizers, including the curator, following suit and leaving halfway through the block. This was our world premiere, and this is something we communicated very clearly, so it felt very disrespectful to be slotted this way and end up watching my film premiere to an empty room.

In general, I wish that there was more being done to discourage attendees from constantly entering and exiting in the middle of films, as this was very distracting. There was a lot of phone usage and talking throughout the films, and I believe more could have been done by the festival organizers to discourage this behavior. So much work is put into these projects, so to have them treated so casually is disheartening.

AWARDS
We are very grateful to have been awarded at the festival, however, I do have some concerns.

It became evident that the jury was awarding based on a “spread the love” mentality, which I am not inherently opposed to. However, when submitting for your festival, it was a very “pay to play” system, where filmmakers had to pay per category they wish to be nominated in. It feels dishonest and fraudulent to then only allow films to be awarded in one category. As someone who paid a large amount to be considered for all eligible categories, then to see several eligible categories only have two or three nominees, and not be nominated, it made me regret paying so much. It does not seem fair to advertise certain categories, then show up to the awards ceremony and have several categories either be combined, or not awarded at all. Why was the “Best LGBT Short” category not awarded? Why were all of the performance categories combined into one award category?

It was also advertised on Film Freeway that winners would receive cash prizes, yet this was not acknowledged at the awards ceremony. This has also since been amended on Film Freeway, since my first email.

OVERALL VALUE OF EXPERIENCE
This was by far the most we have paid to be submitted to a festival, so far. With that, and with the prestige branding of the festival, I had higher expectations for the festival experience. I don’t believe selected filmmakers should be paying full cost for entry to the festival, if having to pay entry at all. Paying $65 for a ticket (and $250 if you purchase the day before?!) seems steep when there isn’t even bottled water included for filmmakers, and concessions in the venue were limited to $8.50 hotdogs. If the festival is not paying screening fees to the filmmakers, and selected filmmakers have to pay entry on top of already high submission fees, there should certainly be some included aspects for the filmmakers.

I reached out to the committee immediately after the festival, and was told they would discuss and get back to me the following week. I’ve since followed up several times, and eventually contacted Jey Jeyakanthan directly, who gave me a different email to contact. After following up to that email again, and trying twice more to call him, I’ve received no reply. I’ve given the festival committee ample time to rectify the situation, without any luck.

I would caution anyone who is considering submitting to Niagara, as I thoroughly believe it is not worth the cost, and that’s coming from someone who won an award.

This was my first film festival after graduating film school and I'm so thrilled it was. The environment, networking opportunities and films on display were second to none, and I had an amazing time.

Make sure to attend if you want to meet some amazing people.

Great experience, the staff was friendly and professional, Ill 100% recommend it.