Rome was a fun little city to have the event, lots of shops and restaurants to walk to. The festival was set up well enough and felt like a big deal. Different venues to walk to for different events, VIP hang out spaces is a nice touch.
However... I don't write this to be harsh, I simply write this to edify and hopefully shed light on issues that might be unknown to the organizers.
The festival seems to only cater to the feature films and the celebrity that they bring, as I had to force introductions to anyone involved even though my short was playing. When winning an award it was clear no one was at the screening, and no one knew who we were. So that was strange walking up to shake hands or whatever we were supposed to do. On that note, it could benefit if the awards ceremony had stills or something from the films as they are presented, as most of the people have no idea what each film is unless they went to every single event.
And they wouldn't have as the timing of the events was strange, at least in our experience. For example GA made shorts ran about the same time as the regular Shorts category, in two different venues. We had friends who made their films in GA in the regular Shorts category, but we had to leave to go to our venue for the GA made group. So people were bummed they couldn't support each category. There seemed to be plenty of better options to spread those categories out.
Next issue was with the venue we were in, Screen 417. Interesting concept, a couple rows of seats facing one way, and then a bunch of TVs and sitting areas facing other directions around the room, so everyone is seeing the same stuff at the same time. However, the projector was clearly not color calibrated so everyone's projects looked pretty horrible and then it seemed like the venue operators were worried about disturbing their commercial neighbors as they kept turning the sound up and down. Our film for example, you could barely hear music in certain parts as they kept turning the volume up and down, and it was washed out in a warm yellowy tint... which was very incorrect. Sub optimal viewing experience.
Later I went to a screening of a feature, and my biggest problem arose. Firstly, one of the board members sat in the middle of the theater and kept pulling out his phone to check... I dunno, I assume on other things going on, then he'd go and whisper to the other worker next to him. Then a camera man filming the Q&A afterwards, sat in the audience in the middle of the venue, flashlight on, sound on his phone on, texting and fixing something on his camera... the entire film. I told him to turn his sound off as you could hear the clicking of the keyboard as he texted, and he just turned and stared at me and did nothing. Absolutely ridiculous to have workers at a film festival on their phone, in the audience. The last place I would expect people to not know how to watch a film or be in attendance of a film would be at a film festival. I felt bad for the people in front of me who clearly had just bought tickets to watch the movie and were not filmmakers of any kind. They were very distracted. I talked to the board member afterwards and he apologized and said they'd try to do better. He was very nice about it, so I appreciated that.
The main event was a feature I very much enjoyed, and the theater was packed, that was the best experience of the festival, so congrats on making that event very special... Even if the project cast a shadow on the top of the movie the entire time from another projector being in the way for some strange reason.
All in all, an ok experience where the emphasis seemed to be on the celebrity and his film, and the after parties. My unwarranted suggestion, work on scheduling and (if you don't already) have someone dedicated to short film categories development, outreach, and on site interaction as that is where the biggest draw of local filmmakers will be from, and winning over the locals to show how important film is in GA is an absolute must. I don't care about feeling like a celebrity, I get it, we're not the main draw, but I do care about feeling like I'm meant to be there.
Anyways, thanks for selecting our little action flick. Glad we were able to be apart of 2024.
