Photo courtesy of Filmstock Film Festival.In the world of cinema, film festivals provide an ideal for independent filmmakers. Cannes, Toronto and Sundance are just a few of the prestigious competitions into which filmmakers try so hard to get their movies accepted.
However, a much smaller, unique festival that resides in the Southwestern region of the United States is the Filmstock Film Festival, which exclusively features short films.
Founded in 2009, the Filmstock Film Festival has stops in the major metropolitan area of each of the four corners states (Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona).
Co-founders Jeremy Clayton and Ryan Pierson founded the festival as a way to give filmmakers the opportunity to transform their visions into film. Since then, hundreds of films have been screened on the festival circuit.
This year’s circuit finale will be in Tempe from Thursday through Saturday and will feature films from the festival’s three other stops.
According to festival director James Lee, Filmstock acts as its own festival circuit, and four award winners from each Filmstock will move on to screen as special engagements in the next three consecutive states’ Filmstock events.
"In other words, they aren’t eligible to earn additional awards,” Lee said. “This offers the short filmmaker immediate exposure to a larger and more diverse audience while affording that filmmaker ample opportunity to make and build connections within the southwest region."
Lee has been involved with the festival since it was founded in 2009, showing his films and helping out where he was needed. He is responsible for organizing the festivals as well as choosing the films.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Lee said. “I get to plan a great event while watching some great short films.”
The Arizona festival marks the end of year gala event. Not only will winning films from previous festivals be shown, but audiences will have the opportunity to vote on the “best film” winner. This chosen film will then be shown on next year’s circuit.
Films shown at the festival are from the four host states, as well as from around the world. Genres include comedy, drama and documentary.
Three awards are handed out at each festival: "Best of Fest," "audience choice" and "best actor."
Another award sponsored by the festival is the Barry E. Wallace Award, which recognizes the efforts of those in each of the festival’s regions who maintain a positive public reputation and uplifting attitude towards their community and their peers.
Pierson named the award after a close friend, Barry, who passed away unexpectedly.
"Our hope is that it will serve to recognize those in the community that reflect the mindset and community awareness that Barry had," Pierson said.
Aside from the traditional film festival, Filmstock recently had its first-ever iFest, a 48-hour filmmaking challenge in which filmmakers had two days to create a five-minute short film with their mobile device. Other criteria for the films included a theme of betrayal as well as a MacGuffin (a plot-driving device). The films were shot between Nov. 22 and Nov. 24 and will be screened on Thursday.
Tickets for the festival are $10 per showing. All showings will take place at the Pollack Tempe Cinemas at 7 p.m.
Reach the reporter at seweinst@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @S_weinstein95
