Circling Back to Film Festivals

As you may have noticed, after a great deal of activity over the Summer while we worked out how to navigate the film festival circuit during a global pandemic, we went quiet after the film festivals we were selected for closed.

This is due in part to having nothing to report, and in part to having one of our upcoming festivals drop entirely off the radar. (There is also the part where I started talking to my socks, but the less said about that the better.)

Winner
Best Hair, Makeup & Body Design
Madrid International Film Festival

We were, of course, pleased and excited to be awarded Best Hair, Makeup and Body Design at the Madrid International Film Festival! And while we were disappointed that we did not win any of the awards we were nominated for at the Hermetic Film Festival in Venice, we were pleased to be included in the program and enjoyed watching the other entries! This was a wonderful experience and we met some great people as a result.

In addition, we were excited to be selected for the Seattle True Independent Film Festival, but shortly after our selection for the festival, their web site went down, and we have heard nothing since. At least until I started writing this update. More on that in a moment.

The initial inspiration for this post was an email we received a few days ago, where we were pleasantly surprised to learn that our festival win in Madrid qualified us for the World Independent Cinema Awards, and that the Film Festival Webteam has nominated us in two categories!

Best Story | WICA 2021
24/11/2020 By FILM FEST WEBTEAM
The Rite of Saturn
Best Original Screenplay of a Feature Film | WICA 2021
24/11/2020 By FILM FEST WEBTEAM
The Rite of Saturn

We are not certain yet about the dates, but will keep you updated as we learn more! Still, that’s pretty sweet!

These categories are not those we applied for when we originally submitted to the Festivals. So, I guess congratulations are in order to Aleister Crowley, author of these Rites, and to Melissa Holm as the mastermind behind our adaptation of The Rite of Saturn from Crowley’s script to the theater stage, and Bob Jones for his work in bringing it to the screen. We are as yet uncertain what all of this means, but we thought we would let you know that there continues to be widespread interest in our project.

During the course of writing this update, I also discovered that the Seattle True Independent Film Festival site is back up, and there seems to be some movement on progressing with their festival as well.
Seattle True Independent Film Festival

Of course, there is always the question what this means for us?

These festivals are traditionally places where filmmakers bring their work to market them to studios and streaming services. And, to be honest, since we had to make our videos available to streaming on Amazon in order to sell the DVDs there (something we promised our fans), that boat has sailed for us this go round. There will be no big money deals with movie theater distribution and cable streaming services. It turns out that Amazon is not going to pay us for a product we already gave them for free. Which is too bad. The amount of money they could have dumped into promoting the work may have really helped us find a broader audience.

On the other hand, we continue to make contacts in the industry and we have shown that we have a terrific team that has proven they can create interesting and quality content. There is much to do, and we’re just getting started! This is certainly a testament to the hard work, love and creativity our cast and crew has brought to these and all of our projects!

Incidentally, if you haven’t yet seen our award winning The Rite of Saturn or you missed any of the Eleusyve adaptations of The Rites of Eleusis, you can stream them right now! https://vimeo.com/ondemand/ritesofeleusis

Or you can order the DVDs or stream on Amazon. Great as a Holiday Gift for someone you love. Or, you know, to completely freak out a family member who could use a little shaking up…

And while we are talking about promotional stuff and cool gift ideas, we have a t-spring store where we now have commemorative hoodies and leggings along with the awesome t-shirt design!