I believe that the first Melbourne International Film Festival (MIYFF) was a success in that we did what we set out to do: hold a film festival that showcases talented young filmmakers.I wasn’t able to make it to opening night because of work commitments so I’ll be talking about some highlights & lowlights of both Saturday sessions, my overall thoughts of the festival and how it could have been improved now that it’s over. I will be comparing my experience attending the Indonesian Film Festival back in early April to the Melbourne International Youth Film Festival.

AUSTRALIANA AFTERNOON- JUNE 1ST. 

The highlights:

• Initially, there weren’t that many people who purchased tickets for this session which was worrying because we had three of the filmmakers attend the session for a Q&A. Turns out, there were more people that turned up on the day and purchased tickets at the door.
• Given that the location was very accessible to everybody, I believe that was the reason why we had more people showing up and buying tickets at the door. In comparison to Backlot Studios in Southbank, it was harder to find and was not as accessible with public transport.
• By having the filmmakers there, it added more credibility and professionalism to our film festival. Made us more legit!
• It also allowed high school students or those who are potentially interested into pursuing a career in the industry to receive first hand advice and tips.
• Having ticket sales at the door was a big bonus for us because more people showed up on the day.

The lowlights:

• Given that the screening room had so many seats and we had less than half the capacity, it looked rather empty.

CLOSING NIGHT- JUNE 1ST. 

The highlights:

• More people showed up and that filled up more seats in the screening room, making it more full. Probably because more people were free during the evening.
• Some comments from my friends: all of them were impressed by the films that were showed. They came because of the promo code, giving them a 70% discount off ticket prices. Friendly staff.
• Free alcohol and food was a BONUS! 

The lowlights:

• A friend of mine said that “the festival timing was a little late. You need to take into account that some people live far from the CBD and takes them ages to get to and from the location. If this festival were to happen again, maybe have it start at 6pm and run till 8pm. That way it’ll allow those living far out get home at a reasonable hour.”
• Some of my friends that attended thought there was going to be a short intermission mid way through the screening. Which I agree because there were quite a few people walking in & out whilst the screening took place to either get more drinks or use the bathroom, and that made them miss the ending of one film and/or start of the next.

Now, I will give some improvements for the entire festival, from the planning to the execution stage:

• Have a short intermission (5-10 minutes) to allow those who would like to get more drinks & snacks or quickly use the bathroom to ensure they don’t miss out on certain parts of the films and fully experience all the wonderful works.
• For the Saturday matinee session, we aimed it towards high school students/youths who were interested in pursuing this as a career path. We should have contacted high schools once we decided that we were  planning to have an all ages session. That would give them enough time to gather some students who would be keen to attend and also find some supervisors to bring those students along.
• For our social media page, especially Instagram, we should have posted on a regular. This would have help build up our momentum, probably would’ve gotten more recognition and gain more following.
• Having alcohol available at all sessions would’ve probably attracted more people to attend, especially the afternoon session. Obviously those serving alcohol need to check IDs for everyone to be sure no minors were served.
• I felt like we spent too long making decisions and it kept dragging onto the weeks ahead. In the end, I felt like it was all rushed and left not enough time to spread the word.
• We could have spent some of our class time, going around RMIT and handing out our posters to people in hopes that they would be interested to attend the fundraiser or the film festival. That way, we didn’t have to rely on people finding out about the events through our social media or word of mouth.

Looking at the reading by Andrea Kuhn (2015) in week 4. This reading basically talks about the pre-production side of a film festival. The long hours of weeding out all the submissions, getting the word out there of the festival on social media, talking to media companies to sponsor or help promote our event on their following/networks, creating adverts/posters/ flyers, creating posts on social media platforms about the festival etc. The reading gives bullet points of what is required and tips of the do’s/don’ts. Reflecting back at what we did for MIYFF, we should have posted more & more frequently.

The second reading I will discuss is that of film festivals being used as a form of helping international understanding and social change from Kirsten Stevens’ Enthusiastic Amateurs: Origins of Australia’s Film Festival Movement. I was surprised was how film festivals could be used to achieve something so influential. Stevens writes that “Australian film festivals sought to distance films away from their categorisation as a leisure activity” and that, in Australia, films are shown more as a tool to accomplish the mentioned goals.

She also writes that Australian festivals were created during a period of interest in the educational potential of film; I think that, in creating MIYFF, we have carried on this Australian tradition of screening films that deliver powerful and important messages to our audience. Previously I mentioned that we had to pass up on films that would not have had commercial appeal. I believe that, while we did that, we still were able to choose films that had a social message and were still enjoyable to a wide range of people; the ones that come to mind are Scene From the Men’s Toilets at a Ceilidh (involving a difficult discussion about a same sex relationship at a family gathering), and FUCK LES GARS (SCREW THE BOYS) (a short film about a girl’s first heartbreak and her reaction towards boys from then on). While picking these films was not exactly a mindful choice on our end, it was the natural way to program, probably because of the film culture in Australia and being culturally diverse.

To finish up I will discuss on a film festival experience that I got to experience over the semester. I attended a screening that was part of the Indonesian Film Festival called Through the Lens back at the start of April. Their festival’s vision is to promote local awareness of Indonesian cultural diversity and to advance the exposure of Indonesian screen culture to the international market. Which is similar to ours in a sense that we wanted to promote youth works to the public here and hopefully, gain recognition. Our festival was cheaper for students (due to the promo code), whereas IFF ticket prices were quite pricey and they did not have a promo code for students. The screening had the director of Sepatu Baru attend and share his insight about making the film and why he did the things he did. Something that IFF had more in comparison to MIYFF was a bigger budget because they were able to get nicer quality programs made, proper staff t-shirts made and more food & drinks for the audience to have during intermission.

Overall, MIYFF was a great success for something that was put together in a span of three months. Hopefully, this is the start of something new and will continue on in the future!

References. 

Andrea Kuhn, “Who Is Organising It? Importance of Production and Team Members” in Setting Up a Human Rights Film Festival, vol. 2, Human Rights Film Network, Prague, 2015, pp. 71-83.

“Enthusiastic Amateurs: Origins of Australia’s Film Festival Movement” in Kirsten Stevens, Australian Film Festivals: Audience, Place, and Exhibition Culture, Palgrave Macmillan US, New York, 2016, pp. 17-46.

Fuck Les Gars (Screw The Boys). (n.d.). [film] Directed by Anthony Conevey. Canada.

IFF Australia. (2019). Who We Are – IFF Australia. [online] Available at: https://iffaustralia.com/about-us/ [Accessed 5 Jun. 2019].

Scene From the Men’s Toilets at a Ceilidh. (n.d.). [film] Directed by L. Norris. United Kingdom.