My main role in the setup and production of DIFF was to help program and acquire feature debut films to show at our festival. I brainstormed and researched many different first films by prominent directors from all over the world. Prior to this studio I had never really put much thought into what goes into acquiring a film to show publicly at a paid event, so it was interesting learning who to email and how to email them in order to get the best results for yourselves. I also loaned my own copy of ‘Barking Dogs Never Bite’ so it was able to be shown at the theatre.

Along with helping acquire feature films for the festival, I also watched a few of the short film submissions to help out with the amazingly high number of submissions we got, which was a very cool experience seeing such high-quality shorts come from independent and brand-new film makers from all over the world, and I am glad the ones I liked were able to be shown to a crowd of people.

Towards the end, once the programming had been decided I helped adjust the festival’s Timetable to allow enough time for each film and short, which was challenging at times trying to find where we could squeeze out some extra time to allow enough time to show the Short films we wanted to.