Join us for a chat with Theo Dumont, the co-founder of the HollyShorts Film Festival and manager at Alta Global Media. Theo shares how he and his team turned a small event into one of the world's biggest short film festivals, with over 6,100 submissions each year. We’ll talk about the festival's selection process, commitment to diversity, and exciting new categories like sports and Oscar-qualifying slots, all while giving emerging filmmakers a crucial platform.
Theo gives insights on balancing creativity with business smarts, drawing inspiration from Tim Ferriss's "The Four-Hour Work Week." Learn how HollyShorts and Alta Global Media help filmmakers craft festival strategies and build long-term careers.
Get a feel for the lively HollyShorts vibe, from midnight screenings to music video nights, packed with full screenings and networking with filmmakers from around the globe. Theo shares advice for aspiring festival founders, stressing the importance of passion, clear themes, and sustainable growth. Whether you're a filmmaker, film fan, or just curious about film festivals, this episode offers a personal look into the creativity and ever-changing film industry.
For our listeners, CFA’s teamed up with We Make Movies to get you a discount on production management services, including access to comprehensive production insurance and workers' comp for your next shoot.
Visit wemakemovies.org/insurance and use code CFA23 on your intake form for 10% off your quote.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a production company, sister production arm
of Holly Shorts, so it's verystraightforward.
So we meet amazing next-genstorytellers, directors with
ideas, and it's a label where weproduce with them.
And literally we've got aproject called Thirst with
Stefan DeZille.
(00:20):
He comes from the Holly Shortsecosystem.
He had a short film that wemade with Disney and it's still
streaming on Hulu.
It's done very well and we'redeveloping that into a feature.
We have a first look deal withEpic Pictures for horror and
genre films.
It's a micro budget anywherefrom $1-2 million where we're
(00:40):
looking for the next breakouthorror film.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
This is the Cinematography for Actors
podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
More than a podcast.
Cinematography for Actors is avibrant community devoted to
bridging the gap between talentand crew.
Each week, our show offerstransparent, insightful
conversations with industryleaders.
We unveil the magic behind thescenes, from candid discussions
about unique filmmakingprocesses to in-depth technical
exploration.
Join us in unraveling theintricacies of filmmaking, one
(01:12):
episode at a time.
It's more than just cameras andlenses we aim to inspire,
educate and empower as we peelback the curtain on the art of
effective storytelling Now on tothe episode.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Hi everyone, everyone and welcome back to another CFA
podcast episode, and it'salways great to be joined on the
couch.
I'm Indiana Underhill, one ofthe hosts.
Haley is not here today becauseshe just started Groundlings
Improv for the first time.
She's never done improv.
I'm very proud of her.
But I'm joined with anincredible friend and a
wonderful leader in our industry, especially within film
(01:43):
festival world, at the wonderfulHolly Schwartz Film Festival.
Now this is Theo Dumont.
Hi, how are you?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Thank you for having me, I'm so excited.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I love you guys.
Yeah, you too.
So Theo is one of theco-founders of, I mean, three
festivals, but mostly HollySchwartz Film Festival is what
we're going to be talking abouttoday, as well as a manager at
Ulta Global Media, which I wouldlove to dive into a bit on,
like what management means forcertain people and roles and
things like that.
But, theo, I am so excited tohave you here.
(02:14):
Holly Shorts is coming up.
We obviously participated withyou as the podcast partner last
year.
We loved meeting all thefilmmakers.
We still have a greatrelationship with the majority
of them and and uh, and see themoften um now holly shorts.
Yes, how do you?
I just want to kind of get into.
If people don't know, everyoneknows.
But if people don't, what isholly shorts?
Speaker 1 (02:34):
well, holly shorts is um.
It's emerged as one of thelargest short film festivals in
the world.
Um we showcase shorts 45minutes and under um um all
genres, um.
The main categories are liveaction, documentary and
animation, and that gives us avariety of different kinds of
content from uh internationalshorts.
Uh, web series, uh, um romanticcomedies, horror, midnight.
(02:59):
You know, now we've launched asports category.
Yeah, you know, it's um super.
Now we've launched a sportscategory.
Yeah, you know, it's superexciting.
And then this edition, it's 20years this August.
We have four Oscar qualifyingcategories.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Which is crazy.
It's amazing.
We're going to start that way.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, and then we showcase about 430 short films.
This year we had about 6,100submissions, which is nuts.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
And it's insane.
It's almost like an explosionof content, but the way I like
to describe it is any.
It's about five programs, fivescreening programs a day at the
chinese theater, um, and someother venues this year.
Um, you can go into a block ofshorts and then you'll be wowed
by the yeah you know, you'retaken to another world, which is
(03:42):
amazing.
We also show music videos, soeverything kind of short form
yeah, we showcase.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
I mean, it's so important to give a platform to
emerging and wonderfulfilmmakers because it's hard,
this industry is tough and tohave a reputable film festival
that people can apply to,because there's just so many
film festivals out there, youknow is fantastic.
Now, how do you like we weretalking a little bit about this
before we started recording 6100submissions so many what does
(04:09):
that process look like?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
it's nuts, it's insane.
Yeah, we start early yeah sothis edition will be august 8th
through 18th and then, literallylike two days after, we start
the process again wow and we getentries from everywhere.
And then you know, basically wego through several rounds of
watching them.
We have an international team,many people, many programmers,
(04:33):
screeners, yep, and we goseveral rounds.
So the first round is, you know, seeing what we like Screening.
Sometimes they're very bad andyou know, through the years it's
improved, yeah, the quality hasrisen right.
And then I think we do, likethe academy, we, we judge them
internally one to ten, yep, andthen if it's a ten, there's more
(04:53):
more likely possibilities.
It's a stone cold lock is whatwe call them.
Yes, nice and then the problembecomes there's a lot of average
films, yeah, and then you haveto give a lot of the average
ones a second look.
Yeah, we just try to catch acast, a wide net, and then later
, as we get closer, we doanother round and we really get
into selections and then it'salmost like a giant painting as
(05:14):
well, and then sometimes thepainting is 75 complete, and
then you look where you land andthen you evaluate what the
content looks like.
Yes, also, we're a look, we'rela LA.
It is a Los Angeles festival.
We used to have this problemwhere the travel thing not a lot
of people like to travel, but,as our name rose, people travel
in.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
For sure.
We saw that, I know, but we sawthat last year when we were
interviewing filmmakers who hadflown in from all over the
country.
And it's such an incredibleplace because a lot of the
places people are flying in fromdon't have the same community
LA does, and so to meet everyonetogether over the course of a
week is insane.
Now, workshops and panels arehuge for you guys, and yes,
(05:56):
that's exactly what I was goingto say.
It's so important for afestival, I think, to feel like
360, well-rounded, to haveeducation alongside it, because
everyone's all together.
How long have you been doingthe workshop and panels and like
what are the focuses this year?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Great question.
I think we started very early.
You know, this is 20 years.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Maybe early in the process, maybe by like year five
.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Well, year five we had Eli Roth come and deliver a
speech to the filmmakers and hehad like inglorious bastards
campaigning.
He got it.
We gave him an award and hegave this impassioned speech at
the Director's Guild and peoplewere just like, oh my God.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I'm like oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And I think that's one of the things that was like
we started this thing so thatpeople can move their careers
forward find reps, findmanagement.
That was the whole vision andit still is now.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Right and advance their careers.
So we're like we want people totake stuff home Like okay, show
your short, but the networktalk and then do things like
learn things, and so that becamea key part of the kind of DNA
of the festival early on.
That became a key part of thekind of DNA of the festival
early on and it continues andwe're still.
We're still on the cusp, Likewe always want to find the next
important topic that's importantto them.
(07:10):
And then you know, the gamechanges day by day, Totally.
So, we want to keep our kind ofteeth sharp for for them and
hopefully they can learnsomething.
Meet someone, get your filmmaybe bought, or someone gives
you some crowdfunding advicethat you didn't know before,
Absolutely.
And then distribution, and then, oh, that's the other thing.
So Daniel and I co-founded it.
Yeah, we used to be studiopeople.
(07:32):
Eventually we became studiopeople.
He worked at Lionsgate, Iworked at MGM, and so it's
family business.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
And we try to keep that family feeling still.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
But as we were at those companies, we ran Holly
shorts.
We would bring some of ourfriends from those companies to
be involved in the festival andthe movie, watching apart
professionals and then alsospeaking, so that continues.
So we had Alyssa Federoff.
She's like the president ofdistribution at neon right, yeah
, so we get her involved.
You know, ryan leader, he wasat Lionsgate originally as well.
He's at neon right.
Um, you know, our friends atmgm stampede pictures.
(08:09):
Like anytime we do deals in ourprofessional lives, we would
apply it to the festival yes, Ithink that's what gave it
success.
Um, anyhow it's, it's very, it'sa very strange thing where the
festival morphs.
It has this life and then alsoour careers morphed, and then we
just kind of we try to level upyeah, yeah, that's that makes
sense to me.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
And and get back to that family community, which is
what you, what I think, hollyshort's the strength of what I
felt last year by being a partof it.
You know professionally and asa filmmaker too, because I had
worked there, which was cool umto kind of do the dual yeah,
yeah, that's.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
that's amazing, it's fun.
Yeah, that's important.
That's so important by the wayto have this platform, this
amazing platform you've builtbut, also to have your
professional acumen be so high.
It's like you're like.
You know you have both hats youknow, people don't know.
Yeah, some people just do onething.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yes, totally.
I get bored, I think you wouldtoo, if you only had one thing
you know, I think that's why weget along.
It's like we would both be verybored.
100 um, now, when you'rebuilding a film festival, like
you know, when you're on filmfreeway and you go to that
category that says like awardqualifying, so oscar academy
qualifying, how does that happenfor a festival?
When it's hard yeah, what it,what my goodness what when
(09:20):
people are like applying how?
how does that work that that onehas been chosen as oscar
qualifying in certain categories?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
it's very strange, yeah I would say I'm thinking
about my present tasks and goalsnow right and sometimes in my
mind I'm like, oh, my goodness,that's so insurmountable yeah
getting that status for thefestival huge felt extremely
insurmountable at one point andwe achieved it.
It took a lot of work.
It's a team effort.
That's the other thing withfilmmaking.
So, but for a filmmaker you canbasically select just oscar
(09:51):
qualifying festivals yes um,that's okay.
There's amazing festivals thatare not oscar qualifying.
Um, but it's a.
It's a good thing.
I mean, listen, if you winthose categories, you can bypass
the process of four wallingyour film right and paying for
the ads and doing all the rules,it wins, it becomes, it goes
straight to them.
(10:11):
It's not like a joke, like yeah, it goes to the academy and
they give it a very close look.
We had nine nominations lastedition.
Knock on wood yes because I'mstill pinching myself of that
process it's a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I remember the party you held for all those wonderful
like filmmakers that had it andit was incredible to see that
journey for them from hollyshorts, their film festival
journey around it, the promotionand stuff, and then getting to
that like pinnacle.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
You know I gotta say something though.
Yeah, listen, this is asubjective, a festival person's
subjective, so we make missessometimes there could be, and
then also, just because youdon't achieve that, you got to
keep going.
And then that's why I say comewatch, go to these big festivals
Claremont-Ferrand, holly, short, sundance, tribeca even Dances
(10:59):
with the Films this week.
Watch movies, watch theprogramming, see it, and then
you can measure where you stand.
You know what I'm saying.
And then, if it, you know,oscar qualifying.
So sure, but you know, we havemaybe we show about 415, 420
films, that just that alumnigroup every year.
That's serious, you know what Imean.
And a lot of those people go onto do amazing beautiful work.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Oh yeah, I mean the best part, I think the coolest
part about you being aco-founder of such a wonderful
film festival is that you'reright, it's 450 films a year,
plus the crew, plus the cast,plus their family.
You've created a huge networkof talented artists.
You know, yeah, and we try tokeep it humble you know, yeah,
you got to understand.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
we didn.
We try to keep it humble, youknow.
You got to understand.
We didn't say we're going to belike this.
When we started it was just acommunity.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah, what was the first edition?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
like it was at the Space Theater which is on a
small street called Heliotropenear Western here in LA, and
Daniel's brother was an actorand he owned the space and he
was doing actor showcases and westarted there and was just like
you know, there was a comedy,uh no, there was a theater group
across the street called sacredfools and they had their game
tight.
It was like, boom, wellorganized, executing these uh
(12:15):
plays.
And we were like, wow, we wantto be like that.
So we started to, we tried todo a festival yeah, and it was
successful.
The first one was a success 25films.
We it was pre-youtube.
We asked for submissions.
We did like a newspaper ad.
It was very lo-fi, very analog.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Love this yes, I love looking back and reflecting on.
It was crazy because look,because then you're not starting
too big.
So it grows organically andgrows to the capacity that you
can actually like work within itand manage it properly, rather
than starting too big, fumblingit.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
No doubt you know I gotta tell you another key to
the success, please, is the umputting a date on something
right it's very strange if we westarted deciding, okay, we did
it, it was good.
Second week of august is whenwe will execute.
That's your deadline.
It's almost like if, maybe infilmmaking, if we had deadlines,
yeah, you know, you have toexecute, you know, and so you
make it work.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Every film, all the time I'm like you know.
I'm starting to produce filmsnow and whenever I'm working
with directors who areincredibly talented artists but
don't have the producer brainsometimes, so they need like a
producer with them all the timeI'm like.
So what's the deadline for thescript?
What's the deadline for thedeck?
When are we going to go out forfundraising?
And it's the questions that alot of people aren't asking
(13:27):
themselves.
But a lot of newer filmmakersor emerging filmmakers forget
that 95 of what they're doing infilm is business first you know
, it then five percent you getto have art you
Speaker 1 (13:37):
know you get, no question.
Yeah, you have the business,mind you got to start thinking
in that way.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I think, especially even if you're short films, you
have to think about it, becausethe more you propel yourself to
make content and tell storiesthat are authentic, you want to
get it out to an audienceAbsolutely, and so the deadlines
help you.
So I love.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Critical, that's totally.
I totally agree with that youhave a year to plan.
It.
Listen, it sounds easy, butthen it's just like and then you
have a year to, and theneventually it intensifies, the
timeline gets quicker, and thenthen you execute.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
I know well there's um one of my favorite like I
love reading productivity booksand I love reading like I don't
have self-help but productivityand business books, and one of
them I read like a few monthsago that changed my life was the
four-hour work week by timferris and he, it's amazing, and
I have like added so many.
The reason CFA is now a 501 isbecause of that book.
(14:26):
Really, because I was able to,like, think in a different way
and streamline different thingsin my life to get more done with
Haley, because we're a smallteam, you know.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
But one of the things he talks about is if you give
yourself one, if it's one task,and you give yourself two
deadlines.
One of them was a six monthdeadline, one was a two week
deadline.
You'll get it done in two weeks, but you'll also get it done in
six months.
So if it's, it's like whenyou're in high school and you
would like do it overnight.
The paper that you had 10months to do I was one of the
(14:55):
students.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Yeah, I had those moments too, and uh and so it's
like it is the case.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
It's like if you put a deadline, you'll get it done
yeah, you know and, but it'lljust be at the capacity at which
you can you who you are that'sfascinating, and I think once
you start to approach with thatmindset of things, it really
changes the game.
Definitely, because if you'relike, oh, I'm gonna finally do
my new show reel, and you'relike I'll do it by the end of
the month, right.
Instead, why not say I'll do itby next week and I have a hard
(15:21):
deadline I'm gonna send.
I promised to somebody.
And that's my new deadline,you'll get it done.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
No question, right, so it's like.
I love that.
That is totally a key success.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I love that you didn't even have to read that
book.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
No, I need it.
I'm going to read it anyways.
Man, that sounds great.
It's really good.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
But no, that is, I love it finding a lot of talent
for ultra global media out ofthat.
So I want to say to filmmakerswho are part of holly shorts or
gonna go, or you know, meet theoand daniel and the wonderful
team over there that thatmanagement with ultra global
media kind of is full servicebecause you go with festival
strategy, you take them throughthat.
Maybe you can talk more aboutit than I know.
But what is like?
What does that look like?
From ho Shorts?
You pick a few people everyyear that you're like okay, wait
, maybe there's something there.
We vibe.
What is it?
How does it go from there?
Speaker 1 (16:11):
well, there's a couple hats here, yeah, um
there's the Alta Global MediaHat, okay, and that is a
management company and marketingand production.
Now, you know you could sayHolly Sh shorts is um discovery
of next generation emergingtalent.
Where alta global is, you know,we represent um very
(16:34):
established people filmmakers,directors, showrunners, um and
we consult on films andproduction companies.
And then there is crossoversmany times um and um.
There's also another companycalled 88th street and that's
our production company.
That's the sister.
It's been a stealth uh, notstealth but it exists and um,
(16:56):
it's a production company,sister production arm of holly
shorts, so it's verystraightforward.
So we meet amazing next genstoryt storytellers, directors
with ideas and it's a labelwhere we produce with them.
And literally we've got aproject called Thirst with
Stéphane Dazil.
(17:16):
He comes from the Holly Shortsecosystem.
He had a short film that wemade with Disney and it's still
streaming on Hulu.
It's done very well and we'redeveloping that into a feature.
We have a first look deal withEpic Pictures for horror and
genre films, micro budget andanywhere from one to two million
where we're looking for, youknow, the next breakout horror
(17:39):
film.
And so it starts with a shortfilm idea and then you know
these are feature length visions, great.
And then I have one right now.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And so listen.
So it's interesting.
So we produce with 88th Street,and then we produce with Alta
Global.
Yeah, Alta Global, though, ismore established.
We work.
You know, people like Spike Lee, Roger Gingrich Smith, Richard
Lawson, Jimmy Jean-Louis avariety of different cool people
.
International talent, a lot ofinternational talent.
Without the global, that'sgreat Established.
Luca Peros from Money Heist,Julia Pachel, Money Heist, big
(18:15):
Netflix.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah, I liked Money Heist.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yeah, yeah, actually, julia was in the spinoff Berlin
, nice and Tamara Tooney I wantto dance with somebody, and so
it's so a little bit moreestablished folks Adi Hasak,
showrunner, series creator, andthen sometimes we make stuff
with them.
Yeah, you know it's a hybridfirm.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
That's very cool.
What does it look like to havea manager for a filmmaker when
they're like sitting there andthey're maker when they're like
sitting there and they're, youknow, director, writer?
I don't know how many peopleyou represent in crew wise.
Is it directors, dps?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
or is it mostly like directors some directors actors
mostly talent, yeah cool, sweet.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
So what does that look like for people learning
about management?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
maybe from a director side yeah well, we help you
manage your life.
Okay, you know where the agentwill be focused on job to job.
Our philosophy is your career.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
And we kind of everybody's different right and
there's no cookie cutterapproach.
It's almost like for a directorper se.
The idea is, where are you inthe career?
What kind of material do youhave currently?
How do we take this to the nextlevel?
What kind of career do youaspire to be like?
We ask our directors maybe nameus eight to ten production
(19:36):
companies that you dream ofworking with, especially the
next generation ones, or alsoauteurs that you really look up
to and you would model yourcareer after, and then we kind
of go backwards.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Very cool.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
And then sometimes they have material.
It's a partnership as well.
Right, they have to have avision board of what their
ecosystem looks like for thecareer path established or not
established and then we kind ofbuild the map with them.
Very cool, day to day, we'rechipping away at the goals and
then we kind of build the mapwith them, you know.
And then we, day to day, youknow, we're chipping away at the
(20:08):
goals and we execute, no matterwhat happens, you know.
Okay, let's talk about thecurrent landscape.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
It's a very challenging environment at the
moment.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
A lot of jobs for people we're hurting, way less
work, way less shows beingbought and then so we have to
look at that and findalternative ways to continue the
push.
Like international, we have aheavy push on international
other kind of funding andfinancing from brands to um, you
know other kind of yeah privatewealth.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
So managers is like really everything yeah, and it's
all about really connectingpeople.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
I would say 100, that's really getting them jobs
getting them work, but butconnecting and then being along
for the ride, maximizing theopportunity.
You finally get the film.
What are we going to do nowthat we have this film?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Who else do we want to?
Work with what other big?
You know, yeah, and then it'salso maximizing.
It's almost like the talentmanager.
You can think about it on themusic side, on the sports side
it's just for film.
It's just film and TV just alittle bit different, but just
the philosophies are similar.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Yeah, for the 6,100 submissions you have and
obviously you're not watchingall of them.
You have dozens of people, butis there a theme Holly Shorts
has every year, based off ofkind of what you're looking for
changes changes, got changes sowhat is?
Is there an addition this year?
Yeah, the best of the bestthat's the vision.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah, we try to, and then it's very strange.
I, I'm gonna have uh, sometimesit sounds a little bit abstract
.
Okay, I'm gonna give you twopoints one, uh, the approach,
and then two, energy.
Okay, right, so the approach iswe want the best of the best
(21:54):
yeah, hands down unique.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Try to be very strict authentic storytelling looks
good, sounds good, feels gooddaniel.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Daniel doesn't play in this area, yeah, just know.
You know our, our cousin, canmake something and it's like
sorry, sorry, not going to makeit.
Yeah, you're the mom.
Sorry, mom, we have 6,100submissions it ain't there
Quality, and then if you startlowering that, that's when it's
in trouble, and so let's startthere.
And then what happens fromthere?
(22:23):
Then comes the strange magic.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
Yeah, and then what?
Speaker 1 (22:25):
happens from there.
Then comes the strange magic.
Yeah, meaning there'screativity, there's a through
line of creativity for somereason right, yeah.
Yeah, exhibit a like.
Sometimes international was theinternational submissions.
Sometimes it's a country thathas a more dominant situation.
It themes develop themselves.
One year was mexico, one yearwas spain, one year was the uk.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
They were kicking the us's butt because I don't know,
subsidies, grants and then okay, we are stoked to shout out our
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(23:44):
quote.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
We caught up.
Also, the cameras, right Right.
Ease of production, storyinspiration, I don't know,
things happen in the world we'renot privy to.
And then we were just the focusgroup.
We programmed the best.
Yeah, I don't know how ithappens, it's magic, right.
And then, and then, um also.
So you've got that strangemagic thing.
And then also there's themethat develops itself.
(24:07):
We've changed our programmingmaybe for the past 10 years.
Where it is by block Right,it's like okay, block right,
it's like okay, we put a labelon this.
And this is this type of theme.
Yes, before right,experimenting, I think.
I think about this, why I likemusic so much?
Right, it's like a dj.
Sometimes you just make a, ablend of one particular thing
and it and it connects with theother one magically.
(24:29):
That happened with us where,before putting them in
categories, I would just program12 films and they're not
supposed to have anything to dowith each other, but somehow,
magically, people will be like,oh, I get what you're doing
there.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
The theme is this yes , because it is this painful
drug addiction and I'm like Eachperson resonates with something
.
You think that's a theme?
Yeah, there's no theme to this,but it is happens, so we'll
screen.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
This team watches sometimes 50 films in the
sitting, sometimes 80, right,yeah, it's a lot, right, you're
exhausted.
But then you're like, oh mygoodness, this is the theme of
the weekend.
We used to get together it wasa family business, right, so we
used to have a barbecue, watchfilms all day Saturday.
We're older now so it's harderto do that, but we'd watch films
all day and we're like this isthe theme of the day.
You know what?
I don't know why, but this is.
There's something with contentthat happens that way.
I love that idea.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
I love the getting together and having a barbecue
and watching it.
So good.
Because it shouldn't be a jobright.
It should be like the reasonthat these filmmakers made this
movie is for a purpose, for areason, for an emotion, and
getting together as an audienceand wholeheartedly watching it
to evaluate it.
It's something really magicalabout it.
It's super important.
It still exists andwholeheartedly watching it to
evaluate it.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
It's something really magical about it.
It's super important.
It still exists.
It's just a different version.
We do it still, we speak, wetext virtually, but that is the
essence of how it developed.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Well, I like that it started that way.
Oh yeah, you keep up with it.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
No doubt it's hard to find that later on.
Oh, it's the memory still.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
No, yeah, yeah now it's a long festival 10 days.
It's huge, it's exhausting andyou know 500 films, close to 500
films.
For people like obviously we'repast the submission deadline
for this year.
Next year people are alreadygoing to be applying I know, um,
because it starts, like yousaid, immediately.
But for for those that mightwant to come this year, how
would you plan it out?
Like what is like the ultimateholly shorts, like, do this,
schedule it this way, block thismany days off, like if they can
(26:21):
only do a few days or ifthey're doing the whole?
Speaker 1 (26:23):
festival.
What to expect?
I love this.
You know this is a strangething.
Opening night is a splashy bigevent, and it'll be even sexier
this year because it's our 20thedition, and so we'll have a
nice red carpet thank you somuchf.
That's so cool Thank you somuch Two decades.
Yeah, people are like were youinvolved in the beginning.
I'm like yes.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
But I like that.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Maybe it looks, maybe I look younger, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
You look pretty young .
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Yeah no, but there's like amazing programming across.
There's like a midnight, likeFriday or Saturday.
There's just like insaneprogramming the whole time.
Then you've got like primetimecomedy.
But then the second week you'regoing to be like oh well, maybe
(27:04):
it lessens.
Sometimes the winner is canplay, like on a Wednesday at two
o'clock.
It's happened before.
So people and you know thefilmmaker would be sitting there
and I'm like, oh, he has noidea or she has no idea they're
gonna be up for a big award, andthen it plays, and then the
room is full and listen.
In the beginning it was hard tosustain that momentum all week
(27:26):
long.
Especially people work.
Now screenings are full andthen we get a second weekend of
action the second week.
That Thursday Friday of thesecond week is like a big deal,
and so even like Monday nightnormally is like our music video
night.
That's like one of my favorites.
We get our musicians togetherand then we learn things right,
like last year.
Things change Like this is liferight, like content changes.
(27:48):
So I'm watching, we havemusician friends who are
watching these music videos.
You've selected them, but thenthere's a difference of seeing
them on screen.
There's something very strangeof seeing many videos.
One after the other, we startedrealizing that things were
unfair, where the contentchanged, where it used to just
be a clip right music video tothe song, then there's a,
(28:08):
there's stories for likemultiple songs and then it's
like whoa wait, that's not fair.
That's another category.
They're like movie films, rightlike a movie, music, music, yeah
, and so we changed the category.
There's like two, two differentversions of the music video.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Right, yeah, it's changed like oh, it's like, just
because it's not dialogue itwas things down in that way.
It doesn't mean, it doesn'tcategorize as a super cool.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
I mean like travis scott's done it, don toliver's
done it.
Yeah, like they make mini, yeah, visual albums for multiple
songs.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
And Fascinating.
Pool Party was kind of likethat with Brandon.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yes, brandon Burnett.
Yeah, he loved him.
Yeah, he's fantastic.
He's a mammoth because of youguys.
He's fantastic.
You rep him right.
We represent him.
His film would also be musician, from la director, from la
parents are artists.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
He's like born and bred and he's funny, he's very
he separates the music thing.
He's like that's my rock band.
Yeah, you know, I just likethat.
He looks like he's walked outof days and computers it's
accurate, very.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
This is really him too.
That's a fascinating yeahthat's the like.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
It's an authentic aesthetic.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Oh my, he continues it too, but he's very, and he's
got the japanese thing.
We have a japanese thing too.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
We love japan well, we're meeting with virginia oh
yeah, virginia do it.
Yeah, I can't wait.
And that was shot in japan yes,yes, she speaks japanese.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
You got a quiz on that.
I can't wait.
Oh, she's incredible.
I'll try with my limitedknowledge.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
But uh, yes, I'll just bring a little top sheet oh
yeah no, that Okay.
So the best part, I guess, ofwhat you're saying too, is, if
people can only spare a few daysbecause they are working during
the week, they have two weekendopportunities during the Holly
Shorts and they can get like anentire pass for the festival.
No question.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
And you can see some cool panels too.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
And it's worth it.
Panels and workshops?
Speaker 1 (29:54):
yeah, and you can.
You know we're at the japanhouse and there's some new
surprises coming, that we alsohave fireside chats, you know.
So there's stuff you can watch,panels you can learn about.
You know distribution, finance,and you can watch some cool
movies.
And then also remember we'vedone the job, we've picked.
This is the best of the bestout of 6100.
So if you're looking to team upwith a cool director, or
they're there you're asking like, how do you plan it?
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Okay.
So we're going to have an appthat drops like a week before
the festival.
It gives you the whole programby the website hollyshorescom.
We'll have the program, but youcan do like Coachella,
coachella week one, you'rewatching the bands you like, and
then week two if you're a supermusic person, you've already
got your schedule set.
Well, you can do that week onetoo.
It's just more crowded, andthen you're attending things
that you've programmed.
(30:38):
So you can build your ownlittle schedule.
You can be like all right,sci-fi, visual effects,
documentary, horror, whatever'syour fancy, whatever you like.
You could pre-plan it and thenjust execute based on your
schedule, panels, talks, youknow.
I want to see this keynote fromthis finance person.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Great, I know.
But I think also somethingthat's great is because Holly
shorts is so renowned, um, goinginto its 20th year.
You have access to filmmakersfrom all over the world because
they are flying in.
So if you wanted to crew upwith someone that you were
inspired by, they're probably atthe festival, which is hard
sometimes, because normally I'llget like um when I have stuff
(31:15):
in New York uh like littleshorts in New York and stuff.
Normally I'll get like um whenI have stuff in new york uh like
little shorts in new york andstuff.
I'll get dms the next day afterthe screening, being like hey,
I saw your work last night butwe haven't been able to connect
yet.
But holly shorts, I think,brings in so many people that
you're able to connect thatnight at a party, because every
night you followed up with aparty for the filmmakers.
So important.
Yes, we do it so important,thank you for Everyone's
terrified of networking, andthen they realize that, like
(31:37):
once again, that 95% business isreally just about connecting
with other people, and so itdoesn't have to be a terrifying
thing.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Yeah, a little cocktail, a little wine.
It's my favorite part Low musicPeople can talk, chill yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
It's true Now, from shorts last year with you guys,
this year we did mammoth, whichyou brought us in for with
tanner and thank you so muchthat was great.
What is it like to run threedifferent festivals?
Speaker 1 (32:02):
wow, so you have like the holly shorts comedy
festival newly named right yes,you have holly shorts, and then
you have mammoth yes, andmonthly screenings, which is,
and the monthly screen.
I consider that a littleecosystem as well.
Let's actually and I'mlaunching another one too so oh
wow, yeah, are we ready toannounce?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
yeah, for sure, yeah, it's public knowledge.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Holly shorts london.
Holly shorts uk in december.
Yeah, it's gonna start small.
That's a big territory for usand it'll expand totally that's
so exciting, do you have?
Speaker 2 (32:28):
yeah, I'm gonna ask you something well, edit that
out.
I'm gonna ask something offcamera about that um because I'm
interested in something I'vebeen looking into dual charity
recently with the uk anywaywe'll talk um, but managing
three festivals being involved.
Do you notice that there's Imean obviously the comedy one
stand stands on its own yes butbetween like mammoth and holly
shorts, do you notice thatthere's a different way that
(32:50):
films are selected because theethos of those festivals are
different?
Or how does it kind of likework when managing those types
of like submissions or festival?
Speaker 4 (32:58):
yes, they're different they're very different
which is actually good, right?
I mean, yeah, you want to writea myth?
Speaker 1 (33:04):
the vision there was amazing.
Right, I can't give.
I think.
Tanner, one of my co-foundersthere was, inspired two
inspiration, three inspirationsfor him.
Number one uh he at the mammoth.
There was another edition ofthe mammoth festival that
existed.
That doesn't no longer exist.
That was one of the firstfestivals he ever went to, so as
a child that was in his brainright then, uh, we traveled the
(33:27):
world.
He was a client of mine at firstand, yeah, we did a lot of pr
work with him and marketing andhe, he did a film called six
bullets to hell.
Um, and he came to Holly'sShores.
We did a screening, I think,together and he was like this is
kind of cool.
Then we traveled.
The executive produced threeTerrence Malick films at one
point.
Speaker 4 (33:47):
He's a big producer, yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
And so we traveled the world.
At berlin, uh yeah, toronto,venice, he saw every.
And then one day he's like wewere in toronto and he's like I
want to start this festival,let's do it.
And so long story short.
I was like I was like really,yeah, this is, I was already
seasoned?
Yeah, I was already seasoned Itell people don't do it, it's
(34:09):
exhausting commitment yeah andhe had a fresh take, fresh
energy, and he wanted to buildthis new ecosystem in this town.
So I joined him on this mission,in this freezing place, I know,
and I said if anyone's going todo it, it's going to be tanner
beard and tomic, um, yeah,moncery and and they brought
some energy there and it it is.
It requires um tenacity, yep,because also sometimes you uh,
(34:35):
maybe that this was not, thatwas not my hometown right and
there's people that live therealready.
They're like we don't needanother festival or we don't
need, we have a ski, we have agetting in there but these, yeah
, partners were so meticulous inmaking it and never taking no
for an answer.
And then it.
It takes a while to get a themein a festival.
That one caught its theme, Ithink, like in its third or
(34:57):
fourth year.
You got hit with covid, yeah,but you know you can tell when
people the sparkle in people'seyes and I'm sorry that one has
a sales vision for feature films.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
We sell films there, yeah, that's different than you
know holly shorts.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
People can acquire shorts sometimes, but there's a
lot at stake when you know youcan get distribution.
I think we've got like 16 17films have been bought.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
I know, I was gonna say there is, like you know, we
were talking at holly shortswith rebecca um, and she
obviously is a festivalstrategist, and you know there's
three different.
Correct me if I'm wrong,because I'm not a founder of
three festivals, you are, but,um, there's three different
types of festivals, right,there's like one for the
filmmakers, one for the audienceand one for, like, the buyer
(35:38):
and sales side, right?
Sure, I think of it asdifferent.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Yes, you're right, you tell me how you think about
it.
I want to learn.
I think this is good.
No, I would say all right.
Maybe there's many iterationsof this.
Let are like called best offests.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
So they're just like a showcase of great movies, you
know.
Then there's different things,like the Middlebury New
Filmmakers Festival.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
There's some that discover new talent.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Oh, cool like Discovery Festivals.
Best of Fests Market Fest yeahthen there's awards.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Films that are up for you know, festivals that have
an impact on the Hollywoodawards season, Cool.
This is more like U.
Right like telluride tiff, youknow, you know, venice is that
as well.
Right like yeah, can for sure.
Can is early, right.
Can is like the first startright, and so it's hard for some
of these films to sustain thething.
(36:26):
You got to do another campaignlater in the year, but can 100
awards you?
Know, that logo is everything.
But yeah, there's the awardsfair.
Uh, santa barbara's, the palmsprings right yeah and then, um,
there's best of fest, there'sthe market, the sales, and, um,
maybe that's about it uh, newfilmmakers emerging, I think.
I think that's most of it, Ithink that's most of it.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
And but for festival, like people who want to start
festivals or have just startedone, what is like?
Where did what do they thinkabout?
It's gotta be love.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
You gotta love movies .
Speaker 1 (36:58):
And it's gotta be.
It's a life journey.
Again people say, oh mygoodness, nothing's just forever
.
But you have to think of itlike that.
You have to put your heart andsoul in it.
Some people have been inspiredby Holly Schwartz filmmakers and
they've started their own.
And they've started their ownand they've had success.
There's several of them.
You know, um, and that's prettycool.
You know, we we try to offersome expertise, um, basically,
(37:22):
you have to think about some ofthe things we said.
A theme yeah you know.
What do you want it to be like?
Yeah, also, you know, short isone thing, but you can just
focus on one particular area.
You could make it a horrorshorts festival, or you know
what I mean Venue, locations,key, you know.
And audience who do you want toattract?
What kind of people do you wantto attract?
And then, how many do you wantto show and how many days?
(37:44):
You know also, my strategy foreverything is start small.
You don't need to take over theworld.
Nice and easy See how the first?
one goes and then start.
You know you're working on thenext one, and then you know what
do you want to do?
You want to show quality, um.
Do you want to inspire acommunity, a city where you're
(38:04):
from?
Do you want to raise the stakes?
And then the other thing isfind some good people that have
your back you know, then youneed a team.
The team just like your team.
You know you're tight andmighty.
Totally it needs to be morethan a one person, because
there's days it's a lot to carry, you get tired and we bounce
like a team.
We're sports people, so wethink of it like sports and it's
like all right, let's.
(38:25):
This is the quarter, this isthe second quarter.
This is the half it iscollaborative, exactly like
filmmaking, um, and thenprogramming, and then there's
the technical side of it whereyou know, know some things.
Can you know, you need to be,needs to look good.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
You need to have a good projectionist.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Yeah, I mean, when we started, we bought a projector.
Oh it was.
Speaker 5 (38:42):
Really it was tough, man, yeah, you brought your own
projector no-transcript coolspot in la and that's how it was
(39:07):
inspired.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
A little bit, honestly, I'm a thief.
I just kind of stole the idea alittle bit and then made our
own.
We remix, you remix things.
Yeah, there's like you'remaking your own, you're good.
Yeah, we went to a screeningand, um, there was a festival
and it doesn't exist anymore andit was a publicist and she had
movies and the program was cooland that passion was awesome and
there was like some music andthe venue was awesome.
(39:29):
It was just like, yeah,cinespace, they showed movies
and you can eat and order food.
So so eventually we were like,let's talk to them.
So we went over there and wedid the festival there and I
think maybe we had maybe 50, 40to 50 films.
We doubled and early on I gotsomeone from MGM to help me on
the technical side and he stillhelps us now.
(39:50):
And it's 20 years, 19 yearslater.
Yeah, kevin Anderson, he livesin Austinin fantastic, he's a
remote angel and he's stillinvolved with some stuff with us
.
But I went to him at mgm.
I was like I need you to helpme master these films and
exhibit them this way.
And then people, it was a vibehow we almost went bankrupt.
Is we spent too much, like we?
(40:11):
We did a bad negotiation on adeal because we were, we were
trying to bet a lot higher thanwe could afford.
And then we were short on thebill and we had to get the venue
, yeah, the venue, yeah.
And so it could have been overthen and it was fantastic,
sweating a lot, we're gonna lose.
And then we figured it out andwe repaid a loan or something.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Yeah, because if you're building a festival out,
you're starting with out of.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
This is bootstrap, by the way, yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
And then you're starting with the submission
fees right, and you're like okay, I can probably start to
understand how big this festivalis, based off the submission
fees, sort of, and that right,you got to grow it, though.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
That's the thing.
That's the other thing it startssmall and then you got to.
You got to get bigger.
I had a publicity hat.
That's what I was doing for aliving, so I would amplify.
I would take what I was doingon the PR side in my day job
with clients.
I'm like, well, let me amplifythis on the festival side and
the more you talk aboutsomething and the more people
talk about something, the biggerit becomes and the more they
(41:06):
come to your.
This is live event business.
So if they have a good timecustomer service, they're going
to go back to their market andtalk about you more.
So that started happening.
I didn't know that would happen.
We're just trying to execute agreat event for people and being
cool with people.
But they started having word ofmouth and so more people submit
.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
That's awesome.
That's how CFA started.
It was like we had no money formarketing.
It's all bootstrapped to thisday, and so everyone we would
meet with they're like, oh, I'veheard of you multiple times.
And we're like, oh, that'samazing.
And they're like, yeah, youhave great word of mouth
marketing.
And we're like, okay, good,because we have no money to
spend on marketing when we firststarted, and so it's just like
it is really the beauty of itbecause it also feels organic,
(41:45):
100%.
It has to be.
It has to be.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
I've tried things.
This isn't ideas.
So many fail, I feel you, butthe ones that have success are
purely authentic from the heart.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Listen for me I don't know.
There's other people that buildbig multi-million dollar
companies and they get privatefunding and all this and they
work and they employ millions ofpeople and they contribute to
society.
That's fantastic.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Our focus is it needs to be.
It's almost like fabric right.
Yeah, it's like hand curated,and then, because it's love, the
customer, the filmmaker feelsthat, and then the public feels
that and it portrays on screen.
It works that way.
It sounds crazy and you know,but this is our philosophy.
Because I try to hack it, theysense it right away they're like
this is hollow, there's noheart here.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Yes, exactly no.
I think that's so important.
I am so excited to get you onthe couch today.
Thank you so much I can't wait,so august 8th, 18th this year
let's go 20th.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Yes, congratulations, thank you.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Thank you for having me tears for 20 years um, and
it's only the beginning really,it's like just keeps growing and
growing so proud of you too.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Cfa is amazing and I'm so happy vika connected us
originally.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Oh my goodness, yes we just ran into her at sinecure
and she was like holly shorts,they love you, you love them,
it's.
I'm so happy it worked this isso good.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Yeah, one of the greatest things to happen.
Us too.
We can't wait to make it going.
Yeah, keep it going, keep itgoing anyway thank you guys so
much.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
We'll see you at Holly Shorts this year.
Thanks and congrats, thank youso?
Much Awesome.
Bye, everyone Salud.
Speaker 5 (43:19):
Join us in bridging the gap between talent and crew.
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It's a production company, sister production arm
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So we meet amazing next-genstorytellers, directors with
ideas, and it's a label where weproduce with them.
And literally we've got aproject called Thirst with
Stefan DeZille.
(00:20):
He comes from the Holly Shortsecosystem.
He had a short film that wemade with Disney and it's still
streaming on Hulu.
It's done very well and we'redeveloping that into a feature.
We have a first look deal withEpic Pictures for horror and
genre films.
It's a micro budget anywherefrom $1-2 million where we're
(00:40):
looking for the next breakouthorror film.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
This is the Cinematography for Actors
podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
More than a podcast.
Cinematography for Actors is avibrant community devoted to
bridging the gap between talentand crew.
Each week, our show offerstransparent, insightful
conversations with industryleaders.
We unveil the magic behind thescenes, from candid discussions
about unique filmmakingprocesses to in-depth technical
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Join us in unraveling theintricacies of filmmaking, one
(01:12):
episode at a time.
It's more than just cameras andlenses we aim to inspire,
educate and empower as we peelback the curtain on the art of
effective storytelling Now on tothe episode.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Hi everyone, everyone and welcome back to another CFA
podcast episode, and it'salways great to be joined on the
couch.
I'm Indiana Underhill, one ofthe hosts.
Haley is not here today becauseshe just started Groundlings
Improv for the first time.
She's never done improv.
I'm very proud of her.
But I'm joined with anincredible friend and a
wonderful leader in our industry, especially within film
(01:43):
festival world, at the wonderfulHolly Schwartz Film Festival.
Now this is Theo Dumont.
Hi, how are you?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Thank you for having me, I'm so excited.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I love you guys.
Yeah, you too.
So Theo is one of theco-founders of, I mean, three
festivals, but mostly HollySchwartz Film Festival is what
we're going to be talking abouttoday, as well as a manager at
Ulta Global Media, which I wouldlove to dive into a bit on,
like what management means forcertain people and roles and
things like that.
But, theo, I am so excited tohave you here.
(02:14):
Holly Shorts is coming up.
We obviously participated withyou as the podcast partner last
year.
We loved meeting all thefilmmakers.
We still have a greatrelationship with the majority
of them and and uh, and see themoften um now holly shorts.
Yes, how do you?
I just want to kind of get into.
If people don't know, everyoneknows.
But if people don't, what isholly shorts?
Speaker 1 (02:34):
well, holly shorts is um.
It's emerged as one of thelargest short film festivals in
the world.
Um we showcase shorts 45minutes and under um um all
genres, um.
The main categories are liveaction, documentary and
animation, and that gives us avariety of different kinds of
content from uh internationalshorts.
Uh, web series, uh, um romanticcomedies, horror, midnight.
(02:59):
You know, now we've launched asports category.
Yeah, you know, it's um super.
Now we've launched a sportscategory.
Yeah, you know, it's superexciting.
And then this edition, it's 20years this August.
We have four Oscar qualifyingcategories.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Which is crazy.
It's amazing.
We're going to start that way.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, and then we showcase about 430 short films.
This year we had about 6,100submissions, which is nuts.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
And it's insane.
It's almost like an explosionof content, but the way I like
to describe it is any.
It's about five programs, fivescreening programs a day at the
chinese theater, um, and someother venues this year.
Um, you can go into a block ofshorts and then you'll be wowed
by the yeah you know, you'retaken to another world, which is
(03:42):
amazing.
We also show music videos, soeverything kind of short form
yeah, we showcase.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
I mean, it's so important to give a platform to
emerging and wonderfulfilmmakers because it's hard,
this industry is tough and tohave a reputable film festival
that people can apply to,because there's just so many
film festivals out there, youknow is fantastic.
Now, how do you like we weretalking a little bit about this
before we started recording 6100submissions so many what does
(04:09):
that process look like?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
it's nuts, it's insane.
Yeah, we start early yeah sothis edition will be august 8th
through 18th and then, literallylike two days after, we start
the process again wow and we getentries from everywhere.
And then you know, basically wego through several rounds of
watching them.
We have an international team,many people, many programmers,
(04:33):
screeners, yep, and we goseveral rounds.
So the first round is, you know, seeing what we like Screening.
Sometimes they're very bad andyou know, through the years it's
improved, yeah, the quality hasrisen right.
And then I think we do, likethe academy, we, we judge them
internally one to ten, yep, andthen if it's a ten, there's more
(04:53):
more likely possibilities.
It's a stone cold lock is whatwe call them.
Yes, nice and then the problembecomes there's a lot of average
films, yeah, and then you haveto give a lot of the average
ones a second look.
Yeah, we just try to catch acast, a wide net, and then later
, as we get closer, we doanother round and we really get
into selections and then it'salmost like a giant painting as
(05:14):
well, and then sometimes thepainting is 75 complete, and
then you look where you land andthen you evaluate what the
content looks like.
Yes, also, we're a look, we'rela LA.
It is a Los Angeles festival.
We used to have this problemwhere the travel thing not a lot
of people like to travel, but,as our name rose, people travel
in.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
For sure.
We saw that, I know, but we sawthat last year when we were
interviewing filmmakers who hadflown in from all over the
country.
And it's such an incredibleplace because a lot of the
places people are flying in fromdon't have the same community
LA does, and so to meet everyonetogether over the course of a
week is insane.
Now, workshops and panels arehuge for you guys, and yes,
(05:56):
that's exactly what I was goingto say.
It's so important for afestival, I think, to feel like
360, well-rounded, to haveeducation alongside it, because
everyone's all together.
How long have you been doingthe workshop and panels and like
what are the focuses this year?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Great question.
I think we started very early.
You know, this is 20 years.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Maybe early in the process, maybe by like year five
.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Well, year five we had Eli Roth come and deliver a
speech to the filmmakers and hehad like inglorious bastards
campaigning.
He got it.
We gave him an award and hegave this impassioned speech at
the Director's Guild and peoplewere just like, oh my God.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I'm like oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And I think that's one of the things that was like
we started this thing so thatpeople can move their careers
forward find reps, findmanagement.
That was the whole vision andit still is now.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Right and advance their careers.
So we're like we want people totake stuff home Like okay, show
your short, but the networktalk and then do things like
learn things, and so that becamea key part of the kind of DNA
of the festival early on.
That became a key part of thekind of DNA of the festival
early on and it continues andwe're still.
We're still on the cusp, Likewe always want to find the next
important topic that's importantto them.
(07:10):
And then you know, the gamechanges day by day, Totally.
So, we want to keep our kind ofteeth sharp for for them and
hopefully they can learnsomething.
Meet someone, get your filmmaybe bought, or someone gives
you some crowdfunding advicethat you didn't know before,
Absolutely.
And then distribution, and then, oh, that's the other thing.
So Daniel and I co-founded it.
Yeah, we used to be studiopeople.
(07:32):
Eventually we became studiopeople.
He worked at Lionsgate, Iworked at MGM, and so it's
family business.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
And we try to keep that family feeling still.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
But as we were at those companies, we ran Holly
shorts.
We would bring some of ourfriends from those companies to
be involved in the festival andthe movie, watching apart
professionals and then alsospeaking, so that continues.
So we had Alyssa Federoff.
She's like the president ofdistribution at neon right, yeah
, so we get her involved.
You know, ryan leader, he wasat Lionsgate originally as well.
He's at neon right.
Um, you know, our friends atmgm stampede pictures.
(08:09):
Like anytime we do deals in ourprofessional lives, we would
apply it to the festival yes, Ithink that's what gave it
success.
Um, anyhow it's, it's very, it'sa very strange thing where the
festival morphs.
It has this life and then alsoour careers morphed, and then we
just kind of we try to level upyeah, yeah, that's that makes
sense to me.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
And and get back to that family community, which is
what you, what I think, hollyshort's the strength of what I
felt last year by being a partof it.
You know professionally and asa filmmaker too, because I had
worked there, which was cool umto kind of do the dual yeah,
yeah, that's.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
that's amazing, it's fun.
Yeah, that's important.
That's so important by the wayto have this platform, this
amazing platform you've builtbut, also to have your
professional acumen be so high.
It's like you're like.
You know you have both hats youknow, people don't know.
Yeah, some people just do onething.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yes, totally.
I get bored, I think you wouldtoo, if you only had one thing
you know, I think that's why weget along.
It's like we would both be verybored.
100 um, now, when you'rebuilding a film festival, like
you know, when you're on filmfreeway and you go to that
category that says like awardqualifying, so oscar academy
qualifying, how does that happenfor a festival?
When it's hard yeah, what it,what my goodness what when
(09:20):
people are like applying how?
how does that work that that onehas been chosen as oscar
qualifying in certain categories?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
it's very strange, yeah I would say I'm thinking
about my present tasks and goalsnow right and sometimes in my
mind I'm like, oh, my goodness,that's so insurmountable yeah
getting that status for thefestival huge felt extremely
insurmountable at one point andwe achieved it.
It took a lot of work.
It's a team effort.
That's the other thing withfilmmaking.
So, but for a filmmaker you canbasically select just oscar
(09:51):
qualifying festivals yes um,that's okay.
There's amazing festivals thatare not oscar qualifying.
Um, but it's a.
It's a good thing.
I mean, listen, if you winthose categories, you can bypass
the process of four wallingyour film right and paying for
the ads and doing all the rules,it wins, it becomes, it goes
straight to them.
(10:11):
It's not like a joke, like yeah, it goes to the academy and
they give it a very close look.
We had nine nominations lastedition.
Knock on wood yes because I'mstill pinching myself of that
process it's a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I remember the party you held for all those wonderful
like filmmakers that had it andit was incredible to see that
journey for them from hollyshorts, their film festival
journey around it, the promotionand stuff, and then getting to
that like pinnacle.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
You know I gotta say something though.
Yeah, listen, this is asubjective, a festival person's
subjective, so we make missessometimes there could be, and
then also, just because youdon't achieve that, you got to
keep going.
And then that's why I say comewatch, go to these big festivals
Claremont-Ferrand, holly, short, sundance, tribeca even Dances
(10:59):
with the Films this week.
Watch movies, watch theprogramming, see it, and then
you can measure where you stand.
You know what I'm saying.
And then, if it, you know,oscar qualifying.
So sure, but you know, we havemaybe we show about 415, 420
films, that just that alumnigroup every year.
That's serious, you know what Imean.
And a lot of those people go onto do amazing beautiful work.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Oh yeah, I mean the best part, I think the coolest
part about you being aco-founder of such a wonderful
film festival is that you'reright, it's 450 films a year,
plus the crew, plus the cast,plus their family.
You've created a huge networkof talented artists.
You know, yeah, and we try tokeep it humble you know, yeah,
you got to understand.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
we didn.
We try to keep it humble, youknow.
You got to understand.
We didn't say we're going to belike this.
When we started it was just acommunity.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah, what was the first edition?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
like it was at the Space Theater which is on a
small street called Heliotropenear Western here in LA, and
Daniel's brother was an actorand he owned the space and he
was doing actor showcases and westarted there and was just like
you know, there was a comedy,uh no, there was a theater group
across the street called sacredfools and they had their game
tight.
It was like, boom, wellorganized, executing these uh
(12:15):
plays.
And we were like, wow, we wantto be like that.
So we started to, we tried todo a festival yeah, and it was
successful.
The first one was a success 25films.
We it was pre-youtube.
We asked for submissions.
We did like a newspaper ad.
It was very lo-fi, very analog.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Love this yes, I love looking back and reflecting on.
It was crazy because look,because then you're not starting
too big.
So it grows organically andgrows to the capacity that you
can actually like work within itand manage it properly, rather
than starting too big, fumblingit.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
No doubt you know I gotta tell you another key to
the success, please, is the umputting a date on something
right it's very strange if we westarted deciding, okay, we did
it, it was good.
Second week of august is whenwe will execute.
That's your deadline.
It's almost like if, maybe infilmmaking, if we had deadlines,
yeah, you know, you have toexecute, you know, and so you
make it work.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Every film, all the time I'm like you know.
I'm starting to produce filmsnow and whenever I'm working
with directors who areincredibly talented artists but
don't have the producer brainsometimes, so they need like a
producer with them all the timeI'm like.
So what's the deadline for thescript?
What's the deadline for thedeck?
When are we going to go out forfundraising?
And it's the questions that alot of people aren't asking
(13:27):
themselves.
But a lot of newer filmmakersor emerging filmmakers forget
that 95 of what they're doing infilm is business first you know
, it then five percent you getto have art you
Speaker 1 (13:37):
know you get, no question.
Yeah, you have the business,mind you got to start thinking
in that way.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I think, especially even if you're short films, you
have to think about it, becausethe more you propel yourself to
make content and tell storiesthat are authentic, you want to
get it out to an audienceAbsolutely, and so the deadlines
help you.
So I love.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Critical, that's totally.
I totally agree with that youhave a year to plan.
It.
Listen, it sounds easy, butthen it's just like and then you
have a year to, and theneventually it intensifies, the
timeline gets quicker, and thenthen you execute.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
I know well there's um one of my favorite like I
love reading productivity booksand I love reading like I don't
have self-help but productivityand business books, and one of
them I read like a few monthsago that changed my life was the
four-hour work week by timferris and he, it's amazing, and
I have like added so many.
The reason CFA is now a 501 isbecause of that book.
(14:26):
Really, because I was able to,like, think in a different way
and streamline different thingsin my life to get more done with
Haley, because we're a smallteam, you know.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
But one of the things he talks about is if you give
yourself one, if it's one task,and you give yourself two
deadlines.
One of them was a six monthdeadline, one was a two week
deadline.
You'll get it done in two weeks, but you'll also get it done in
six months.
So if it's, it's like whenyou're in high school and you
would like do it overnight.
The paper that you had 10months to do I was one of the
(14:55):
students.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Yeah, I had those moments too, and uh and so it's
like it is the case.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
It's like if you put a deadline, you'll get it done
yeah, you know and, but it'lljust be at the capacity at which
you can you who you are that'sfascinating, and I think once
you start to approach with thatmindset of things, it really
changes the game.
Definitely, because if you'relike, oh, I'm gonna finally do
my new show reel, and you'relike I'll do it by the end of
the month, right.
Instead, why not say I'll do itby next week and I have a hard
(15:21):
deadline I'm gonna send.
I promised to somebody.
And that's my new deadline,you'll get it done.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
No question, right, so it's like.
I love that.
That is totally a key success.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I love that you didn't even have to read that
book.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
No, I need it.
I'm going to read it anyways.
Man, that sounds great.
It's really good.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
But no, that is, I love it finding a lot of talent
for ultra global media out ofthat.
So I want to say to filmmakerswho are part of holly shorts or
gonna go, or you know, meet theoand daniel and the wonderful
team over there that thatmanagement with ultra global
media kind of is full servicebecause you go with festival
strategy, you take them throughthat.
Maybe you can talk more aboutit than I know.
But what is like?
What does that look like?
From ho Shorts?
You pick a few people everyyear that you're like okay, wait
, maybe there's something there.
We vibe.
What is it?
How does it go from there?
Speaker 1 (16:11):
well, there's a couple hats here, yeah, um
there's the Alta Global MediaHat, okay, and that is a
management company and marketingand production.
Now, you know you could sayHolly Sh shorts is um discovery
of next generation emergingtalent.
Where alta global is, you know,we represent um very
(16:34):
established people filmmakers,directors, showrunners, um and
we consult on films andproduction companies.
And then there is crossoversmany times um and um.
There's also another companycalled 88th street and that's
our production company.
That's the sister.
It's been a stealth uh, notstealth but it exists and um,
(16:56):
it's a production company,sister production arm of holly
shorts, so it's verystraightforward.
So we meet amazing next genstoryt storytellers, directors
with ideas and it's a labelwhere we produce with them.
And literally we've got aproject called Thirst with
Stéphane Dazil.
(17:16):
He comes from the Holly Shortsecosystem.
He had a short film that wemade with Disney and it's still
streaming on Hulu.
It's done very well and we'redeveloping that into a feature.
We have a first look deal withEpic Pictures for horror and
genre films, micro budget andanywhere from one to two million
where we're looking for, youknow, the next breakout horror
(17:39):
film.
And so it starts with a shortfilm idea and then you know
these are feature length visions, great.
And then I have one right now.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And so listen.
So it's interesting.
So we produce with 88th Street,and then we produce with Alta
Global.
Yeah, Alta Global, though, ismore established.
We work.
You know, people like Spike Lee, Roger Gingrich Smith, Richard
Lawson, Jimmy Jean-Louis avariety of different cool people
.
International talent, a lot ofinternational talent.
Without the global, that'sgreat Established.
Luca Peros from Money Heist,Julia Pachel, Money Heist, big
(18:15):
Netflix.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah, I liked Money Heist.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yeah, yeah, actually, julia was in the spinoff Berlin
, nice and Tamara Tooney I wantto dance with somebody, and so
it's so a little bit moreestablished folks Adi Hasak,
showrunner, series creator, andthen sometimes we make stuff
with them.
Yeah, you know it's a hybridfirm.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
That's very cool.
What does it look like to havea manager for a filmmaker when
they're like sitting there andthey're maker when they're like
sitting there and they're, youknow, director, writer?
I don't know how many peopleyou represent in crew wise.
Is it directors, dps?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
or is it mostly like directors some directors actors
mostly talent, yeah cool, sweet.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
So what does that look like for people learning
about management?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
maybe from a director side yeah well, we help you
manage your life.
Okay, you know where the agentwill be focused on job to job.
Our philosophy is your career.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
And we kind of everybody's different right and
there's no cookie cutterapproach.
It's almost like for a directorper se.
The idea is, where are you inthe career?
What kind of material do youhave currently?
How do we take this to the nextlevel?
What kind of career do youaspire to be like?
We ask our directors maybe nameus eight to ten production
(19:36):
companies that you dream ofworking with, especially the
next generation ones, or alsoauteurs that you really look up
to and you would model yourcareer after, and then we kind
of go backwards.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Very cool.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
And then sometimes they have material.
It's a partnership as well.
Right, they have to have avision board of what their
ecosystem looks like for thecareer path established or not
established and then we kind ofbuild the map with them.
Very cool, day to day, we'rechipping away at the goals and
then we kind of build the mapwith them, you know.
And then we, day to day, youknow, we're chipping away at the
(20:08):
goals and we execute, no matterwhat happens, you know.
Okay, let's talk about thecurrent landscape.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
It's a very challenging environment at the
moment.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
A lot of jobs for people we're hurting, way less
work, way less shows beingbought and then so we have to
look at that and findalternative ways to continue the
push.
Like international, we have aheavy push on international
other kind of funding andfinancing from brands to um, you
know other kind of yeah privatewealth.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
So managers is like really everything yeah, and it's
all about really connectingpeople.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
I would say 100, that's really getting them jobs
getting them work, but butconnecting and then being along
for the ride, maximizing theopportunity.
You finally get the film.
What are we going to do nowthat we have this film?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Who else do we want to?
Work with what other big?
You know, yeah, and then it'salso maximizing.
It's almost like the talentmanager.
You can think about it on themusic side, on the sports side
it's just for film.
It's just film and TV just alittle bit different, but just
the philosophies are similar.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Yeah, for the 6,100 submissions you have and
obviously you're not watchingall of them.
You have dozens of people, butis there a theme Holly Shorts
has every year, based off ofkind of what you're looking for
changes changes, got changes sowhat is?
Is there an addition this year?
Yeah, the best of the bestthat's the vision.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah, we try to, and then it's very strange.
I, I'm gonna have uh, sometimesit sounds a little bit abstract
.
Okay, I'm gonna give you twopoints one, uh, the approach,
and then two, energy.
Okay, right, so the approach iswe want the best of the best
(21:54):
yeah, hands down unique.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Try to be very strict authentic storytelling looks
good, sounds good, feels gooddaniel.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Daniel doesn't play in this area, yeah, just know.
You know our, our cousin, canmake something and it's like
sorry, sorry, not going to makeit.
Yeah, you're the mom.
Sorry, mom, we have 6,100submissions it ain't there
Quality, and then if you startlowering that, that's when it's
in trouble, and so let's startthere.
And then what happens fromthere?
(22:23):
Then comes the strange magic.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
Yeah, and then what?
Speaker 1 (22:25):
happens from there.
Then comes the strange magic.
Yeah, meaning there'screativity, there's a through
line of creativity for somereason right, yeah.
Yeah, exhibit a like.
Sometimes international was theinternational submissions.
Sometimes it's a country thathas a more dominant situation.
It themes develop themselves.
One year was mexico, one yearwas spain, one year was the uk.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
They were kicking the us's butt because I don't know,
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Speaker 2 (23:24):
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(23:44):
quote.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
We caught up.
Also, the cameras, right Right.
Ease of production, storyinspiration, I don't know,
things happen in the world we'renot privy to.
And then we were just the focusgroup.
We programmed the best.
Yeah, I don't know how ithappens, it's magic, right.
And then, and then, um also.
So you've got that strangemagic thing.
And then also there's themethat develops itself.
(24:07):
We've changed our programmingmaybe for the past 10 years.
Where it is by block Right,it's like okay, block right,
it's like okay, we put a labelon this.
And this is this type of theme.
Yes, before right,experimenting, I think.
I think about this, why I likemusic so much?
Right, it's like a dj.
Sometimes you just make a, ablend of one particular thing
and it and it connects with theother one magically.
(24:29):
That happened with us where,before putting them in
categories, I would just program12 films and they're not
supposed to have anything to dowith each other, but somehow,
magically, people will be like,oh, I get what you're doing
there.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
The theme is this yes , because it is this painful
drug addiction and I'm like Eachperson resonates with something
.
You think that's a theme?
Yeah, there's no theme to this,but it is happens, so we'll
screen.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
This team watches sometimes 50 films in the
sitting, sometimes 80, right,yeah, it's a lot, right, you're
exhausted.
But then you're like, oh mygoodness, this is the theme of
the weekend.
We used to get together it wasa family business, right, so we
used to have a barbecue, watchfilms all day Saturday.
We're older now so it's harderto do that, but we'd watch films
all day and we're like this isthe theme of the day.
You know what?
I don't know why, but this is.
There's something with contentthat happens that way.
I love that idea.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
I love the getting together and having a barbecue
and watching it.
So good.
Because it shouldn't be a jobright.
It should be like the reasonthat these filmmakers made this
movie is for a purpose, for areason, for an emotion, and
getting together as an audienceand wholeheartedly watching it
to evaluate it.
It's something really magicalabout it.
It's super important.
It still exists andwholeheartedly watching it to
evaluate it.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
It's something really magical about it.
It's super important.
It still exists.
It's just a different version.
We do it still, we speak, wetext virtually, but that is the
essence of how it developed.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Well, I like that it started that way.
Oh yeah, you keep up with it.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
No doubt it's hard to find that later on.
Oh, it's the memory still.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
No, yeah, yeah now it's a long festival 10 days.
It's huge, it's exhausting andyou know 500 films, close to 500
films.
For people like obviously we'repast the submission deadline
for this year.
Next year people are alreadygoing to be applying I know, um,
because it starts, like yousaid, immediately.
But for for those that mightwant to come this year, how
would you plan it out?
Like what is like the ultimateholly shorts, like, do this,
schedule it this way, block thismany days off, like if they can
(26:21):
only do a few days or ifthey're doing the whole?
Speaker 1 (26:23):
festival.
What to expect?
I love this.
You know this is a strangething.
Opening night is a splashy bigevent, and it'll be even sexier
this year because it's our 20thedition, and so we'll have a
nice red carpet thank you somuchf.
That's so cool Thank you somuch Two decades.
Yeah, people are like were youinvolved in the beginning.
I'm like yes.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
But I like that.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Maybe it looks, maybe I look younger, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
You look pretty young .
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Yeah no, but there's like amazing programming across.
There's like a midnight, likeFriday or Saturday.
There's just like insaneprogramming the whole time.
Then you've got like primetimecomedy.
But then the second week you'regoing to be like oh well, maybe
(27:04):
it lessens.
Sometimes the winner is canplay, like on a Wednesday at two
o'clock.
It's happened before.
So people and you know thefilmmaker would be sitting there
and I'm like, oh, he has noidea or she has no idea they're
gonna be up for a big award, andthen it plays, and then the
room is full and listen.
In the beginning it was hard tosustain that momentum all week
(27:26):
long.
Especially people work.
Now screenings are full andthen we get a second weekend of
action the second week.
That Thursday Friday of thesecond week is like a big deal,
and so even like Monday nightnormally is like our music video
night.
That's like one of my favorites.
We get our musicians togetherand then we learn things right,
like last year.
Things change Like this is liferight, like content changes.
(27:48):
So I'm watching, we havemusician friends who are
watching these music videos.
You've selected them, but thenthere's a difference of seeing
them on screen.
There's something very strangeof seeing many videos.
One after the other, we startedrealizing that things were
unfair, where the contentchanged, where it used to just
be a clip right music video tothe song, then there's a,
(28:08):
there's stories for likemultiple songs and then it's
like whoa wait, that's not fair.
That's another category.
They're like movie films, rightlike a movie, music, music, yeah
, and so we changed the category.
There's like two, two differentversions of the music video.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Right, yeah, it's changed like oh, it's like, just
because it's not dialogue itwas things down in that way.
It doesn't mean, it doesn'tcategorize as a super cool.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
I mean like travis scott's done it, don toliver's
done it.
Yeah, like they make mini, yeah, visual albums for multiple
songs.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
And Fascinating.
Pool Party was kind of likethat with Brandon.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yes, brandon Burnett.
Yeah, he loved him.
Yeah, he's fantastic.
He's a mammoth because of youguys.
He's fantastic.
You rep him right.
We represent him.
His film would also be musician, from la director, from la
parents are artists.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
He's like born and bred and he's funny, he's very
he separates the music thing.
He's like that's my rock band.
Yeah, you know, I just likethat.
He looks like he's walked outof days and computers it's
accurate, very.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
This is really him too.
That's a fascinating yeahthat's the like.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
It's an authentic aesthetic.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Oh my, he continues it too, but he's very, and he's
got the japanese thing.
We have a japanese thing too.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
We love japan well, we're meeting with virginia oh
yeah, virginia do it.
Yeah, I can't wait.
And that was shot in japan yes,yes, she speaks japanese.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
You got a quiz on that.
I can't wait.
Oh, she's incredible.
I'll try with my limitedknowledge.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
But uh, yes, I'll just bring a little top sheet oh
yeah no, that Okay.
So the best part, I guess, ofwhat you're saying too, is, if
people can only spare a few daysbecause they are working during
the week, they have two weekendopportunities during the Holly
Shorts and they can get like anentire pass for the festival.
No question.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
And you can see some cool panels too.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
And it's worth it.
Panels and workshops?
Speaker 1 (29:54):
yeah, and you can.
You know we're at the japanhouse and there's some new
surprises coming, that we alsohave fireside chats, you know.
So there's stuff you can watch,panels you can learn about.
You know distribution, finance,and you can watch some cool
movies.
And then also remember we'vedone the job, we've picked.
This is the best of the bestout of 6100.
So if you're looking to team upwith a cool director, or
they're there you're asking like, how do you plan it?
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Okay.
So we're going to have an appthat drops like a week before
the festival.
It gives you the whole programby the website hollyshorescom.
We'll have the program, but youcan do like Coachella,
coachella week one, you'rewatching the bands you like, and
then week two if you're a supermusic person, you've already
got your schedule set.
Well, you can do that week onetoo.
It's just more crowded, andthen you're attending things
that you've programmed.
(30:38):
So you can build your ownlittle schedule.
You can be like all right,sci-fi, visual effects,
documentary, horror, whatever'syour fancy, whatever you like.
You could pre-plan it and thenjust execute based on your
schedule, panels, talks, youknow.
I want to see this keynote fromthis finance person.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Great, I know.
But I think also somethingthat's great is because Holly
shorts is so renowned, um, goinginto its 20th year.
You have access to filmmakersfrom all over the world because
they are flying in.
So if you wanted to crew upwith someone that you were
inspired by, they're probably atthe festival, which is hard
sometimes, because normally I'llget like um when I have stuff
(31:15):
in New York uh like littleshorts in New York and stuff.
Normally I'll get like um whenI have stuff in new york uh like
little shorts in new york andstuff.
I'll get dms the next day afterthe screening, being like hey,
I saw your work last night butwe haven't been able to connect
yet.
But holly shorts, I think,brings in so many people that
you're able to connect thatnight at a party, because every
night you followed up with aparty for the filmmakers.
So important.
Yes, we do it so important,thank you for Everyone's
terrified of networking, andthen they realize that, like
(31:37):
once again, that 95% business isreally just about connecting
with other people, and so itdoesn't have to be a terrifying
thing.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Yeah, a little cocktail, a little wine.
It's my favorite part Low musicPeople can talk, chill yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
It's true Now, from shorts last year with you guys,
this year we did mammoth, whichyou brought us in for with
tanner and thank you so muchthat was great.
What is it like to run threedifferent festivals?
Speaker 1 (32:02):
wow, so you have like the holly shorts comedy
festival newly named right yes,you have holly shorts, and then
you have mammoth yes, andmonthly screenings, which is,
and the monthly screen.
I consider that a littleecosystem as well.
Let's actually and I'mlaunching another one too so oh
wow, yeah, are we ready toannounce?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
yeah, for sure, yeah, it's public knowledge.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Holly shorts london.
Holly shorts uk in december.
Yeah, it's gonna start small.
That's a big territory for usand it'll expand totally that's
so exciting, do you have?
Speaker 2 (32:28):
yeah, I'm gonna ask you something well, edit that
out.
I'm gonna ask something offcamera about that um because I'm
interested in something I'vebeen looking into dual charity
recently with the uk anywaywe'll talk um, but managing
three festivals being involved.
Do you notice that there's Imean obviously the comedy one
stand stands on its own yes butbetween like mammoth and holly
shorts, do you notice thatthere's a different way that
(32:50):
films are selected because theethos of those festivals are
different?
Or how does it kind of likework when managing those types
of like submissions or festival?
Speaker 4 (32:58):
yes, they're different they're very different
which is actually good, right?
I mean, yeah, you want to writea myth?
Speaker 1 (33:04):
the vision there was amazing.
Right, I can't give.
I think.
Tanner, one of my co-foundersthere was, inspired two
inspiration, three inspirationsfor him.
Number one uh he at the mammoth.
There was another edition ofthe mammoth festival that
existed.
That doesn't no longer exist.
That was one of the firstfestivals he ever went to, so as
a child that was in his brainright then, uh, we traveled the
(33:27):
world.
He was a client of mine at firstand, yeah, we did a lot of pr
work with him and marketing andhe, he did a film called six
bullets to hell.
Um, and he came to Holly'sShores.
We did a screening, I think,together and he was like this is
kind of cool.
Then we traveled.
The executive produced threeTerrence Malick films at one
point.
Speaker 4 (33:47):
He's a big producer, yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
And so we traveled the world.
At berlin, uh yeah, toronto,venice, he saw every.
And then one day he's like wewere in toronto and he's like I
want to start this festival,let's do it.
And so long story short.
I was like I was like really,yeah, this is, I was already
seasoned?
Yeah, I was already seasoned Itell people don't do it, it's
(34:09):
exhausting commitment yeah andhe had a fresh take, fresh
energy, and he wanted to buildthis new ecosystem in this town.
So I joined him on this mission,in this freezing place, I know,
and I said if anyone's going todo it, it's going to be tanner
beard and tomic, um, yeah,moncery and and they brought
some energy there and it it is.
It requires um tenacity, yep,because also sometimes you uh,
(34:35):
maybe that this was not, thatwas not my hometown right and
there's people that live therealready.
They're like we don't needanother festival or we don't
need, we have a ski, we have agetting in there but these, yeah
, partners were so meticulous inmaking it and never taking no
for an answer.
And then it.
It takes a while to get a themein a festival.
That one caught its theme, Ithink, like in its third or
(34:57):
fourth year.
You got hit with covid, yeah,but you know you can tell when
people the sparkle in people'seyes and I'm sorry that one has
a sales vision for feature films.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
We sell films there, yeah, that's different than you
know holly shorts.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
People can acquire shorts sometimes, but there's a
lot at stake when you know youcan get distribution.
I think we've got like 16 17films have been bought.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
I know, I was gonna say there is, like you know, we
were talking at holly shortswith rebecca um, and she
obviously is a festivalstrategist, and you know there's
three different.
Correct me if I'm wrong,because I'm not a founder of
three festivals, you are, but,um, there's three different
types of festivals, right,there's like one for the
filmmakers, one for the audienceand one for, like, the buyer
(35:38):
and sales side, right?
Sure, I think of it asdifferent.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Yes, you're right, you tell me how you think about
it.
I want to learn.
I think this is good.
No, I would say all right.
Maybe there's many iterationsof this.
Let are like called best offests.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
So they're just like a showcase of great movies, you
know.
Then there's different things,like the Middlebury New
Filmmakers Festival.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
There's some that discover new talent.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Oh, cool like Discovery Festivals.
Best of Fests Market Fest yeahthen there's awards.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Films that are up for you know, festivals that have
an impact on the Hollywoodawards season, Cool.
This is more like U.
Right like telluride tiff, youknow, you know, venice is that
as well.
Right like yeah, can for sure.
Can is early, right.
Can is like the first startright, and so it's hard for some
of these films to sustain thething.
(36:26):
You got to do another campaignlater in the year, but can 100
awards you?
Know, that logo is everything.
But yeah, there's the awardsfair.
Uh, santa barbara's, the palmsprings right yeah and then, um,
there's best of fest, there'sthe market, the sales, and, um,
maybe that's about it uh, newfilmmakers emerging, I think.
I think that's most of it, Ithink that's most of it.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
And but for festival, like people who want to start
festivals or have just startedone, what is like?
Where did what do they thinkabout?
It's gotta be love.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
You gotta love movies .
Speaker 1 (36:58):
And it's gotta be.
It's a life journey.
Again people say, oh mygoodness, nothing's just forever
.
But you have to think of itlike that.
You have to put your heart andsoul in it.
Some people have been inspiredby Holly Schwartz filmmakers and
they've started their own.
And they've started their ownand they've had success.
There's several of them.
You know, um, and that's prettycool.
You know, we we try to offersome expertise, um, basically,
(37:22):
you have to think about some ofthe things we said.
A theme yeah you know.
What do you want it to be like?
Yeah, also, you know, short isone thing, but you can just
focus on one particular area.
You could make it a horrorshorts festival, or you know
what I mean Venue, locations,key, you know.
And audience who do you want toattract?
What kind of people do you wantto attract?
And then, how many do you wantto show and how many days?
(37:44):
You know also, my strategy foreverything is start small.
You don't need to take over theworld.
Nice and easy See how the first?
one goes and then start.
You know you're working on thenext one, and then you know what
do you want to do?
You want to show quality, um.
Do you want to inspire acommunity, a city where you're
(38:04):
from?
Do you want to raise the stakes?
And then the other thing isfind some good people that have
your back you know, then youneed a team.
The team just like your team.
You know you're tight andmighty.
Totally it needs to be morethan a one person, because
there's days it's a lot to carry, you get tired and we bounce
like a team.
We're sports people, so wethink of it like sports and it's
like all right, let's.
(38:25):
This is the quarter, this isthe second quarter.
This is the half it iscollaborative, exactly like
filmmaking, um, and thenprogramming, and then there's
the technical side of it whereyou know, know some things.
Can you know, you need to be,needs to look good.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
You need to have a good projectionist.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Yeah, I mean, when we started, we bought a projector.
Oh it was.
Speaker 5 (38:42):
Really it was tough, man, yeah, you brought your own
projector no-transcript coolspot in la and that's how it was
(39:07):
inspired.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
A little bit, honestly, I'm a thief.
I just kind of stole the idea alittle bit and then made our
own.
We remix, you remix things.
Yeah, there's like you'remaking your own, you're good.
Yeah, we went to a screeningand, um, there was a festival
and it doesn't exist anymore andit was a publicist and she had
movies and the program was cooland that passion was awesome and
there was like some music andthe venue was awesome.
(39:29):
It was just like, yeah,cinespace, they showed movies
and you can eat and order food.
So so eventually we were like,let's talk to them.
So we went over there and wedid the festival there and I
think maybe we had maybe 50, 40to 50 films.
We doubled and early on I gotsomeone from MGM to help me on
the technical side and he stillhelps us now.
(39:50):
And it's 20 years, 19 yearslater.
Yeah, kevin Anderson, he livesin Austinin fantastic, he's a
remote angel and he's stillinvolved with some stuff with us
.
But I went to him at mgm.
I was like I need you to helpme master these films and
exhibit them this way.
And then people, it was a vibehow we almost went bankrupt.
Is we spent too much, like we?
(40:11):
We did a bad negotiation on adeal because we were, we were
trying to bet a lot higher thanwe could afford.
And then we were short on thebill and we had to get the venue
, yeah, the venue, yeah.
And so it could have been overthen and it was fantastic,
sweating a lot, we're gonna lose.
And then we figured it out andwe repaid a loan or something.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Yeah, because if you're building a festival out,
you're starting with out of.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
This is bootstrap, by the way, yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
And then you're starting with the submission
fees right, and you're like okay, I can probably start to
understand how big this festivalis, based off the submission
fees, sort of, and that right,you got to grow it, though.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
That's the thing.
That's the other thing it startssmall and then you got to.
You got to get bigger.
I had a publicity hat.
That's what I was doing for aliving, so I would amplify.
I would take what I was doingon the PR side in my day job
with clients.
I'm like, well, let me amplifythis on the festival side and
the more you talk aboutsomething and the more people
talk about something, the biggerit becomes and the more they
(41:06):
come to your.
This is live event business.
So if they have a good timecustomer service, they're going
to go back to their market andtalk about you more.
So that started happening.
I didn't know that would happen.
We're just trying to execute agreat event for people and being
cool with people.
But they started having word ofmouth and so more people submit
.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
That's awesome.
That's how CFA started.
It was like we had no money formarketing.
It's all bootstrapped to thisday, and so everyone we would
meet with they're like, oh, I'veheard of you multiple times.
And we're like, oh, that'samazing.
And they're like, yeah, youhave great word of mouth
marketing.
And we're like, okay, good,because we have no money to
spend on marketing when we firststarted, and so it's just like
it is really the beauty of itbecause it also feels organic,
(41:45):
100%.
It has to be.
It has to be.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
I've tried things.
This isn't ideas.
So many fail, I feel you, butthe ones that have success are
purely authentic from the heart.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Listen for me I don't know.
There's other people that buildbig multi-million dollar
companies and they get privatefunding and all this and they
work and they employ millions ofpeople and they contribute to
society.
That's fantastic.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Our focus is it needs to be.
It's almost like fabric right.
Yeah, it's like hand curated,and then, because it's love, the
customer, the filmmaker feelsthat, and then the public feels
that and it portrays on screen.
It works that way.
It sounds crazy and you know,but this is our philosophy.
Because I try to hack it, theysense it right away they're like
this is hollow, there's noheart here.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Yes, exactly no.
I think that's so important.
I am so excited to get you onthe couch today.
Thank you so much I can't wait,so august 8th, 18th this year
let's go 20th.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Yes, congratulations, thank you.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Thank you for having me tears for 20 years um, and
it's only the beginning really,it's like just keeps growing and
growing so proud of you too.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Cfa is amazing and I'm so happy vika connected us
originally.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Oh my goodness, yes we just ran into her at sinecure
and she was like holly shorts,they love you, you love them,
it's.
I'm so happy it worked this isso good.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Yeah, one of the greatest things to happen.
Us too.
We can't wait to make it going.
Yeah, keep it going, keep itgoing anyway thank you guys so
much.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
We'll see you at Holly Shorts this year.
Thanks and congrats, thank youso?
Much Awesome.
Bye, everyone Salud.
Speaker 5 (43:19):
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