- I arrived on Wednesday 30th January and was met by my host/buddy Katie, who was a film student at DePaul University. The festival had provided a host for anyone wanting one and I was fortunate enough that mine met me at the airport. This took the stress out of travelling and allowed me to talk to her about her film work and student experience. We spoke for many hours about films and life as a student. She took me sight seeing for the first two days so I could take photographs of the city and experience Chicago. This was difficult however with the polar vortex happening and it being -26 degrees. We still made the most of it though. I saw the bean, went to china town, went up Willis Tower and more. It was such a fun time.
- On Friday 1st February the official festival activities began. We started off by going on a tour round Cinespace studios. This is a large set of studios where TV shows such as Empire, Chicago PD and Shameless have/are filmed. We got to see some of the studios that DePaul students get to use and learn it. It was amazing to see and also such a good opportunity that these students get to work in this large professional studio space.
- Later that day we were then invited along with DePaul students to an advanced screening of the film 'Fighting With My Family' directed by Stephen Merchant. The film was great to see, especially being a British film coming from a British Director. I found this however meant that a few jokes were only laughed at by myself and a few other British filmmakers that attended due to a very British dialect and specific jokes. The best part was that Stephen Merchant himself attended and did a Q&A session afterwards. It was inspirational to hear him speak about the ways he works and find out about how stressful film sets can be even on a much larger budget for a feature length.
- We then had another screening afterwards we were again invited to with the DePaul students. It was to see three short films by Qui Yang and Constanze Schmitt, including the 2017 Winner of the Cannes Palme d'Or for Short Film, “A Gentle Night". These films were very artistic in style and therefore really interested me. Director Qui Yang has such a unique style using very minimal but long choreographed shots which really pull your attention into the detailed but implied stories. We had a Q&A session with them both afterward which allowed us to learn a lot more about their working processes and really inspired me to keep pushing my own style, the way he has pushed his.
- In the evening we were then invited to a private welcoming party for all the film makers and festival organisers and helpers etc. It was a great chance to meet and bond with all the other film makers and other students from DePaul. We all came from different places and all had very different films with unique ways of working and we spent many hours all talking about this. I have made some really talented contacts around the globe and I even handed out my business card to some of them. This was a great networking event, plus free food and open bar!
- Saturday 2nd Feb was the actual day of the film festival. Everyone was really excited but also nervous as we finally all got to screen our films to an audience and to each other (having met each other but not seen anyones films yet). The festival was split in two halves of the day, programme 1 followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers, then a short break and onto programme 2 and a Q&A. In total I watched 21 films including mine and it was amazing! I truly enjoyed each and everyone film and all for different reasons. There was such a great variety of films ranging from documentary to experimental, from animation to drama and so on. Many were strong in style and/or in the message that they were sharing. Watching my own film on such a large screen in front of a brand new audience was more exciting but also scary than I had even thought it would be. My heart was thumping the entire way through but thankfully the applause at the end let me relax as I knew that it had been well received along with all the other films. Besides bumbling my way through the Q&A (would always recommend having answers slightly prepared) everything ran really smoothly. If you are like me and don't enjoy public speaking then prepare yourself and think about what you may be asked. I only wish I had done this a little better as I was able to give answers but I know I can do better, but there's always next time anyway!
Here is the awards list:
Best Documentary: The Canadian by Fabian Lopez
Best Narrative: Yasamin by Julia Elihu
Best Experimental: Mommy's Lullaby by Anna Spacio
Best Animation: The Hoopoe and the Owls by Narges Haghighat
Best Screenplay: Innae (Perseverance) by Akram Shibly
Vincentian Prize: Dreamer by Jordan Berns
Best of Fest: Salty Blood by Sixmarling Then and Isabella Brenton
Even though I did not win my category or an award (cash prizes for each included!), I was just privileged to be able to be in the festival and be given this amazing opportunity to meet so many talented people and get to take part in so many activities while here. Every film that won a prize really deserved it and every film involved was there for a reason.
- Lastly the weekend was seen out with an After Party involving everyone who attended the festival. Again free food and open bar but also this allowed us a chance to receive feedback first hand from members of the jury, DePaul students, festival organisers and members of the public. I was overwhelmed by the amount of nice and positive feedback I received. Someone even said my film was her favourite and other people said that the emotions in my film were strong.
I am so happy to have attended and I really would encourage others to enter and attend this festival because they really do make an effort to look after you and offer you amazing opportunities. I have made lifelong friends and amazing connections across the globe and I also came back feeling more motivated then ever to continue working on my films in my style.
Written by Billie Williams
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