Independent Film Quarterly Film & Webisode Festival 2013 Recap
Now in its fourth year, Independent Film Quarterly Film and Webisode Festival enjoyed a very successful four day run. A wide array of indie features, shorts, documentaries and webisodes unspooled exclusively at Raleigh Studios on Melrose Avenue.
Entries were submitted via popular online filmmaker platform Withoutabox. Countries represented in the final line-up included Argentina, Australia, Canada, Finland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nepal, Russia, The UK, Singapore, Switzerland, Turkey and the USA.
The now legendary red carpet opening party at Confidential on January 30th welcomed participating filmmakers and also included a special awards ceremony for previous IFQ competition winners. The evening was sponsored by Racinne, David Orgell, Independent Film Quarterly, and Confidential.
Festival Director Nicole Holland stated, “We really enjoyed kicking off our busy film season with an impressive slate of international and domestic films, many of which are award-worthy.” Holland added, “We were particularly delighted with our selection of first-time filmmakers and the incredible reactions from our loyal LA audiences.”
Festival highlights in the feature film category include the Premiere of coming-of-age adventure Generation Last, directed by Joel Juarez. Cast and crew members from Mexico flew in for the screening and audiences were abuzz as they filled out their ballots.
My Way, co-directed by Vinny Sisson and Dominique Mollee tells the story of a frustrated Wall Street executive who ditches corporate oppression for a Thelma and Louise style adventure.
Kate French (One Tree Hill, The L Word) starred in the eagerly awaited screening of The Red House. She plays a young woman who inherits a remote house in the woods and invites her friends along for a vacation as she checks the place out. But their stay is interrupted by torture, madness and murder.
Watch out for the comedy Own Worst Enemy directed by Michael Judd and Jessica Judd and starring Jennifer Kelsey and John Mattey. The film tells the story of an inventor who uses his time machine to defeat a rival inventor who has been stealing his ideas while his neglected girlfriend uses it to warn her younger self not to date him in the first place.
The Italian Key starring John Shea (Lois and Clarke: The New Adventures of Superman) is a hot contender for top honors in the international feature film category. The romantic fairy tale tells the story a 19-year-old orphan who inherits an antique key that unlocks both an old villa in Italy and the mysteries of her family history.
As always the IFQ short film series attracted audiences and generated much needed ticket sales all weekend long. Established filmmaker Celik Kayalar enjoyed a successful screening of his dramatic short film 99% featuring celebrated linguist and philosopher Prof. Noam Chomsky. It’s the saga of a struggling young school teacher ‘Anne Page’ set against the backdrop of the growing economic inequality in America. The current ‘Occupy Movement’ looms large in the background. The sold-out short film screening block of Max Carlson’s The Troll, Vincent McLean’s Malea Beloved and Jamie Dwyer and Justin Ulloa’s White Widow was one of the highlights of Closing Night.
The sold-out Webisode series also proved enormously popular with audiences of all ages in attendance. ITN Distribution honcho Stuart Alson taught invaluable panels that educated filmmakers on the fundamentals of foreign and domestic distribution.
IFQ-TV’s Rich Rossi was at the red carpet step and repeat conducting non-stop interviews with filmmakers, producers, writers and actors from around the globe. Interviews were streamed and will appear on the website shortly. The awards will be announced on March 1st with the festival jury selecting winners in over 20 categories.