The Hollywood Film Festival, which ran from August 2 to 7, is about the most ambitious 6 days in filmdom. Not only did the Festival showcase an impressive array of US and World Premieres of American and International titles, the whole shebang was crowned off by a gala Awards Ceremony that included the stellar likes of John Travolta, James Woods, Jeff Bridges, Lay Liotta, Anne Archer, Lynne Redgrave and Frances Fisher. And they were just the presenters!

Paralleling the Festival is a different kind of stellar event, the Hollywood Film Conference. This highly ambitious feast of ideas features a dizzying array of seminars and panel discussions, ranging from film development to casting to the brave new world of Internet marketing. The caliber of the professionals inside the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the site of the Conference, made one panelist quip that "if a bomb goes off in the building, they might as well move Hollywood to Cincinnati".

No other film conference that I have attended (and I have attended many) comes close to the high level of participants. Presidents of most of the major distribution companies, including Miramax, New Line, Lions Gate, Paramount Classics, Samuel Goldwyn Company shared their thoughts on the changing field of independent distribution. Many of Hollywood's top agents, without the protective layers of assistants and secretaries (whose jobs are to deflect phone calls, after all), were there in force, speaking candidly about their scramble for new talent in a highly competitive environment.

The dot-coms were out in force, charting the new universe of distribution over the Internet and when downloading of feature films via modem will become a viable business (3-4 years by most estimates). Most predicted a seminal change comparable to the introduction of television in the 1950s and the mass market of videocassettes in the 1980s. With some high flyers (e.g. Reel.com, a supplier of videos and DVD over the web) already biting the dust, and with Wall Street turning thumbs down on all things dot-com (for now), the sense of a pioneering technology moving into maturity energized the audiences.

Pioneers in the field of digital filmmaking spoke the gospel about the accessibility and financial viability of the new medium. With the success of films such as Artisan Entertainment's Chuck and Buck and the Mike Figgis-directed Time Code, the crossover potential for films made on digital beta at a fraction the cost of 35mm film has become viable. (Although one concerned distribution exec bemoaned the fact "that every kid and his grandmother will be able to make a feature film that no one will ever want to see".

The Blair Witch Project was mentioned repeatedly as a touchstone for all things possible and problematic with the new freedom of digital filmmaking. The film's record grosses and its pioneering use of Internet marketing have inspired copycats (including sequels of the Blair Witch herself) whose success in the marketplace is far from assured. But panelists predicted that the achievement of the film would be a benchmark so that, as one speaker explained, "we will see an era divided by pre-Blair Witch and post-Blair Witch". Not bad for a film that was passed on by every major film company and that has returned an astounding 1000 times its cost outlay (estimated at under $150,000, with worldwide grosses of over $250 million).

A unique element of the Conference was the closing Hollywood Pitchmart, where independent producers and screenwriters were able to pitch their projects to established producers and development executives. One had to admire the courage, conviction and craziness of people honing their pitching skills in front of not only a panel of professionals, but an audience of peers.

In fact, admiration all around. Often these kinds of panels descend into gripe sessions that suck out all the positive energy and dwell on the difficulties of war stories. The tone of the sessions I attended was, if anything, upbeat and positive. While not avoiding the difficulties and pitfalls, the "war stories" recounted were almost like fables of what to avoid and how to handle the most difficult or embarrassing of situations. The speakers seemed to see their role as being catalysts to inspire, to stimulate, to create a momentum that they themselves could get carried up in. They seemed to have left as energized as anyone else in the audience.

For the fresh-faced attendees, most classically trying to break into the industry, the Conference was a smorgasbord of ideas. The key was access, the buzz word was passion and the advice was "just do it". Tips on survival in what one panel called "the maze of Hollywood".

FilmFestivals.com reporter
Sandy Mandelberger