The future of Canadian films must be recognized. As someone who has worked with a few emerging filmmakers in the past, I can see their potential, and know they come up with compelling ideas. But as of lately, I’ve felt the need to talk with one of them regarding their lack of professionalism. Young Egotistical Beginners. What can ya do? But for those that don’t require an intervention of sorts and deserve some recognition for their professional work ethic and very well made film, there is the Future of Film Showcase, a festival that celebrates all the new and upcoming filmmakers. Currently this festival is on its 10th year, and that means a lot more is going to be going on for sure this time around. Taking place both online and over in Toronto at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto, it’s an experience you’re sure to enjoy whether you’re new to the filmmaking world, want to learn some stuff, or just want to observe.
For starters, this year’s keynote speaker is Lamar Johnson. Given his background, he’ll have a lot of cool stuff he wants to discuss with a large room full of audience members. For the feature film selection this year, attendees will get the opportunity to see Noemie Says Yes by Genevieve Albert. The film is abut a teenage girl named Noemie who befriends the wrong kinds of people and develops feelings for a pimp of all people and ends up becoming an escort. There’s plenty more films like No Ghost in the Morgue, Late Summer, and Everything Will be All Right. What else is going on, you may be asking? Well, besides your basic screenings and seminars like most festivals have, there are some other things happening too. If you want to know more about what’s happening this year, click here for the programming. Or stick around for this interview I just did with Eric Bizzarri a couple days ago and learn all about the festival, with its origin, how filmmakers are chosen, and what the festival has to offer this year.
HNMAG: The Future of Film Showcase is for emerging Canadian filmmakers. Since they’re so many out there, what qualifications does one need to submit to the festival?
Eric Bizzarri: Well, in order to submit to the festival the filmmaker needs to define themselves as emerging. We have a list of what we consider emerging filmmakers to be. For example, not to have directed more than 2 episodes of episodic television, have directed a feature, all that can be found when people are submitting to us via our website and FilmFreeway.
HNMAG: And how are the filmmakers films chosen to be screened at the showcase?
Eric Bizzarri: We have a programming team, it consists of our programming director Zac Goldkind as well as our associate programmers Winnie Wang, Andre Herrera, and CJ Prince. Zac watches every submission at least once and then he essentially divides all the submissions amongst the associate programmers and they give feedback. Then they scale from there. Apart from people submitting, we also have strong relationships with distributors and sales agents in Canada. We take their catalogues or sometimes they’ll email their films and such to us to consider for the festival as well. There are also filmmakers who email us directly but the majority of our submissions come from FilmFreeway.
HNMAG: How did the festival start out?
Eric Bizzarri: Essentially it was myself and my friend Sean Joshi were studying film production together at York University. It was our first year and we sort of just wanted to have a space and a screening for the young and emerging filmmakers like students, essentially. Students at neighbouring film schools, and that’s how it started. Then we grew from there, we realized that having a screening for Canadian short films by Canadian filmmakers was really important so we created a yearly event that was essentially for filmmakers by filmmakers. It sort of evolved into this foundation that fostered the future for Canadian filmmaking and our shorts program is always one but I’m hoping to expand that in the years to come. We ended up partnering with Cineplex, then we took our program to the Scotiabank Theatre. What was once a one-day festival has now become a four-day festival and we partnered with CBC Gem during COVID. They brought all of our films virtually on Gem for folks across Canada to enjoy the comfort of their own spaces. That has evolved even more to include a robust industry program that includes panels, workshops, masterclasses, keynote conversations.
HNMAG: By giving new filmmakers recognition, how does it help get them further in festivals and the industry?
Eric Bizzarri: The entire goal of this festival has been to provide a safe and accessible space for filmmakers to share their work. Because the majority of the people that work on our team are filmmakers themselves, we always ask ourselves “What do WE look for when we’re attending festivals?” I’m sure we’ve all been at festivals where it’s very basic, you go in and screen your film but for us when we walk in, are we learning something. Obviously, we can’t accept films from every filmmaker who submits to us, so what are we giving them in exhange for supporting the festival? For us we developed a series called “Virtual Coffee Sessions” where we give people to opportunity to book 1-on-1 meetings with mentors, industry professionals, in various assets of the industry so we have executives from Paramount Plus, Warner Brothers, Bell Media, CBC, the WGC, and they’re all coming on to these virtual coffees. We’re providing the opportunities for emerging filmmakers to book meetings with them. Apart from that, we also have industry panels that surround topics that we feel like filmmakers are trying to access. For example, the new Art Department Panel, and in it we have professionals from production design, art direction, props, and coming in to talk about their work. A lot of people want to know how to make a film, learn about financing, and to actually create a panel that speaks to a skill in the industry we feel it is very fruitful.
HNMAG: And with all you offer, do you find the new filmmakers make more films and progresses their reputation?
Eric Bizzarri: Of course. We recognize the festival space as a competitive space, and the space that filmmakers are putting themselves in can be very intimidating. But we created a safe space for filmmakers and audience members to not only engage in new work, but also come learning something about the industry and the people that work in it.
It’s not just about the filmmakers and Eric, he has an incredible team that helps him with the whole thing. The creative director comes in and designs the overall look for the year. The director of programming ensures the films are speaking to the runner’s core ideas which are what Eric and the team believe the future of Canadian film looks like. They also have a Chief Operating Officer who ensures the events are running smoothly and there’s also a Chief Financial Officer who ensures everything is within budget and is applying for grants, sponsorships and all that.
HNMAG: As Co-Founder and CEO, what decisions do you primarily make in the festival’s organization and run?
Eric Bizzarri: Yeah, Having started this thing out 10 years ago, our team was not nearly as big it is now. Often I had my hands in quite a few things, but now it’s more so guiding the direction of the festival and helping us to decipher the overall structure and our themes and goals for this year was to expand the festival to 4 days, have a domination of industry panels and screenings, and bringing a feature film from last year. It’s a big team and my role is I hold the legs of the table afloat. The table is very much our incredible team.
HNMAG: Did you have any idea it would ever last over 10 years?
Eric Bizzarri: That’s a great question, and the answer is No. Absolutely not. 10 years is hilarious, it’s my longest relationship. We almost broke up 3 times, had a few disagreements and all that stuff. When we first came up with this, our first and foremost goal was building a space for filmmakers to show their work. It’s all we wanted to do. Shawn was producing his first film and I was wondering where were going to screen this film. He wanted to post it online, and I was working in the last AMC theatre at the time. They let us screen in there, but the theatre had closed down the whole chain then left Canada 5 days after that. However that was intriguing because had we organized the screening a week later, it never would’ve happened. That’s always interesting to me and the reason for it going on for 10 years I think it’s because we’ve had people constantly coming on this thing and bringing new ideas to the table. We’ve had people come in and consistently bring their energy because they believed it. That’s why it’s standing. I alone can’t run all the departments, I owe it to this team and everyone who’s come into this festival.
HNMAG: Besides the festival, how else are you celebrating having lasted a decade?
Eric Bizzarri: Maybe we’ll have a drink after? (laughs) Actually, we’re doing this interesting thing where the festival has a commercial, and previous years we have always had a narrative. Last year was more experimental and this year I thought why not bring out past festival employees, staff members, and have a documentary style commercial and interview them. We have this commercial we’re releasing in the next two weeks that essentially celebrates 10 years of the festival in a really unique way. It was a great way to reconnect with those we lost contact with, especially due to COVID. Filmmakers, staff, and sponsors came back to speak about the festival and that was really incredible.
HNMAG: How were the non-film screening events chosen and decided?
Eric Bizzarri: We have a meeting at the start of the year and decide what we want to see for the industry this year. What we wanted people to think about, what has been missing from this festival and festivals in general. Also what has been successful, we noticed funding panels have been successful, but what’s also been missing is specific art panels in which we could have industry professionals come in and speak about their craft which I find very effective. That’s usually decided with our Chief Operating Officer and our core team of workers. we survey at what’s missing from festivals, and what succeeds at festivals.
HNMAG: What are you hoping everyone will take away from this festival, especially those who aren’t filmmakers?
Eric Bizzarri: That Canadian film is vital and emerging Canadian filmmakers need to flourish and be supported as much as we all love to watch Canadian film, this is certainly an industry that’s funding and lacking in support. Showing up to festivals like ours and supporting Canadian film means something. Showing up to screeners helps creators in more ways than one. We’re hoping that taking away seeing Canadian film in the Canadian experience and in an exceptional time.
So to our readers in Toronto, give this festival a look. Check it out, support the new upcoming talent both in Toronto and Canada. From May 18-21 at 259 Richmond St. W this is one extra cool event. See some films, attend some panels, learn some tips. It’ll be the greatest year ever, after all. It IS the 10th year.