Forx Film Fest Deadline Next Week

“Let’s Create In 2008.” Independent moviemakers from around the region will be gathering soon in Grand Forks to watch each other’s work on the big screen.
Now is the time to run off an extra copy of your latest movie (or any movie you’ve made) and send it in so others can see it.

The Forx Film Fest is an intimate, low-key festival that specializes in low-budget independent movies of the North Central Plains.
Due to early scheduling of other events at the Empire Arts Center in Grand Forks, the seventh annual Forx Film Fest will be held nearly a month earlier than last year’s festival.

It will run the weekend of November 7-8-9. This means that the submission deadline, usually late October, has moved up to the first weekend of October and the screening schedule should be finalized by November 1 or 2.

Film and video entries of all types must be postmarked by Friday, October 3, 2008, or delivered in person to the Empire by Monday, October 6, to be eligible for this year’s festival.

Movies may be entered in one of five categories: Feature-Length, Short Subject, Documentary, Music Video, or Student.

Entry fees are $15 for students and $20 for all other categories, whether short or feature-length.

A feature-length movie is defined as lasting 45 minutes or longer. It is up to the filmmaker to decide whether to enter a feature-length documentary as a Documentary or as a Feature, or to enter a student project in the Student category or one of the other four categories.

A panel of judges will choose a winner in each category, announced after the last screening of the festival. Winners will each receive a certificate, plus prize money divided from the entry fees.

All movies should be submitted on either a DVD or a VHS tape. Screening copies can also include 16mm film, full-size DV, DVCAM, MiniDV, and S-VHS tape, as well as VHS and standard DVD. Other formats could be shown if the entrant supplies a compatible player.

An entry form may be downloaded from the website of the Empire Arts Center at empireartscenter.com.

There is no restriction regarding completion date, subject material, premiere status, or previous screenings, but all submitted movies must have been either made in this area, or by people from this area. This includes the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

Production budgets must not have been any higher than $100,000. Typically, the movies submitted have been from North Dakota and Minnesota, made on budgets from a few dollars to a few thousand dollars, although some of the features submitted have approached the upper budget limit.

Moviemakers have the option of conducting a brief question and answer session after the screening of their movie, and may also indicate whether they would like to participate in the Saturday morning panel discussion.

Those who have copies of their projects (on DVDs or VHS tapes) may arrange to sell them in the lobby during the film festival, with a 20% commission going to the Empire Arts Center.

This year’s Forx Film Fest begins at 7 pm Friday, November 7, with all events at the historic Empire Theatre in downtown Grand Forks.

There will again be four screening sessions of approximately three to four hours or so each: Friday night, Saturday afternoon, Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon. These can be attended individually at $10 each, or purchased as a full festival pass for $30.

Moviemakers whose work is being screened may buy the full festival pass for $18.

A fifth session held Saturday morning is a filmmaker panel discussion that is free and open to the public.

Registration and ticket sales will begin about an hour before each screening session.