During the Sundance Film Festival, UniversalCinema Film & TV Journal’s Amir Ganjavie interviewed Lisa Dreyer the Festival Director of Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the United States (owned by Alamo Drafthouse). what follows is part of that interview.
Amir Ganjavie, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): What is the relationship between you as the Festival Director and the programmers?
Lisa Dreyer (LD): So, I started at the festival as a volunteer on the screening team, six years ago. Then I became a features programmer, and eventually festival director. We have a wonderful director of programming, Annick Mahnert. She has been in the industry for decades. She knows everyone. And then we have a fantastic team of programmers that helps us. I love programming. And so, when I was promoted to be the Director last year I said, I’ll only do it if I can still program. So, me, Annick, and then we have 3 other features programmers. We do all the features programming. We do about 80 features. And then we also have a shorts film team which is led by Jean Lauer. And that is a few really talented shorts filmmakers and programmers who select around 50 to 60 shorts. So, it’s very collaborative process.
(UM): And you are not focused only on the American cinema? You’re focused on all kinds of genre film from all around the world?
(LD): We are really an international film festival. I always say I need to count, but I think last year we maybe had films from 30 different countries at least. We obviously have English language genre films, but then we have films from Japan, from China, from the Philippines, from South America. And we’re also really fortunate that the directors of those films love to come to Austin, Texas, and join us. So our audience is really excited about foreign language movies. They’re really excited to see films from countries where the filmmaking industry isn’t as large. And our team really tries to find hidden gems that might not normally get to play in front of an American audience.
(UM): And how do you describe genre?
(LD): That’s a great question. Fantastic Fest has evolved so much in the 18 years it’s been around. We like to play boundary-pushing films that have a really distinct point of view. And sometimes that’s a straight horror film. Like we played Terrifier 2. But then we also play art house films. We played like The Banshees of Inisherin. Which isn’t necessarily a genre film, but we felt like it had enough strange elements. Distinct elements. So, we’re really just trying to expand the boundaries of genre, and I find that our audience is really excited they really trust our taste and whatever we lead them to, they usually react very well. But I do think the definition of genre is really expanding. Especially in the past few years.
(UM): How important is audience reception? When you are picking the movies, are you thinking of receptions? And how important are the ticket sales?
(LD): So, we do badge sales, and our festival is all at the South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse. So we have nine theaters and about 950 seats. So we want to get people out to the festival, but we’re really fortunate that we just have such a loyal audience that has been coming for years and years and years. They bring their friends. Any filmmakers we bring into the fold, they start bringing in people. So I think that our programming team is not afraid to take risks. And obviously, when we’re watching a movie, we think, Hey, will our audience love this movie? But sometimes, if a programmer feels really strongly about a film, we just think like, “Hey, can we get our audience to appreciate this? Like, we appreciate this.” So I find that our audience is very receptive to new films, new ideas just really, they’re just very adventurous and they have adventurous taste. So we’re really lucky that our programming team can take a lot of chances, and the audience usually responds very well to them.
(UM): And suppose I’m a filmmaker and I have introduced a movie that goes against the current trend. Will you, for example, take into consideration such a movie that goes against shrimp, but you find it, it’s a good quality movie, even if it’s not, for example, in harmony with the current, for example, human rights or human values?
(LD): I find it very important that our festival reflects our values, and our values as a team are making sure everyone feels included. Everyone is respected; everyone is heard. We have a very diverse international [film body], and so we look at all films and judge them in quality, but also, we do look at the message as well. And so, if it’s a hateful message, if it’s a divisive message, if it’s a racist or homophobic or misogynist message, we’re not programming that film. Our audience trusts us to bring them films that are excellent quality, and that also we would never want anyone to feel like they weren’t welcome at our festival. We have an awesome progressive audience that just accepts all people. So that’s the kind of vibe we like to cultivate.
(UM): Some countries are very strong in producing genre cinema, Korea for example, do you ever do special programming for these countries?
(LD): Yeah, every year we kind of just look at our selections and see what’s out there. Last year it was very interesting. Spain had an amazing year for genre film. And so, we weren’t looking to do like, highlight on Spain, but then all of a sudden, we just got all these amazing films. So we had a huge delegation of Spanish filmmakers. We had Carlos Vermut with Manticore. We had Eduardo Casanova with La Piedad, which actually won our award for best film. Just so many talented Spanish filmmakers. So, we’re really excited to see this year what countries are submitting. We do just like to get a wide variety, but some years, one country will just have an amazing year for genre film. So, we don’t know what it’ll be this year.
(UM): How do you differentiate from other festivals?
(LD): I think Fantastic Fest is really unique in that our festival takes place all in one venue. We have events during the day in our attached bar venue space. Filmmakers, industry people, audience members, they’re all just mixing and mingling really organically. There’s no real barriers. You’re kind of spending all day in the same place with these amazing filmmakers. It’s a really intimate experience. And our audience gets to meet really cool people. Just you’re sitting down at the bar. I think it’s really unique. We’re also unique because we have a national theater chain attached to us. After a film plays at the festival, we really love to support their theatrical releases. We have a special programming series called Fantastic Fest Presents. And so, if a film really resonates with our audience, then what’s released later, we put it in Alamo’s all across the nation and just really support that film and that filmmaker. So, our festival is so fortunate to have that relationship with Alamo Drafthouse, and I think for filmmakers it’s just really special because a lot of times you’ll play a festival, and then you won’t get a theatrical release. We’re really trying to help the whole lifespan of the film. Fantastic Fest and Alamo’s there to really support it.
(UM): I’m wondering if you offer workshops for filmmakers or script writing series?
(LD): Our industry portion is definitely a portion of the festival. I’d love to expand. Fantastic Fest always does things very different. We do really fun, wild, wacky things. So when we do education, for example, we just wouldn’t have like a panel. It’d have to be interactive. I think what we do more than education is just connecting with people, with the right people. But we would like to expand our education in the future.
(UM): How important is a premiere for you? Are you looking for premieres often or big commercial films even?
(LD): That’s a really important balance for us. Obviously, it’s really exciting to have a world premiere of a big film. This past year we World Premiered Parker Finn’s Smile our opening night, which was amazing. We love that film. He’s a really exciting new voice and that film did wonderfully at the box office, but then we also always have hidden gems. It’s just a real balance. For us, it’s about the quality of the film. We never take a film that we don’t believe in and stand by just for clout or premiere status. Even the biggest films from Neon, or A24, or Universal, they’re films that we love and think are great quality. So, we definitely have a wonderful mix.
(UM): You spoke a bit about wanting to expand the educational portion of your festival, what other areas of the festival do you hope to expand or make better?
(LD): We really want to help filmmakers get their films bought and distributed. So, connecting distributors with those films is very important for us, and we’re looking for ways to do that more explicitly at a festival. We just recently relaunched Drafthouse films. It was dormant for a few years and then Giant Pictures bought it. I’m helping them with acquisitions. And so, we’ve picked up quite a few films that played at Fantastic Fest, and now we’re distributing them. So really helping films have a life after the festival is very important for us. And something that I think in the next few years [will] be a bigger part of our festival. And also helping projects even before they get made. We would love to expand into supporting filmmakers who want to get something made, but don’t really understand how to get funding, and need connections. Our programming team has so many connections in the film world that we just want to support emerging filmmakers more and more.
(UM): Final Words?
(LD): It’s a really exciting time for genre film. Megan, which is by one of our alumni directors, it’s a brand-new IP, a brand-new idea. They made it for not much money, and it just destroyed the Box Office. All these films keep coming out, like Terrifier or Skinamarink, and they’re made for barely any money, and they’re making so much money at the box office. It’s like, and it’s not about the money, but it’s like, hey, support genre film support, these strange horror concepts. And it actually pays off in the end for a lot of people. So, I think the industry is maybe now realizing, hey, like this is something we should pay more attention to. There’s like a lot of opportunities in this space, and I’m just really excited to support those emerging filmmakers and help them make an impact and have a career in this. And I just think the next few years it is going to be really exciting for the genre film industry.
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