Universal Cinema Film & TV Journal’s Amir Ganjavie recently interviewed Justin Smith, the programmer for the Underground Section at the Fantasia International Film Festival. What follows is part of that interview.
Amir Ganjavie, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): Can you explain the selection process for the Fantasia International Film Festival? Who makes the final decisions?
Justin Smith (JS): We have committees. There are different programming heads. There are the main ones, the International and Canadian Now, there’s also Quebec, which is a separate department. Then there are other sections, there’s currently Sundance, which is like more art-house, we have Documentaries on the Edge, which is self-explanatory, and we have other kinds of little programs. [As for] the final say, usually, the different programmers have a quota, they have to fill that, and it’s kind of up to their discretion. We do have an Artistic Director who will give input, but I have never seen him veto a selection, as far as I’m aware.
(UM): So, it’s mostly the programmers that decide?
(JS): Yes. But there is a committee. We [also] have pre-screeners. There are a lot of processes.
(UM): What do you consider a good movie? Do you have criteria you are looking for?
(JS): For my section? Well, I’m looking for two different things in particular. On one hand, I’m looking at the kind of production that it is. Low budget, do-it-yourself, limited or nonexistent funding from the government.
I’m looking primarily for genre films, because it’s a genre film festival, but we’re pretty flexible on that as well, because genre is very all-encompassing. Comedy is a genre, and things that are just strange or weird or singular. I’m always looking for something I’ve never seen before, or something that feels very fresh and forward-looking. Just again, by nature of the program, things that are a little bit out of the box.
(UM): When you’re talking about looking films not funded by government, do you consider, for example, Ontario Creates—
(JS): I fear that is governed, but I will still consider. I have had almost – a lot of my films have had specifically Canadian government support. I’m just not looking for the highest budgets. Because they’re not [providing] that much money to young creators. If you’re just receiving money from the Ontario government in the same way as if you’re just receiving money from the Quebec government, you’re probably not receiving very much money. It’s really on a case-to-case basis. I don’t have a hard rule on a budget. I don’t have a hard rule on what I’m excluding or not. Sometimes it’s just purely on the aesthetic. Something that looks really raw, even though there might be a bit more money. But it tends to be a lower budget, not necessarily self-financed, but limited financing.
(UM): When you’re looking for genre movies, because genre movies, sometimes they need to follow some regulation, some patterns, predefine patterns. Are you looking for genre movies that break these, or are you looking for genre movies that follow this tradition?
(JS): Well, specifically, I like things that are outside of the box. However, if it’s a really good conventional horror film or a really good conventional action film, that is just working. It’s like when you have a meal, and you can have a really simple dish, right? If every ingredient is the best ingredient, and it’s well made, it could be three different ingredients, and it’s the best meal you’ve ever had and it’s incredibly conventional. It’s the way that people have been making it for hundreds of years, and it’s a perfect piece of food, and it’s amazing. I would say there are short films that are like that, they do everything perfectly, and with such finesse that it doesn’t matter if it’s conventional, it’s just such good taste.
(UM): I imagine that in your section, the most of the movies are horror movies, because horror movies it’s possible to make cheaply but for example, action or thrillers are usually more expensive.
(JS): It is usually horror, not always, but there’s a lot of horror, for that reason. A couple of years ago, we had a guy, who made a horror movie, but with puppets. The horror movies with puppets and blood and special practical effects – you can still kind of work outside the box.
(UM): There are other genre festivals, for example, Fantastic Fest and Sitges Film Festival, do you work in collaboration with them?
(JS): We are in conversation, and I do think it’s obviously, depending on the festival. We have different constraints in terms of the size of the programming, what we’re looking for, and also different premiere statuses. A lot of times, for example, Fantastic Fest takes place very shortly after our festival. They will play many of our films, but of course, we’re in very different markets. Montreal is not very close to Austin, Texas. There is overlap, people who come to both. We’re very open and very friendly. I think it’s like the genre community in particular, like horror film fans are, very nice people, they are not cutthroat in the same way as maybe some other sectors of the film industry. There’s a lot of passion for physical media. I’m in conversation regularly with people at TIFF or Peter Kuplowsky, Midnight Madness. In Canada, there are a lot of people who want to be in Midnight Madness, because there are only 10 slots, so they wait for answers from him. Not that it interferes, but sometimes I’ll just ask them, “Is this film in consideration for you? Because they’re waiting for you to say yes or no.” Which is understandable. Toronto is maybe the biggest film festival in the world. Midnight Madness is such an incredible spotlight. I’m happy for them if they get it. I would love to have a film that would be there, but sometimes there’s a bit of competition. At the end of the day, I want what’s best for the filmmaker. I don’t want to sabotage their chance.
(UM): Do you have any quotas for race, gender, geography, etc.?
(JS): No, we do not. We do have a huge selection of Asian films because it actually started as an Asian Film Festival. There’s a huge amount that is still dedicated to that region. We do make a conscious effort to have women filmmakers. And I’m always looking for filmmakers from different experiences and backgrounds in different countries. It’s very easy to find American or Canadian films because they’re what we get a lot of submissions for, I’m trying to find other things and trying to find other countries. Last year in my section, we had a student film from Portugal made by these students who are in the queer community, and they have made this whole After Hours “Martin Scorsese” movie about trying to get to the club. I just thought it was so exciting and so cool. I programmed it because I thought it was exciting and cool. That’s kind of the attitude that we have. I don’t think we do have 100% parity in genre, in particular for women. They’re still a minority, but every year, I think we’re closer to 50-50.
(UM): Do you look for crowd-pleasers? Is that important to you?
(JS): We do very well, with ticket sales, generally speaking, we have a very dedicated audience that has been coming for a long time. We rarely have more than two films playing at the same time. We have the big cinema, which is generally the crowd-pleasers or the bigger names. Then, we have the smaller theatre, which might be a bit riskier, a bit more art-house. So, we try to strike a balance. At the end of the day, whatever we’re programming, we think that there is an audience, but sometimes it can be hard to find them. Because that’s the challenge in some cases. You believe in a film, but how do you get someone else to be as excited about it as you are? I’ve been attending Fantasia, since 2008. I have a pretty good sense of what they like, but sometimes you’re wrong, or sometimes they like something so much more than you thought they would. I’m thinking about the audience, there’s a lot of movies that I watched that I think are genre films. I think are great. I’m like, I don’t think this is exactly what our audience would necessarily want. It’s more often times, it’s because it’s a bit too, in the archives category. A bit too experimental. That’s always a little bit riskier.
(UM): In terms of support for filmmakers who are attending your festival, what kind of opportunities do you give them? Are there distribution deals? Awards?
(JS): We do have awards. Obviously, I don’t think any of the awards come with a distribution deal, but a lot of films have received distribution out of Fantasia. Skinamarink was the world premiere at our festival and it kind of exploded from there. So, it happens we have a market as well, a genre film market. There are a lot of industry professionals who are coming particularly in their second week because our festival is three weeks long, it’s incredibly extensive. There are a lot of opportunities for people within the industry to see the films. Obviously, there’s a lot of access through that. We do have professional juries. We have a major award and we have smaller awards for sections.
(UM): I imagine you also run a workshop for filmmakers?
(JS): During the Frontiers Weekend in particular. That’s the market weekend, which is usually four or five days. There are opportunities for filmmakers at the festival, or filmmakers likely, kind of like the EFM (European Film Market), where they can just apply to go and it’s a lot like a new kind of market. You do like the roundtables, the speed dating, you have panels explaining different things.
(UM): Do you offer screenings or workshops during the year?
(JS): We don’t do workshops, that I’m aware of, but we do sponsor screenings in Montreal sometimes for films that screened at our festival, sometimes for films that we just have associations with.
We do stem to special events. Because of the pandemic, our 25th anniversary happened during that period. We had a festival but it was all online. We organized a special series of free screenings of all-time classics, then we played a festival. We have a lot of collaborations with local cinemas as well. Sometimes we’ll co-present a film that is of interest to us or had already screened at the festival.
(UM): Given the fact the festival happens in the Francophone region, do you pay special attention to French-language or Quebec films?
(JS): Not necessarily. Again, we have a whole section devoted to Quebec cinema. It’s called Le Fantastique Weekend. That’s exclusively French. So, there’s usually between three to six, depending on the year because we don’t always have new short films in Quebec. It’s is the same in Ontario. It’s not like there are 30 a year that you can choose from, usually 10, or 5-10, if that. We do have more French-language films, from France or from Belgium. I would say probably a bit more on average than the rest of North America because we do have a francophone audience. Although I would say we’re also probably the most English-language [festival] of the major film festivals in Montreal. Partially because of some of the people behind the scenes, there are a bit more Anglophones, and the public tends to be a bit more mixed. It’s a bit, I wouldn’t say 50-50 necessarily. The French just still outweigh it, not counting people from outside because they tend to be a bit more English. There are not that many people who come directly from France, or Europe, except for the Frontiers Weekend.
(UM): I imagine right now, given the fact that Montreal World Film Festival is still not happening anymore, you are the biggest film festival right now in the region. How does this change your perspective?
(JS): I don’t know if we’re [the biggest], because there’s still Festival du Cinéma, which is in October. They work very differently. I would say, Festival du Cinéma has a lot of people who used to work at the World Film Festival. They have a very similar mandate. So, it’s World Cinema, New Cinema, but more on the art-house side of things. We’re very different. We have higher attendance. So, in that sense, we are bigger. I think overall, it’s very similar in terms of the numbers because they have more screenings per day, and they have more venues [running at] the same time. Our venues in general are bigger, and we have a higher ratio of selling out, so it kind of evens out. I also believe that they have a few more free screenings than we do. I don’t know if it changes because we never really had the same public as the World Film Festival. There were obviously cinephiles who would go to both, but it’s not like people are going to go from there to us if they weren’t interested. I don’t think so.
(UM): After you select a movie, do you invite the filmmakers to come? How do the panels and conversations work?
(JS): We do invite filmmakers as often as possible, there are always limitations to that as well, depending on where they’re coming from, depending on the status of the film’s premiere.
A Quebec premiere, for example, versus a World Premiere, we’re going to prioritize bringing the filmmaker for a World Premiere. I don’t think we really limit who we can invite, it really depends on the budget for that year. The pandemic kind of changed things a little bit, too. We had a lot of issues. Like last year, we had a lot of high-profile guests, and almost all of them had to cancel because they had COVID or they weren’t able to get a visa on time, because there were new rules and things like that.
[In regards to panels], sometimes do a masterclass, particularly if we have like a very big guest. We did John Woo last year. So, he had, I think it was like a 90-minute conversation. Sometimes they (guests) will be on the panels if it coincides with whatever we are doing that year.
(UM): What’s the main reason you attend festivals like Berlin or Cannes? Is it to select films?
(JS): Personally, I’m in a very unique section. It would be very unusual for me to find a film here that I will program, that I’m watching in a market screening or a regular screening. I’m here to take meetings, and I’m watching movies that I think might be of interest and recommending them to colleagues, for example, because I know what they would be interested in. If you look at the schedule, it’s impossible for even a few people to watch everything. As I said, we’re very open with our definition of what genre cinema is, there’s a lot that like, are on the peripheries, where it’s unclear if it’s a fit for our festival or not. You can’t really know until you see it, because you can’t rely on the synopsis. I’ve been seeing a lot of those movies.
We actually program a lot from submissions.
(UM): Submission is mostly through FilmFreeway?
(JS): Yes, exactly. We do have that, I’m trying to think of last year, from my section, I think only two [films], I programmed… I think two of them were programmed from festivals, or from things I saw [outside of direct submissions], and the rest of the program came from submissions.
(UM): Do you have a statistic for films based on your submission to being selected in your category?
(JS): I don’t know. I’m not sure, but I know it’s like probably between 30 to 50%.
© 2020-2023. UniversalCinema Mag.