Universal Cinema Film & TV Journal’s Amir Ganjavie recently interviewed Skye McLennan the Executive Director for the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival (SLO Film Fest). She has previously worked at a number of other festivals, including the Sydney Film Festival (in Austria), Sundance, and Tribeca. What follows is part of that interview.
Amir Ganjavie, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): How do you differentiate your festival, what makes it special or unique from others?
Skye McLennan (SM): I think for us, and what [I try to emphasize] when it comes to the program, is we work in an area with one independent film theater. Most of the film programs there are coming out of Toronto, or TIFF. They’re slightly bigger, independent films, and so there’s a lot of films and topics that don’t get covered. I see our [festival] as kind of a vehicle for environmental issues, social justice issues, exposure to other topics. Yeah, and then an opportunity for the community, really, to get involved in the films.
I think what makes us unique, and what filmmakers always tell us about our festival, is that they really feel like it’s a real audience watching their films. Not an audience of the industry people who are trying to make a deal. We’ll never be a “Sundance,” but I think we could provide filmmakers with real experience and a genuine audience to see their films.
(UM): How do you select films?
(SM): We use FilmFreeway to take all of our submissions now, exclusively. Each year, the submissions have been getting higher and higher. I think it’s because it’s more accessible now to use the platform to submit. We have about 40 to 70 screeners who range in age and diversity, and most of them are not necessarily industry folks. These are people that just enjoy films. They screened the films first, and then we have a program committee which consists of myself, [and two other programmers].
We make sure that each film is screened at least three to four times by a screener. Then based on those ratings, we review the next round and then narrow it down. Then we also fill in the gaps and do a little bit of invitation. We invite films to play at the festival. So, I’ll attend other festivals to get some other titles, or if I feel like we’re missing something or a topic that hasn’t been covered, then we would kind of look for that.
(UM): How do you educate your screeners on what to look for to determine what is a good film?
(SM): So, we usually have training, and we have a criteria. It’s nice, FilmFreeway has those things kind of built-in. You can review based on sound or visuals, etc. It is a challenging thing to teach. I appreciate a screener [be] as unbiased as they can be. That’s the biggest thing we try to teach them as there are things that you might not like, content-wise, in the film. I know there’s one woman who doesn’t like bad language, so as soon as she hears it, it’s like she’s written the film off. That’s something that we teach our screeners to be wary and mindful of.
Ultimately [what is a good film], I think comes down to, is it interesting? Is it a compelling story? That is always the core of a good film. That’s what we encourage them to look for.
(UM): Do you have any quotas for gender, race, etc.?
(SM): Not per se, but that’s something that we’ve been way more mindful about…
We’ve got this perspective, that’s kind of the entire perspective that we’ve had forever, like the white male filmmaker. Like, “Oh, it’s his take again. We’ve been there, done that. So, I think that is a huge thing and I will say, in what we get submitted, that’s usually why we need to go out and look for other films because we need more diversity. We don’t always get that in the submissions. So, we do really factor that in.
(UM): Suppose that I am a filmmaker, and I submit to you a very interesting film, but on a very controversial topic. Will you screen a film a divisive film? For example, if a filmmaker makes a film against abortion, but it’s a very good movie, is that something you’d screen?
(SM): I don’t think we shy away from controversial topics. I think it’s really hard in documentaries because they can be very pointed toward one direction. There’s one film that we had a big discussion on in the festival this year that is on a controversial thing for the community. So, we’re considering having a panel afterwards, with both sides, to talk about it. We don’t want to appear like we’re taking one side over the other, but I don’t think we shy away from those topics. Even on the topic of abortion, that was something we very much wanted to have represented in the festival this year.
So, we actually saw a film that kind of addressed it because that’s what people are talking about. It’s a current conversation, and I will say, each year, the films always reflect the time, because film is an art form and artists express themselves through their films.
(UM): Are there any specific festivals that follow because you feel that their selections are relevant for your film festival?
(SM): I think I always look at the big festivals for guidance. To get an understanding of what’s going on. So, TIFF is a huge one. Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, and yeah, those are films that are always more challenging to get, I’ll be honest. They’re usually promoted by distributors. They can be really difficult. So, I also look at a lot of regional festivals because that’s our bread and butter. That’s our audience. I would say, Cucalorus in North Carolina, Tallgrass, which is in Wichita, Kansas, Sidewalk Cinema in Alabama, Oxford Film Festival, and Ashland Film Festival in Oregon.
Then there are a few festivals in California. We’re very close to Santa Barbara. We play a lot of the films that are played there. There’s a lot of overlap, and then Mendocino Film Festival. So yeah, it’s good for us to look also more at the regional people. A lot of our films are coming from those other fests, so I can talk to a programmer there sometimes and be like, “Hey, how did this play? How was the reaction? Do you think this would be a good fit here?” One thing that I would say came out of the pandemic is film festivals, like the industries, are more connected in the United States. So, a lot of us are members of the Film Festival alliance, so we’ve gotten to know each other. We network in that way and help each other. Like, people will send me films, and I’ll send them my films.
(UM): I was at the Sundance this year, and when I compared the selection this year with the previous year, it seems to me that more movies are happy/escapism. I’m just curious if you’ve noticed this. Somebody told me that because of the pandemic and COVID, we are now looking more for happy films, not just very sad movies.
(SM): Yeah. I think that is a huge thing, the audiences want joyful, fun, experiential movies. I think you see that in Everything Everywhere All at Once winning the Oscar such a genre movie. It’s fun, and it hits on emotional points, but it’s also adventurous. That is the kind of energy I think the average moviegoer wants right now. So, I think filmmakers are leaning into that, especially the genre element. Our particular festival has always been more drama-y, and I’m experimenting this year with some horror and some other things because like, Cocaine Bear right now is doing amazing. People just want to escape, and just have some silliness, and I get that. We still have some heavy films, but I definitely had to shy away from as many as we normally probably would, I would say.
(UM): For selected films, what kind of promotion do you offer? The theatrical screening, cash prize, etc.?
(SM): In our competition, it’s a $1,000 cash prize. Then we do our best. We’ve got over 100 films to be promoted throughout the festival. Then once you’re an alumnus of the festival, we consider you family. So, we do our best to help promote the film when it leaves the festival. A lot of our films get onto iTunes, or they’ll get distribution. So, we’re happy to help promote those in our newsletters and social media. Anything we can do to help get the word out.
Then, also making sure that they connect with people that are attending their screenings to help grow those audiences wherever they go.
(UM): You mentioned at the beginning that you also try to bring movies more related to your region or local issues, like the environment. So, it seems to me that you are also trying to bring new movies or movies not shown in big film festivals. So, I’m curious, how important are ticket sales for you? Do ticket sales impact your final decision?
(SM): For sure. I think a filmmaker doesn’t always realize that when they’re making a film, or submitting it, they need to factor in who is the audience for the film. Would it work here? My personal taste is not the taste of everyone in the city of San Luis Obispo, so I have to always be thinking that. Who is our audience? Who are the people that are coming? Who are the people that are sponsoring? Who are the people that aren’t going to come? The big conversation though, right now, is what many festivals are struggling with — that audience was always older. I’d say 65-plus, and mostly white as well. They are not coming back to the theaters, and they’re not coming back to the film festivals.
So, we are all chasing new audiences and rethinking that. So, yeah, we’ve been talking about taking some risks. Like I said, horror for instance, which I knew was popular, but I have to kind of prove it in concept, and see how it works. It’s kind of like I think the pandemic has just flipped everything on its head, and that’s exciting. There’s a lot of new blood within the industry and programming. It’s like, “Okay. Let’s try some things we’ve never done before. This is the time to do it.” The audience that we always relied on and everything [is gone], [so] let’s shake it up a bit, and push the envelope a little bit more.
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