Why FirstGlance™?
With thousands of film festivals out there, why should you choose FirstGlance™? FirstGlance™ has currently run 20 successful events with our 11th annual Philly festival in October 2008 and our 9th annual Hollywood event in April 2009. FirstGlance™ Films is run by indie filmmakers, so we know what filmmakers are looking for…resources for getting their projects completed and visibility for their projects!!
We have worked relentlessly with sponsors, partners and other professionals in the industry to get each filmmaker the
attention they deserve. Our goal is to get everyone seen, whether it be at the festivals, on cable, on a DVD in your own
home, downloaded full screen right to your computer, in a national theater chain, on an iPod, broadcast on airlines, or to
watch on your cell phone. We are working hard to get you visibility!
What makes FirstGlance™ different from other festivals?
We care about the projects we show and we have heard from both filmmakers and attendees that our festival is one of the best run, most organized and most entertaining selection of projects they’ve seen…and some filmmakers have been to hundreds of festivals.
We are the only festival that has two separate annual events, one on each coast.
We have a feature length and short screenplay competition each year.
We launched in 2008 a shorts online contest for an unlimited amount of shorts we cannot program into our real world event, due to time constraints.
We offer a multitude of Filmmaker Perks.
We do not duplicate our program, we go through the entire prescreening process to bring in fresh, new, talented filmmakers
to each and every event. We program multiple projects per screening, so you get a wide array of entertainment at a reasonable
price.
We give personal attention by keeping the Official Selection in the loop by email all the way to the event and offer them complimentary All Access Passes.
We award every Official Selection with an awards package valued at over $200.00
We offer Official Selections the opportunity to promote their project with FirstGlance™ at a fraction of the cost they would pay on their own to advertise in local press.
We have an in-house printer that can help you defray costs of posters and postcards.
We have teamed with a marketing company to help you promote your specific title, if you prefer.
The entry fee you pay online is the only fee you will ever have to pay.
We will never ask Official selections to pay for screening placement or booths.
We don’t charge exorbitant prices to either the filmmakers or the attendees at the festival.
We have after parties for filmmakers to mix and mingle and have a great time doing informal Q and A’s at the party venue.
We have cultivated a true indie spirit at our events and you can feel it in the air when you take part as either a filmmaker or an attendee.
Opportunities for Shorts
We are one of the only festivals to offer all Official Selections in our short categories (shorts, shorts too, mini-docs, music video, animations) the opportunity for distribution both online, and in retail venues for sale and rent, at absolutely no cost to the filmmaker. This program will produce two professionally glass mastered DVD sets each year. With the growing opportunity for short films, we will also be offering some amazing opportunities in the near future, including download to own, personalized DVD mixes, cable offerings, handheld downloads and other markets not yet tapped.
We are currently negotiating for the release of a multiple DVD set filled with award winning short films to be released in major retail outlets in 2009!
Feature Length Opportunities
In our feature length category, we have seen an amazing thing happen to FirstGlance™.
Currently, we have an 80 percent success rate with our Feature Official Selections.
FirstGlance™ screens approximately 12-15 features a year. If your Feature is an Official Selection you have a 80% chance your project may get picked up for theatrical, retail, DVD or cable distribution.
In the Press
We have been named by Moviemaker Magazine as “One of the 20 Best Film Festival Investments” and one ot the 40 “Indie- Friendliest Companies” in the industry.
Film Festival Guide’s Chris Gore has called us “One of the Indie Fests to Watch”
We are continually featured in Film Festival Today Magazine, and we have been named by TIME Magazine, as “One of the Festivals, For the Rest of US. PRESS PAGE
Prize Packages
Our prize packages vary and change from year to year, but every year they get bigger and better. Our goal is to create a prize package that will help the filmmaker create new and better projects. We are working hard to add some amazing prizes to our packages.
We look forward to 2009 and are in negotiations to acquire HD and MiniDV camcorders, editing programs and the computers to edit on, camera support, sound equipment, lighting kits, writing and storyboard programs, location services, royalty free music and professional scoring, video rawstock, insurance deals, studio time, etc.
About Us
FirstGlance™ Film festivals began in 1996 in the basement of a small theater in Center City Philadelphia.We started as a small theatre company in Philadelphia that wanted to help fellow filmmakers get their projects shown in a public venue for others to enjoy. It’s mission was a one time weekend to show projects that might otherwise not be seen by moviegoers in the Philadelphia area. With a rented video projector and a bunch of large screen TV’s, we had a successful weekend showing about 20 projects to about 150 people. After the event we received multiple calls and emails from filmmakers and attendees. The FirstGlance™ Film Festival was born. FirstGlance™ decided to move forward and make its festival an annual event. With filmmaker interest, our sister festival opened in Burbank California in 2000 to a similar audience in a 35 seat screening room and has also become a growing annual event.
By 2009, The FirstGlance™ Film Festivals have shown over 1000 award winning films to over 25,000 attendees and has grown to 200 seat venues with state of the art projection capabilities.
To date, FirstGlance™ Film Festivals has produced twenty film festivals and has broadened its audience of both filmmakers and attendees. Currently, FirstGlance™ Film festivals receive close to 1500 entries per year and show close to 75-100 projects a year.
In 2009, FirstGlance™ finds itself on the cusp of a new generation, where 24p, HD, and computer animation can be created on a limited budget. With the creation of new technologies, short films will be the next hot acquisition.
In the past year, we have acquired an acquisitions arm for short films (live action, docs and animated) and FirstGlance™ is on the ground floor of the technology offering filmmakers distribution of short films to cable, internet, retail and rental, DVD distribution, airline network distribution, handheld technologies (iPod, Cell phone, and handhelds). With the potential for your project to be seen by millions of people all over the world and the opportunity for you to profit from each market, don’t pass up FirstGlance™.
We want to be your venue of choice for theatrical, distribution to DVD, Cable, HD, and Internet.
In our continuing efforts to support, encourage, exhibit and create new opportunities for truly indie filmmakers, we hope you are as excited as FirstGlance™ to become a part of what is sure to become the next generation of viewing, both in the theater and on TV and the Web.
We thank you for being part of the FirstGlance™ Film Festivals.
Our festival philosophy:
FirstGlance Film Festivals would not be possible without indie filmmakers making great films, we thank you for your consideration and support of our events and website, and we look forward to offering filmmakers opportunities no other festival in the world can.
Film festivals would not exist without your perseverance, hard work, and your loyal and undying vision to create art the way YOU want, without the assistance of big studios and outside investors, for that we salute you, and we hope someday to have the opportunity to show many more films and have longer more sustainable events!!
