With less than two weeks remaining until the end of the year, the mailbox for the December 31 is the postmark deadline for filmmakers submitting their work for the 2008 edition of the fest, its tenth anniversary. As in recent years, there are three primary categories open to submissions; Wisconsin's Own, Wisconsin Student Shorts, and the Open Reel. Unlike last year, though, this date is the sole deadline for submission regardless of the category, making for a mad rush during this final month of the year. And as always, there is no shortage of hopefuls looking to get their films screened at the festival. "We had a total of 269 films that were submitted in all three categories last year," notes Hamel. It's a good bet that there will be as many if not more sent to the festival this year. Last Monday, there were 13 separate entries that arrived at the festival offices, and this pace is likely to persist through the end of the month. "That's one of the fun parts," she says, "picking up the stack of mail each day and looking at the DVDs in them." In addition to numerous short and feature length works created by Wisconsin-based filmmakers, Hamel is also receiving and reviewing submissions from all over the world in the Open Reel category. "So far we've received films from Iran, South Korea, Canada, Israel, and the United Kingdom," she says. "I've been looking at films from countries all over the world for the rest of the festival program too." Hamel is currently immersed in programming. Along with the submitted films, she is looking at many others to round out the program, including works already screened at other international festivals, those made by filmmakers who have been previously shown at the Wisconsin fest, and simply those featuring stories, subjects, or themes that she things would be a good fit. "I have been making dozens of requests to directors, production companies, distribution companies," Hamel explains, "all of these people from around the world hoping they'll allow me to take a look at their films." She has been working on selection since September, started booking films in October, and has been watching anywhere from three to ten films per day since, with handful arriving every day. "It's one of those parts of the festival where you can never feel like you've done enough," Hamel declares. "There are new things coming around the corner every day. I am up to my eyeballs in films, and some of them are really dynamite. When I watch a film, I am thinking this could be great for the Orpheum or the MMoCA or Cinematheque, and I can already see an audience." In fact, she has already decided upon some films and lined-up filmmakers to attend the four day festival, running over April 3-6. "It's pretty evident to me whether a film is going to be a good fit or not for the festival," she says. "I sometimes wonder with the huge proliferation of film festivals all over the country, what it must be like for filmmakers going through this process, though. Obviously I'd like to think we're a good match for Wisconsin films. But for everybody else, it must be a horribly challenging task to decide which festivals to try to enter. There are just too many choices out there. I hope we convey to filmmakers who might not be familiar with the festival about its spirit and what our audience is like, so they feel that we're a strong match."
The Wisconsin Film Festival gets set for 2008
Programming underway as submission deadline approaches