FAMU’S Festival and Dramaturgical Strategy

1) Festival applications and premieres policy:

FAMU submits applications for films to be featured at both domestic and international film festivals through its Artistic Output Distribution Centre – AODC (Centrum distribuce uměleckých výstupů/CDUV), which helps students navigate the network of festivals and the distribution chain.

FAMU Dramaturgical Board assists AODC personnel in selecting the films, assessing the potential of student films with regard to international festivals.

There is a certain number of festivals that are of ultimate importance in terms of their prestige, focus and scope. Therefore, applications for these festivals are fully under the control of the school/AODC. These are the festivals listed the AA category.

For certain festivals, FAMU as a school is usually allocated a specific number of films that may apply or waivers (available applications), or is given a limit for the total time (minutes) of its entire film collection, which is why FAMU reserves the right to process the applications itself further to a consultation with the Dramaturgical Board.

Category AA film festivals usually demand that they be the ones to premiere a film globally (to show it for the first time ever). Most other festivals stipulate that they want to premiere films internationally (the first ever screening outside the film’s country of origin) or nationally (the first screening in the country). AODC’s objective is to ensure that all the films that the Dramaturgical Board identifies as a priority for international festivals indeed premiere internationally at prestigious festivals outside the Czech Republic. Therefore, it is important that all applications be made with AODC’s knowledge, avoiding a situation where high-potential films apply for festivals of local or lesser prestige before applying for AA festivals.

The films that the FAMU Dramaturgical Board determines to have a lesser potential for international festival distribution should also apply through AODC, but their quantity will be limited depending on the number of waivers available to the school and on the capacity of AODC personnel. Authors may submit applications for their films on their own following a consultation with AODC personnel.

2) FAMU Dramaturgical Board and its principal values

The Dramaturgical Board would like to emphasise this: the expectations on the part of film festivals and on the part of FAMU as a film school do not necessarily have to be the same. If a film is not selected to be screened at a major festival, this does not mean it has failed fatally, nor is it a message as to the film’s quality.

Making its decisions, the Board takes into consideration its shared knowledge of dramaturgy, the selection criteria and the current trends in global cinema. These are the primary aspects that shape its assessment. In no event does it substitute the school’s internal film evaluation: it is a tool used to usher films into the festival context and assess their distribution potential.

Furthermore, the Board strongly recommends that films submitted to it for assessment be completed. Incomplete films are inevitably disadvantaged in evaluation since the unfinished bits make it difficult to assess how the film as a whole will function once completed. Board members watch the films either as part of final commission screenings (which means that the films must be fully completed in time for the final commissions) and/or online.

When assessing films, the Board takes into consideration the following criteria on the basis of its own experience with the process of selecting films for leading festivals:

1. aesthetic innovativeness/ingenuity of approach,
2. topic, the way it resonates in society, and its treatment,
3. complexity of the cinematic language (synergies between the individual parts),
4. potential position on the festival map and the context of the current cinema.

The success of films in the selection process for prestigious festivals is currently dictated primarily by the originality and personal approach to the subject, a clarity of vision and comprehensive use of the cinematic language, the integrity and coherence of the individual components of the narration, a fresh approach to the narration, and generally a creative approach that could be summarised by the phrase ‘the courage to take risks.’

Generally speaking, the dramaturgy of major festivals does not favour derivativeness, that is, approaches strongly influenced by well-known authors, even if they are applied with a high degree of artisanal competence. This offers better chances to films that are not afraid to risk and push the limits of cinematic language regardless of the risk of failure.

Although it may seem that there are certain ‘thematic formulas’ that open the doors to the selection for elite events (anthropology of disappearing communities, a focus on gender issues, topics of sustainability), it makes no sense to pursue these notions of what makes a film ‘successful.’ A clarity of vision, a comprehensive treatment of the chosen topic and the functioning and coherence of the film as a whole play a much bigger role in the selection process. Thus, it is pointless to make films based on a stereotyped idea of what prestigious festivals expect. A singular approach may ultimately work better than a current topic.

The shared objective of FAMU as a school and its distribution centre is to assist in developing the personalities of filmmakers who put expressing their own personal worldview first.

FAMU’s Dramaturgical Board will take all of these criteria into consideration when making its decisions and issuing its evaluation statements. Its objective is to reflect on the relationship between a film and the current festival traffic and prevalent trends; not to decide whether or not a film is a success in terms of the educational process.

3) Choice of festivals:

Several thousand festivals take place all over the world annually, and it can be difficult to navigate such a quantity of events. This is why AODC assesses festivals based on the following criteria when preparing festival submissions:

• type, prestige, and history of the festival,
• dramaturgical focus and specific films’ chances considering the festival’s profile,
• qualifications for Oscars, European Film Awards and/or other awards,
• availability of waivers to the school,
• amount of submission fees.

Upon request, AODC gives students advice regarding the choice of festivals in order to avoid FAMU films applying to take part in less important or even predatory film festivals.

Considering the fact that most international festivals do not demand that the films they show be global premieres, it is possible to screen films at domestic events and festivals without major restrictions. However, there are certain domestic film festivals that are a priority for FAMU (KVIFF, Jihlava IDFF, Anifilm, Finále Plzeň). Therefore, it is appropriate to also apply for Czech film festivals through AODC.

4) Further film distribution:

Following the national and international premieres, AODC’s objective is to ensure the greatest possible exploitation of the film in festivals, usually over the course of one year. Since the competition sections in the majority of festivals exclude films older than one or two years from the competition, subsequent promotion of films through festivals is only possible in non-competition sections. Along with that, it is also possible to show films on a one-off basis as part of special features or include it in cinema distribution. AODC personnel also make sure that films are exploited commercially on television and streaming platforms, and available through the school’s non-profit VOD platform, www.famufilms.cz.