Film Festival Organizers Happy With Attendance, Look to Grow Next Year

Organizers of the are already calling last week's two-day event a success and are busy planning for next year.

The festival, which took place Friday and Saturday at the and  movie theaters in downtown Birmingham, was organized alongside the Detroit Independent Film Festival (DIFF), culminating in the second annual .

More than 2,500 people streamed through the theaters' doors and , according to Meghan Edwards, vice president of  Bingham Farms-based Identity Marketing & Public Relations, which was responsible for organizing the film festival.

Although the festival's biggest premieres — including Kill the Irishman and Things Fall Apart — didn't sell out, Edwards said, the theaters were still crowded. Scheduling probably had something to do with it, Edwards said, because one of DIFF's biggest premieres, Answer This!, was scheduled to start a half hour after Kill the Irishman premiered Friday night.

The weekend was good for Detroit Independent Film Festival movies, said DIFF executive director Robert Butler, who said attendance this year for DIFF films was triple last year's. Detroit Independent Film Festival showed movies at the Birmingham 8 over the weekend as well as at Wayne State University and the Burton Theater in downtown Detroit.

"It was exceptional this year," Butler said. "We had a splendid turnout."

For first-time festival honoree and the director of the Michigan Film Award for being short documentary, Defying Deletion: The Fight Over Iraq's Ninevah Plains, Andre Anton said he's very thankful to the people at DIFF and Uptown.

"As an inde filmmaker, you're not in it for the money," Anton said. "You're in it to network, to get people to see your hard work and hopefully get recognized for it. I got to experience all of the above. So it was very much worth it."

For Theresa Stothers, an Oxford resident who attended the first night of premieres, anything that celebrates Michigan talent is a good excuse for a festival.

"I loved that this festival showcased the really great artists in Michigan," Stother said.

While ticket sales and other financial statements won't be made available for a few more weeks, Butler said he thinks the festival was profitable. Based on cash ticket sales at the Burton Theater alone, Butler said the festival should break even.

In Birmingham, Butler said films such as Defying Deletion, Butterfly Kisses and Annabelle and Bear sold out their screenings. In addition, it was standing room only at the event's closing film, Chasing Normality, at the Burton Theater, he said.

"I've been absolutely flooded with e-mails (from filmmakers) thanking us for our work," Butler said.

Already, plans are in the works for next year's festival. At the Michigan Film Awards on Saturday, Uptown Film Festival co-executive director Jeffrey Spilman said the dates have been set for next year: March 8-10, 2012. Spilman said organizers expect to have five to seven major premieres at the Uptown festival alone.

Butler said DIFF expects to grow as well. Next year, he said, they hope to make the awards ceremony "more grand" and further establish the festival's credibility to attract more filmmakers and attendees.

For Anton, this is a year to grow for both DIFF and the Uptown Film Festival, but while some things could have been done differently — the timing of the premieres, for example — the festival exceeded his expectations.

"As long as the overall experience for everyone, the filmmakers and the audience included, was great, then they can use that positive momentum going into improving the next year."

Though the city didn't have a hand in planning the film festival, Bob Bruner said if festival organizers reached out to the city, he would be open to working out a partnership for either promoting the event or expanding its reach, such as allowing the festival to screen movies in the park.

However, though he was out of town for the festival itself, Bruner said the only negative repercussions he could think of would be the strain on parking.

"I'm glad to see it was a success this year," Bruner said, "and certainly we're excited for next year."

John Heiney, excutive director of the (PSD), agreed. He said he's heard no complaints from downtown business owners, noting he's impressed with the level of attention the festival received from news outlets across the region.

"Anytime you have an event like this, it just helps to elevate Birmingham's profile," he said.

Heiney said since the Birmingham 8 was renovated into a theater in 1996 and the Palladium 12 opened in 2001, the city hasn't played host to any film festivals. But with two major theaters within walking distance, a film festival makes sense. "I'm definitely looking forward to it coming back next year."