B!tchFest Film Festival & Screenplay Contest

TO SUBMIT PLEASE VISIT OUR FILM FREEWAY PAGE:

https://filmfreeway.com/BtchFestFilmFestivalandScreenplayContest

Welcome to the 1st annual B!TCHFEST: An International Women’s & LGBTQIA+ Film Festival & Screenplay Contest with a groundbreaking in-person event for both Filmmakers and Screenwriters in the heart of Los Angeles. At B!tchFest we’re not just breaking glass ceilings; we’re shattering them into a million pieces by unleashing the Power of Female and LGBTQIA+ Voices in Film and Television!

Get ready for a cinematic celebration that’s not just a festival – it’s a movement. B!tchFest is on a mission to redefine the narrative by proudly showcasing the BEST Independent Films, Feature Films, Short Films, Documentaries, Animated Films, Student Films, Music Videos, TV Pilots, Web Series, Screenplays, TV Scripts, and Stage Plays crafted by the most Badass Women and LGBTQIA+ Creators in the industry.

In a world where only 26% of key production roles belong to women and a mere 16% of major studio films flaunt LGBTQIA+ characters, B!tchFest is determined to rewrite the script. We invite you to be a part of a whirlwind Film Festival featuring empowering stories, fierce creativity, and unapologetic voices at the forefront of cinema.

By providing a platform for recognition, awards, and promotion; we aim to break barriers, amplify voices, and pave the way for a more inclusive entertainment industry. Join us for a festival that goes beyond screenings—promote yourself and your projects during live panels, flaunt your creations to cheering audiences, walk the red carpet, and forge connections with leading industry trailblazers who share our commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Our esteemed panel of award-winning industry professionals including directors, producers, agents, managers, executives, and casting directors will meticulously assess all film and screenplay submissions. Expert script readers, filmmakers and story analysts are slated to carefully review all entries. The top contenders are then forwarded on to our executive industry judges, from various sectors within the entertainment and publishing industries, for final evaluations to determine the winners for each category.

The B!tchFest Film Festival & Screenplay Contest is set to take place at the WhiteFire Theatre on Ventura Blvd in Los Angeles on November 24, 2024.  We're gearing up for an in-person event that shines a spotlight on films and screenplays submitted by the most talented Women and LGBTQIA+ Creators from around the world. The winning screenwriters and filmmakers will join our red carpet event, screen their creations in front of a live audience, snag trophies at our awards ceremony, participate in panel discussions that are recorded and streamed on our website for promotion, and engage in an industry meet-and-greet event aimed at making new connections.

Your story starts here— together we can make cinema HERstory! Submit your film or screenplay today and be part of a revolution that refuses to be silent. We welcome you to the B!tchFest family — where Badass B!tches reign supreme!

AWARDS & PRIZES

SCREENWRITING AWARDS:

Best Feature Screenplay (60 - 140 Pages)

Best Short Screenplay (Under 60 Pages)

Best LGBTQIA+ Screenplay (Any Length)

Best First-Time Screenwriter Screenplay (Any Length)

Best TV Pilot Script (1/2 Hour or 1 Hour Script Format)

Best Web Series Script (Up to 60 Pages)

Best Stage Play Script (Any Length)

FILM AWARDS:

Best Feature Film (60+ minutes)

Best Short Film (1 - 60 minutes)

Best Documentary Film (Any Length)

Best Student Film (Any Length)

Best LGBTQIA + Film (Any Length)

Best Animation Film (Any Length)

Best TV Pilot Episode (1/2 Hour or 1 Hour Format)

Best Web Series Episode (Up to 60 minutes)

Best Music Video (1 - 30 minutes)

Best Short Social Content Video (5 minutes or less)

The entry fee is applicable per category. By submitting your film to the categories of Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, Best Documentary Film, Best Animation Film, Best Student Film, Best LGBTQIA+ Film, Best Music Video, Best TV Pilot Episode, Best Web Series Episode, and Best Social Content Video, it not only qualifies your project for festival consideration but it also enables your Cast and Crew to be considered for additional accolades, free of charge.

CAST & CREW AWARDS:

Best of Festival / Grand Jury Award Winner

Best Actress / Actor

Best Supporting Actress / Actor

Best Director

Best Producer

Best Edit/VFX

Best Cinematography

Best Production Design

Best Costume

Best Hair & Makeup

Best Original Score

Winners of all Film Category Awards will have a live screening of their film at the in-person festival on November 24, 2024 at the WhiteFire Theatre in Los Angeles.

Trophy’s will be awarded in-person to all winners of the Film Category Awards, Screenplay Category Awards, and Cast and Crew Awards during the Festival Awards Ceremony. These winners will also be invited to speak about their project during the Festival’s Live-Recorded Panel which will stream on our website, take professional photos on the Red Carpet and attend the Industry Meet-And-Greet Event aimed at making new connections. Additionally, all Official Selections and Winners will receive two complimentary tickets to the festival.

The Best of Festival / Grand Jury Award Winner & Best Feature Film Winner will receive a 1-Hour Zoom Mentorship Meeting with one of our Executive Film Industry Judges.

The Best Feature Screenplay Winner & Best Short Screenplay Winner will receive a 1-Hour Zoom Mentorship Meeting with one of our Executive Screenwriting Industry Judges where they will get feedback on their script and advice on how to move the screenplay into production.

The Winner of Best Actress/Actor and Best Supporting Actress/Actor will receive a 1-Hour Zoom Meeting with a Casting Director from Tiffany Company Casting and free admission to TCC’s next scheduled Virtual Acting Workshop.

For consideration, projects should feature at least one WOMAN in a key production role, such as the Director, Writer, Producer, Cinematoprapher, Lead Actress, ect. Screenplays authored by WOMEN are preferred; however, if written by a man, the script must include at least one FEMALE lead character for submission. While projects helmed by men are welcome, they must either showcase a female protagonist or revolve around women's isues and themes to be eligible.

For LGBTQIA+ category submissions, projects should feature at least one LGBTQIA+ person in a key production role, such as the Director, Writer, Producer, Cinematoprapher, Lead Actor/Actress, ect. Screenplays, to qualify, must either include one LGBTQIA+ character, be authored by a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, or the storyline must prominently involve LGBTQIA+ issues and themes.

TO SUBMIT PLEASE VISIT OUR FILM FREEWAY PAGE:

https://filmfreeway.com/BtchFestFilmFestivalandScreenplayContest

We wish you a B!TCHIN' time on your filmmaking & screenwriting journey and we hope to see you at the the 1st annual B!tchFest!!!

www.bitchfestla.com

https://filmfreeway.com/BtchFestFilmFestivalandScreenplayContest

 

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Inheritance (2024)

The outstanding documentary Inheritance had its world premiere in January at the 2024 edition of Slamdance Film Festival. Produced and directed by Matt Moyer and Ann Toensing Set, Inheritance set itself apart from many issue oriented documentaries on middle and upper middle-class problems with frequent academic elucidations.  Inheritance has no implicit appeals for funds to take on the problems depicted nor do producers call for political action. Inheritance takes a refreshingly different approach. It presents marginalized people from the lower end of the class structure through their words and images. The audience becomes part of the community of individuals and families whose life styles have enmeshed them in substance abuse over a long period of time. This abuse is passed from generation to generation who, as articulated by a grandfather, inherit the problem from parents and relatives. The viewers must make sense of what is presented to them. Inheritance reminded me of the 2023 “At the Border”, a Venezuela US coproduced documentary about survival at the Venezuela-Columbia border through the articulations of teenagers and young adults.

Though not spelled out in the film, Inheritance takes place in Pomeroy, a small rural village at the frequently flooded Ohio river in Appalachia with about 1600 residents. Forty percent of the population live under the poverty level and the lone policeman in the film points out that one third of younger people from the village join the army, another third gets involved in substance abuse, and the rest just disappears. As the local reverend and members of the three families interconnected in Inheritance point out, Pomeroy offers no future for young people beyond addiction, the army, or poverty.

The focus of the documentary is Curtis, followed by the film makers over six years from 12-18 who was born into the Ransey family whose seven members from all age groups are featured in the film. Seemingly they all became addicted from an early age, as are most of the family members affiliated with the Ransey family through marriage or otherwise. A few of the grandparents were not addicted to drugs though one relays that she was introduced to them by her daughter who cooked meth in her backyard and sold crack. The homes they live in are crowded with many children, cats, and dogs. Rooms are shown in a generalized disorder and some houses need repairs. But the children have lots of toys, play happily together sharing their games. They do not show any signs of distress even if they are in a room with someone dozing high on drugs. It seems that for the children living in what social scientists call “dysfunctional” families has no observable impact. Experiencing relatives dying of an overdose, parents who shoot up drugs in front of them, and the imprisonment of people they know becomes part of their reality. In other documentaries, experts would redefine it as a mental health issue, but the Inheritance filmmakers prevent that excursion. There is no dressing or sprucing up of the living quarters for outsiders (and film makers), except for church visits.

Curtis seems to be the smartest member of the family with his excellent observational skills, cogently sharing without prompts his experiences with the film makers and his family, including kids. We learn of his apprehension about becoming addicted like other members of his family, a fear shared by his grandparents. Curtis realizes from observing his family, that once strung out on drugs, it is close to impossible to escape from them. The problem of getting out of the addiction is spelled out by family members who tried and failed to escape. Curtis also faces a school issue. When he breaks a rule, like bringing a knife to school, he will be punished more severely given the reputation of his family.

Inheritance includes unapologetic sequences of families in this community. We have a couple injecting drugs in a car and using it as a sales point for their home-made drugs. The son J.P. is picked up from jail by his mother who tells the filmmakers that this is not the first time she got him from jail and that he is a hopeless case. In a car accident when high on drugs he severely injures his pregnant girlfriend. Arrested the next day, four drugs are discovered in his blood and because of the death of his companion he is sentenced to eleven years of jail.

Curtis’s grandfather is very attached to him and is afraid that going through a transitional teenager period may get Curtis involved with drugs. He considers that his family “is all fucked up” and that drug addiction from one generation to the next is as much a hereditary problem as other health issues like heart problems. “You pass addition on to your kids” Curtis shares in part this interpretation because, except for the youngest and some oldest; members of the family are all involved with drugs. Curtis wants to become rich or a youtuber to take care of his grandmother. He believes he is different from the rest of the family. Turning 18, he has not made any of their drug choices and thinks there is hope for the young ones including the baby.

Claus Mueller, New York

filmexchange@gmail.com

 

 

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Berlinale Shorts 2024 – Forms of Us

Berlinale Shorts

 

Berlinale Shorts 2024 – Forms of Us

 

Delicate pencil drawings meet unconventional fictions, personal essays encounter hyper-realistic computer animations, the personal reacts to the political. In the Berlinale Shorts competition, 20 short films of the most diverse kind enter into dialogue with one another, observing how we live together in society and family. The magical finds its way in and animals quite frequently take over the terrain.

 

Please find the film list.

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Cory Reeder's Feature 'Smash Or Pass' To Have Worldwide Debut at Slamdance

Cory Reeder's (https://www.coryreeder.com/) Smash or Pass will have its worldwide debut at Slamdance 2024 on January 19th. 

Reeder wrote Smash or Pass to laugh at the YUCK of modern dating. While so many narrative films showcasing disability are dramatic or depressing, The five minute short ends on a high note. There is so much more to life! The PWD (people with disabilities) he knows are fun, smart, creative, and sexy; they party, fall in love, break up, and hate Mondays just like everyone else. Smash or Pass, universally focuses on dating while showing we all can all be inclusive and learn from our mistakes.

After his divorce, Reeder began app dating for the first time. He was confounded by how curated, disingenuous, and awkward it was. Every woman he connected with had horror stories about men they had met through apps. With his years of advocacy experience, he imagined how much more difficult it must be for a woman with disabilities to date this way. Then, a friend introduced him to the concept of disability devotees, and BOOM!!! Reeder was inspired! 

 

 

The film will screen during Slamdance on:

 *  Fri, Jan 19th, 8:45 PM @ Slamdance HQ @ The Yarrow - Theater B   
  * Mon, Jan 22nd, 6:30 PM @ The Student Union Theater @ University of Utah   

 

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“When the Woodlark Sings“ – Best Director on the International Motion Picture Awards in Canada

We are very happy to announce that the director ANA BILIC won BEST DIRECTOR at the International Motion Picture Awards in Brooklin, CANADA. The festival describes itself: “We crave to form and empower alternate and diverse motion picture society with substantial networking opportunities as an alternate solution from mainstream regulations and culture.” Great honor for both the director and the entire team!

☞ Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/oXuEJiN3rD0

☞ Watch the music-clip: https://youtu.be/sDsy_MdP4gE

☞ More information: https://heidelerche-film.cittador.com/festivals/

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Israeli/American Singer-Songwriter SIMA (Sima Galanti) Unveils New Single & Video for "Devotion"

 

Inspired by the tragic events that occurred in Israel on October 7^th, Israeli/American singer and songwriter Sima Galanti has released her new spiritual song Devotion, while staying true to her rock, edgy sound.

Watch the stunningly shot video, which will be featured at upcoming film festivals, now at Sima Galanti- Devotion (Official Music Video) (youtube.com)

 

 

On Oct 7^th, Sima’s life turned upside down due to Hamas' brutal massacre in her homeland. 

”The horrific massacre, the heartbreaking hostages' situation, the rocket attacks and the war we were forced into, on top of the growing Antisemitism in America and around the world, shook me to my core,” comments Sima.  “I felt like my life crumbled at that moment. I felt so much grief, pain, sadness, fear, and anger that I was isolating myself and sinking into a dark hole, I knew that I needed to process all these difficult and painful emotions constructively and creatively and heal through music, and so, I decided to release a beautiful and spiritual song titled Devotion.”

Penned by Sima, the rock genre song features lyrics in English, as well as in Hebrew, which were adapted from a prayer from The Book of Psalms of The Bible.

“In the lyrics, I chose to change the word “praise" to “prayers” in the phrase O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall say your prayers,” comments Sima. “To me, it felt more like a call for help, a call for God to hear my prayers. I then wrote verses in English and melody around this prayer. I wanted to create a song that also focuses on gratitude and expresses my connection to God, my faith, my roots, and my life journey.”

 

She adds, “Devotion starts very meditatively like a prayer, a form of chant, and is built up into a powerful and intense rock song with heavy guitars and a bass line that captures my emotional turmoil.”

 

The song is produced by Sima and Evan Rodaniche, who also mixed and mastered the track. The accompanying music video is directed and produced by Sima, with cinematography in Jerusalem by Asi Cohen, drone footage in Israel by Roei Fridman, studio footage by Evan Rodaniche, and editing by Michael Marom.

Devotion is available now on iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, and all other major music streaming platforms.  Click Here to stream/download the song now, or listen via the song’s music video at Sima Galanti- Devotion (Official Music Video) (youtube.com) 

The accompanying music video captures the essence of Israel, the Jewish people, the deep faith, spirituality, and connection to the land and God. We see Sima and others praying at the Western Wall, the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, where many written wishes and prayers to God are placed into the cracks of the wall.

The video features footage that blends beautifully with the drone shots in old Jaffa/Tel Aviv, the magical sunsets, the crashing ocean waves, and the mountain trails towards the worn-out and ripped Israeli flag. The powerful visuals symbolize Sima’s life journey and her troubled homeland, leading up to the musical climax of the song.

 

“I’d like to empower and encourage positivity and strength with this song,” she concludes. 

“Through my music, I’m transforming my pain into hope and positivity and I hope that Devotion can give hope, uplift, and inspire others around the world.

 

 

About Sima Galanti - Fortified by the flames of trials, tribulations, and triumphs, Sima Galanti ignites rock with an incendiary spirit of her own and powerful messages of positivity and strength. Born in Israel and based in Los Angeles, the singer, songwriter, producer, and documentarian came to America with a dream of a better life and freedom to be herself.

 

Inspired by everyone from Massive Attack, Bjork, and The Cranberries to A Perfect Circle, System of a Down, Pearl Jam, and Alanis Morissette, she has cultivated a style of her own. Along the way, the songstress also diligently and carefully studied the craft, working under the guidance of top vocal and acting coaches in New York City, including Don Lawrence (Lady Gaga, Mick Jagger, Axl Rose, Bono, Christina Aguilera, and many others), as well as Melissa Cross (Dave Draiman from Disturbed, Anthrax, Bring Me The Horizon, Gojira, Lamb Of God, and Maroon 5). She eventually settled in Los Angeles.

 

Making her debut in 2009 with the single Breaking Down The Walls, she unveiled her first full-length album This Is My Truth in 2012 and the EP Beautiful Liar in 2014. In 2020, Sima hit the ground running with fists raised, eyes open, and heart blazing with her single Runaways. Hyper-charged guitars roar between an arena-ready beat offset by scorching synths. The rebellious song is about staying true to who you are and having faith in what you believe in. Runaways represent individuality, empowerment, transformation, and freedom.

 

Sima also released an acoustic version of Runaways, which later was followed by an edgy version of the 1983 Pat Benatar classic hit song Love Is A Battlefield. She added her touch to the song, bringing attitude with a gritty vocal performance, heavy guitar, and propulsive electronics, she sharpened the song’s edge.

 

That year, Sima also released a rendition of the song The Syndrome by Grey Daze, and in 2021, she released a rendition of the 1984 Madonna classic hit song Material Girl. In 2023 Sima released an original single titled Angel. Devotion marks her latest work.  

 

For more information on SIMA, visit:

Website // Facebook // Twitter // Instagram // YouTube // SoundCloud // Spotify

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81st GOLDEN GLOBES SUNDAY WHO WILL WIN: " "BARBIE," BRADLEY COOPER, "KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

The 81st Golden Globes are back this Sunday on a new network CBS with some new members, always known as the best “party” of the season.  The first televised Award Show of the season, for many years their picks seemed somewhat consistent with the Academy.  Who will win?

 

Christopher Nolan made almost $1bn in box office and brought audiences back to theaters, as did "Barbie," but that didn’t help Tom Cruise last year with his box-office wonder Mission Impossible.

Best Motion Picture – Drama
Anatomy of a Fall
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Past Lives
The Zone of Interest


Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Air
American Fiction
Barbie
The Holdovers
May December
Poor Things


Best Performance in a Motion Picture – Drama
Actor
Bradley Cooper, Maestro
Leonardo DiCaprio, Killers of the Flower Moon
Colman Domingo, Rustin
Barry Keoghan, Saltburn
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers

Actress
Annette Bening, Nyad
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall
Greta Lee, Past Lives
Carey Mulligan, Maestro
Cailee Spaeny, Priscilla

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