The tape machine is chewing on the digibeta cassette like a cudding cow. An exploding projector bulb screams like an incoming artillery shell. The fire alarm is triggered and water cascades into the cinema. 350 soaked people stream out into the cold.

The bedside alarm goes off and I open an eye. Hmm. 3.10am. Nice. How I hate these reoccurring dreams only days before the festival ;)

Apart from the vertigo-inducing nightmares that play out in my head during a couple of hours sleep I’m ridiculously excited about this weekend. The numbers are seductive, we will screen 113 films from 27 countries; but we’re not projecting numbers here, we’re showing some of the World’s best independent films - each one representing the heart and soul of the director, actors and the production teams involved in this crazy process we call filmmaking.

And for me that’s what stands out with independent films – soul. I’m lucky enough to have already seen all of the films in competition (and the many more that we unfortunately cannot fit in) and I’m honoured to be able to present such a great slate of films to our 2009 audience..

The imagery is poetic, The storylines epic, The overall effect inspiring. Trust me; these films will open your mind.

Don’t walk – run to ECU 2009.

P.S. Can someone please get that cow out of the projection room?

The tape machine is chewing on the digibeta cassette like a cudding cow. An exploding projector bulb screams like an incoming artillery shell. The fire alarm is triggered and water cascades into the cinema. 350 soaked people stream out into the cold.

The bedside alarm goes off and I open an eye. Hmm. 3.10am. Nice. How I hate these reoccurring dreams only days before the festival ;)

Apart from the vertigo-inducing nightmares that play out in my head during a couple of hours sleep I’m ridiculously excited about this weekend. The numbers are seductive, we will screen 113 films from 27 countries; but we’re not projecting numbers here, we’re showing some of the World’s best independent films - each one representing the heart and soul of the director, actors and the production teams involved in this crazy process we call filmmaking.

And for me that’s what stands out with independent films – soul. I’m lucky enough to have already seen all of the films in competition (and the many more that we unfortunately cannot fit in) and I’m honoured to be able to present such a great slate of films to our 2009 audience..

The imagery is poetic, The storylines epic, The overall effect inspiring. Trust me; these films will open your mind.

With our first submission deadline fast approaching, 15th of December, things are hotting up here at The European Independent Film Festival. Our selection committee is pouring over our submissions as we start putting together a knock-out ‘official selection’ to present to our large international audiences on the weekend of the 13th – 15th of March 2009.

As in previous years I’m being blown away by the quality of the standard of the films that I’ve seen so far, and I must admit that I’m not looking forward to the brain-crushingly difficult task of having to choose from such a high number of great films to complete the official screening slate.

So all in all it’s busy here as we prepare for what should be a mind blowing festival here in Paris in March and don’t forget there is not much time left if you want to submit your films! You can do that via our website www.ecufilmfestival.com

In keeping with my usual finishing please find below a very cool poem. This is from Roberto Bolano, because when I read him, I believe that anything is possible.

But every single damn thing matters! Only we don't realize. We just tell ourselves that art runs on one track and life, our lives, on another, and we don't realize that's a lie.
ROBERTO BOLANO

Have a good Christmas everyone! Scott Hillier

That brings me to another point, seeing great independent films when you want – and wherever you are. As I mentioned in my last Festival Update, it has always been terribly frustrating for me and my staff not being able to tell people where they can catch another look at a film that has played at the festival – up until now it’s always been ‘I can put you in touch with the filmmaker, and see how you go from there’. But now with The European Independent Film Channel being super close to going ‘live’ that is all going to change! Keep an eye here for more information or if you are interested in submitting your film to the channel drop us a line to filmchannel@euroindie.com

In keeping with our mantra of discovering, screening and promoting the very best indie films from around the World, we have been busy cementing partnerships with other festivals as well as working on additional screenings all over the place. We have had successful screenings at some of our partner festivals (where they play a selection of our award-winning films under the banner of ‘Europe’s Best Independent Films’) which I find is excellent exposure for those filmmakers PLUS we’ve also had positive feedback about our proposed USA for summer ’09. Fingers crossed!

In November I went up to the Stockholm International Film Festival. What a great place, the nicest people and of course I got to see some fabulous films! While their focus isn’t exclusively on independent films I’m going to keep bugging them for a partnership arrangement so that I can try and entice some of the great Swedish films that I saw there to submit to us. I have to thank Bea Tammer very much for our industry pass!

I won’t go on a lot about this because we have a section set up on the website which will explain it better than me, but I’m tremendously excited by this new initiative. How many times have you been thrown into an unexpected ‘pitch session’ and not had the right words at hand? One of my more memorable occasions was at a urinal in a dark and dodgy bar in LA one night when I found myself next to a big wig from Miramax - no it didn’t work out and my film remains unmade by them! – so I figure that every indie filmmaker attending the festival could do with some brushing up on his pitching skills. Who wouldn’t want to have a perfect pitch? We’ve set aside time for a series of workshops on Friday the 13th (auspicious right?) of March that will hone your pitch and after those sessions 20 filmmakers will get the chance to pitch to a panel of producers / directors / talent scout and the like on Sunday afternoon before the awards ceremony. Sound cool? Sign up today and have a go – nothing like standing up in front of people with a clock ticking in front of you and a million ideas racing like madmen in your head right? Contact sarah@ecufilmfestival.com for more info on how to join us in this new little adventure.

Our pilot episode is completed and is beginning to make waves! The half-hour show is dedicated to what is happening in the world of European indie cinema is a mixture between Entertainment Tonight and Talking Movies. We spotlight three films, interview the directors and intercut them with film footage. We also have a ‘reportage’ segment where we highlight something cool and funky that is happening around Europe. In the pilot we have a segment called ‘China invades Paris’ where our host Katharina explores the film scene in China - a la Francaise! We also have a ‘Country Spotlight’ and talk about how everybody is claiming Greek cinema is dead. I take the opposite approach because I’m seeing some indie films coming out of there which are truly amazing! Lastly we show a music clip from an independent artist in the hope that this exposure will bring a director looking for a sound track to the musicians door! So keep your eye out for EuroIndie TV!

Welcome to The European Independent Film Festival’s October 2008 newsletter. Faithfully edited by the indefatigable Rhiannon Hobbins, we hope this newsletter will give you a thorough and concise update on the hottest independent film festival in Europe, as well as some relevant (and hopefully interesting!) news about the Indie film industry from around the World.

Read on

For the longest while I have been struck by the fact that with so many great indie films being made all over the World but they seem to be nearly impossible to see when I WANT! Coupled with the never-ending requests ‘where can I see this film again?’ that happen after films screen at ÉCU, it seems to be only logical to have a place where audiences and independent filmmakers connect.

Now there are a lot of avenues for this to happen, and we have all been bombarded with requests to go on this digital system here, or this web platform over there, but I’ve decided to launch The European Independent Film Channel in conjunction with JOOST and Boulder Creek International. Again, as we know we are in the infancy of this revolution and there is nearly no, I repeat nearly NO, money in this (the revenue stream is a transparent split).

But as a filmmaker whose films have made successful festival circuit tours, I’m bugged when I see them snuggled up nice and cozy-like under my bed doing not much at all. I’d like to have them out in front of people earning a couple of cents every time one is watched. Anyone agree?

Boulder Creek International (www.bouldercreekinternational.com) is a distribution company closely associated with ÉCU and Matt Jeschelnik is heavily committed to this project. For more information send a mail to annie@bouldercreekinternational.com