International Film Festival Summit Meeting

IFFS which was founded in 2002 by Waco Hoover and Todd Brockman held an Advisory Committee Dinner July 27th in L.A. to discuss action on its commitment to promote and strengthen the global film festival industry through education, networking, dissemination of information and the cultivation of high standards for the industry. Attending were myself, Peter Belsito, Anne Thompson (Thompson on Hollywood), Ian Birnie (of the recently decimated LACMA Film Program), Bonnie Voland (Int'l Marketng & Publicity, IM Global), Mike Jones (writer and reporter IndieWire), Rose Kuo (Artistic Director, AFI FEST) and Laurie Kirby (Ambassador Media). It has an impressive roster of advisors and was coming out of a Paris-based summit whose attendees included some of the most important festival leaders such as Marco Mueller. Its 6th anniversary summit will be in Las Vegas' Planet Hollywood Resort. It is planning its inaugural Certification Training Program and has a confirmed faculty and the class is already 50% booked. They are also planning an educational webinar series and a monthly newsletter with contributing editors. An open discussion was held to cover what they might be missing, what they are doing correctly, what they can do better and what its membership can do. It was definitely worth attending.