DOWNTOWN The American Film Market isn’t the only cinematic event taking over Santa Monica this week.
Hoping to draw some of the traffic from the largest film industry trade show, which converges every year in the Bay City and screens films in Downtown Santa Monica’s movie houses, local production company The Vine Entertainment is hosting its first short film festival in conjunction with the Promenade Playhouse.
The Vine Shorts Fest kicked off on Oct. 28 and will run through Nov. 11 with screenings each day in the Third Street Promenade venue’s two stages.
“Who’s next” is the theme of the inaugural event in a quest to discover a fresh creative mind in an industry commanded by the same core group of Hollywood bigwigs, according to Warren Durso, the vice president of motion pictures of The Vine Entertainment, whose offices are located on Ocean Avenue.
“There is so much talent in the world and we keep pulling from the same 25,” Durso said Thursday. “When you look at movies, there is nothing new — it’s all rehashed.”
More than 600 short films, ranging from one to 30 minutes, were submitted. The final screening list was narrowed down to the top 150.
The winners of the best film and best screenplay categories will land production deals with The Vine Entertainment, while the director that captures the short film category will receive distribution deals with the production company.
That’s exactly what filmmaker Kieran Rayment hopes to achieve with his piece, “Confessions of a Slacker,” a semi-autobiographical dark comedy about a writer, who after going through a series of unfortunate events, is forced to face his demons.
“It’s a love story told from a guy’s point of view,” Rayment said.
The 17-minute short is part of a full-length feature film produced by Centurion Films, which Rayment co-owns with college roommate Paul McDuffe.
The two business partners have been trying to secure investors to financially back the full-length feature film, which is estimated to cost in the range of $1 million — the same denomination attached to production deal that The Vine Entertainment is offering for the winner of the festival.
“Confessions” was screened at the Winnipeg Film Festival and the 2007 Universal Film Festival in Kansas City, Mo., where it won for best short film.
Neither Rayment nor McDuffe were able to make the trip from their home in Toronto, Canada, to the festival in Santa Monica because they are shooting another film.
The film festival is one of a succession of pet projects of both the Promenade Playhouse and The Vine Entertainment, which joined forces this summer in order to expand the reach of both entities. The new alliance also yielded an industry showcase sponsored by The Vine and held at the playhouse.
As expected, the event has attracted industry insiders in town for the American Film Market, identifiable by their black handbags and name tags. Over the past five days, Durso estimates that close to 400 people have trickled in and out of the playhouse.
The event will most likely be scheduled for late October to early November each year to coincide with the American Film Market, which attracts thousands of industry insiders from more than 70 countries.
“It’s fun to see people floating in,” said Natalia Lazarus, the founder of the Promenade Playhouse.
FRESH PERSPECTIVE The goal of this year’s event is to give a talented filmmaker a shot of breaking into the competitive
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 3, 2007. Read the original PDF.