April has been insane! We are ramping up for a great festival weekend in September and it’s so amazing to have the level of community support we are receiving from the Old Town Winchester merchants! So many merchants are offering their spaces as a screening venue, so many restaurants have asked to participate, and everyone I talk to is excited to join us as we foster the indie spirit! We thank you all and we’re doing our best to include everyone we can in smart, dynamic ways. Thank you so much Old Town Winchester for your part in making festival weekend an amazing experience for our locals and for our visitors.

Venue contracts are rolling out, too! Most of the great spaces we used last year are back again and we’ve added several new venues in Old Town as well. Welcome to Remember Yourself Massage and to New Lifestyles. Both in the heart of Old Town and both with amazing spaces that we’re so excited to include for your cinematic experience!

Our screening panel met this month and watched the first submissions. I think they are going to have some very tough decisions to make as we progress! The projects coming in cover all genres, categories, and duration. I don’t envy the job ahead of them at all. I know they are up for the task and I predict amazing programming for SkIFF 2014.

This week the festival staff is road tripping to Columbia, S.C. for Indie Grits! We’ll spend the weekend taking in films, meeting filmmakers (some of whom be participating in SkIFF), and just taking in the experience of a top notch festival. I can’t wait! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram to keep abreast of our shenanigans this weekend! Let’s see if we can trend #SkIFF and #fostertheindiespirit!

Stay tuned, we’ll be announcing all the venues, sponsors, events, and other surprises very, very soon! As a matter of fact, if you have one of our souvenir buttons I’d check the back of it for a promo code and look for another blog post in the very (very, very) near future regarding passes!

Thank you all!
Brian

Sometimes when I see a film it sticks with me, for better or for worse, for years. One such was 2004’s “Closer” with the staggering ensemble cast of Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Clive Owen, and Natalie Portman. I left that screening feeling different. To see the cast in such believable, crass, rude, and [Read More…]

The new year is bearing down upon us at breakneck pace and we here at Skyline already lining up interviews, collating information, dreaming up big time sponsors and thinking of way to make Skyline Indie Film Fest 2014 amazing. We had a great inaugural event in September 2013 and the feedback was amazing. Filmmakers that were present were pleased and several plan on making a return visit this year whether their next project is complete or not. The venue owners were great, accommodating and supportive almost all of them are going to be with us in 2014 and we couldn’t be happier. Here’s to a great festival in 2014.

Goals for 2014 are simply making Skyline Indie Film Fest bigger and better without losing focus on the principle, indie film. We hope to at least double the number of films (screeners and judges, you’ve been warned!), better focus our marketing and outreach to build our audience, more day-of presence, and we hope to include an opening reception, awards banquet (informal), live music events, and more. It’s going to be a great 3 days!

I’m very happy to have Addie Lingle back this year as festival programming manager. Last year Addie was tasked as a screener and as SkIFF progressed she became one of our most vocal ambassadors. We’re very excited that she has stepped up and is willing to donate her time and energies continue to grow this festival. Thanks Addie, can’t wait to get started!

Keep your eyes peeled for announcements in the near future! We’re working on events and activities between now and festival weekend to keep you indie spirit high and satisfied!

Best,
Brian

Tickets are on sale now through this website and Eventbrite.com, just search for “skyline indie film fest”. Matinee shows are 7.50 and evening shows are 9.50. The Double Features showing at Willow Grove are 12:50 unless you walk or bike to that show then you’ll get a 1/2 price discount! Just use promo “green-feet” if you buy in advance (this is only for Willow Grove shows). There is also a festival pass available, in advance, for $50. One low price and all the festival programming you can fit in! Limited availability and on sale until Thursday September 12, 2013 at noon! Pay online, bring your ticket to the Winchester Book Gallery and exchange it for your souvenir bracelet which will then be your pass to get in every show. Get yours today!

Got questions about the festival? Email us or call The Winchester Book Gallery for information, times, directions and anything else. For up to the moment information, changes, additional screenings, surprises, contests, and more follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

We hope you’ll join us for the fun. Happy screenings everyone!

Brian

I’ve been asked how Skyline Indie Film Fest is going to work? How did you get it off the ground? Is it open to the public? How much are tickets? Is there going to be an awards ceremony? So obviously there is a dearth of information about the festival. Let’s get that squared away, shall we?

September of 2011 I thought I should take on this adventure of launching an indie film fest to take place here in Winchester. I’d use venues and vendors from Old Town, City of Winchester, and Frederick County and capitalize on a wealth of sense of community in this area and try to create a new, hip, cultural event that can appeal to a wide range of demographics. Days, weeks, and months later I’d gone over all aspects I could think of to launch this event. Speaking with potential venues, sponsors, filmmakers, restaurants and caterers, web designers and marketing companies. I soon realized this would have to be a bootstrap event and hope that people would get excited and come aboard to help “foster the indie spirit”. They did, they, have, and they still are.

I solicited filmmakers from around the world. Thousands of emails, hundreds of phone calls, faxes, re-directions from filmmaker to distribution specialists, to studios and on and on. After some time my pitch became solid and I started getting traction and ultimately submissions started rolling in. Each submission gets viewed by the festival screening committee. Three volunteers are on the committee and majority rules, two yeas it’s an official selection, two nays and it’s thanks for your participation but you’re not in the competitive festival. As director of the festival I reserve the right to program some of the nays, non-competitively, during festival weekend. …perk…

Official selections are then sent the judges! All of whom I hope will be in attendance on festival weekend. These four volunteers were asked to participate based on several criteria and a great respect for their opinion on film and filmmaking. They will return their results, comments, and ratings of each film to me and then I’ll commission the trophies! Every official selection will be programmed multiple times during festival weekend and each screening is open to the public. Matinees are $7.00, evening shows are $9.00-$9.50 and will be available online as programming gets finalized. You’ll be able to pay at the door of each venue, too, but we recommend purchasing your tickets in advance. Many of the filmmakers and actors will be present and available for Q&A sessions so we hope as audience members you’ll be inclined to engage the filmmakers after the screenings.

We hope we can put together an awards presentation ceremony but we’re playing fast and loose for now. We are coming down to the wire as festival weekend is only 5 weeks away and there are so many plans still up in the air. Just remember; we’re indie, we’re bootstrap, and we’ll get it done!