The Clearwater Film Festival was a grand experiment I performed from 2009 through 2012.

With the best of intentions at heart, I schemed to create a brilliant film festival that everybody would love. Inspired by my wonderful experience at the Festival du Cannes, where I won the 24-Hour Film Challenge, I set out to create a new festival for Tampa Bay that would, in time, rival all others internationally. I did create a lovely event that had feature length and short films, animations, documentaries, elegant parties with live entertainment, and a film industry trade show. Looking back, I believe I had the right idea but presented it to the wrong community.

Links to our festival programs and news stories about us are at the bottom of this page. Enjoy!

THE 2010 FESTIVAL

One day in late 2009, as I was writing a check to send a short film entry to another festival, I thought to myself “I wish somebody would send me a check.” At that moment it hit me that there was no reason somebody shouldn’t. If I had my own film festival and somebody had a film to submit, sure, they would send a check, right?

That night I mapped out a business plan. The next day I targeted theaters and hotel venues to take part, introducing myself as Mike from The Clearwater Film Festival. Some people said it was about time we had a film festival in Clearwater, others insisted that they had attended prior exhibitions but had not come last year for various reasons. My due diligence proved that there had never been a Clearwater Film Festival at all.

Being welcomed into every door I knocked upon was a fresh respite from the reluctance of those who would shy away from my advances when selling advertising. It felt natural and right. Within 48 hours of designing the film festival and mocking up a website I was informed by my employer that my services were being terminated. Such timing set me onto the task of building the festival into the spectacle it became, complete with elegant parties, stellar entertainment, and the introduction of our trophy, the Wavecrest Award, to honor key talents, and the Actor/Writer/Director defined as the Triple Threat Filmmaker.

I reached into my pockets and funded the entire event to my last dime with over $60,000 in receipts to prove it. Although the financial return was vapid, the event itself proved to be exceptional. I was told by everyone there that I had created a beautiful festival; some said the best they had ever attended. Attendance was nowhere near the thousands I had anticipated. It was much smaller. My best estimate ranges from 450 – 500 people.

One film veteran was so impressed, he told me “You created a first-year festival that looks like a ten-year festival. It’s really fantastic.”

But fantastic did not equate to profitability. Most attendees came to see one film only, prodded by friends or relatives involved in the production.

FINAL STATS

72 Films

11 Educational Panels

19 Featured Panelists

6 Musical Acts

3 Theaters

500 Attendees

ROI $1.00 for every $6.00

THE 2011 FESTIVAL

Immediately on the heels of the 2010 festival, I set out to build 2011 with a more cost effective campaign. Having developed the infrastructure from the beginning, everything fell into place rather simply.

This time around I narrowed the production down to a simple venue at a hotel on Clearwater Beach. From there, we branched out to include music stages at bars and other hotels in the immediate vicinity. In addition to entertainment, we also hosted a film and music industry trade show for performers and producers to network and reach out to new clientele.

Having learned that the general public was not our target audience, I set out to reach artists and producers to attend and wound up with around 300 guests. While the audience was a bit smaller, having a better focus on who the participants were proved beneficial in a networking aspect and the trade show participants were particularly pleased with their results. Musical acts, on the other hand, seeking an audience, were not greeted with the vigor I had anticipated. Other local annual music festivals, which had also provided free entertainment, always brought renown performers, whereas the undiscovered talents on our stages were found begging for listeners. A power outage on Clearwater Beach knocked out one band and two films.

The results of this festival proved that what I had was a rather expensive hobby, not the paying job I was attempting to create.

FINAL STATS

57 Films

6 Educational Panels

12 Featured Panelists

12 Musical Acts

2 Theaters

300 Attendees

ROI $1.00 for every $1.00

THE 2012 FESTIVAL

Never one to leave without a fight, I collapsed the festival and sought to move it away from Clearwater. I interviewed theaters throughout Tampa Bay to reinvent the production in a place it would be better received. My goal in rebranding as Tampa Bay International would be to find the local audience it needed for sustainability as well as a venue to call home.

Despite “my naivete, my cockeyed optimism,” to quote Professor Robert Tregenza, who struggled with his Tampa International Film Festival at the University of Tampa from 2003 – 2007, I pushed quality foreign and independent films to the brink in seeking acceptance.

The Studio at 620, a tiny theater space in downtown St. Petersburg, offered to assist with the development and marketing. Their loyal audience and local sponsorships appeared to be the right vehicle for this latest incarnation to grow from.

The Global Film Initiative (GFI) allowed us to procure films from their catalog for monthly screenings with the goal of raising funds for a bigger, stronger festival in the fall or 2013.

Even with keynote speakers and discussions on the films themselves the screenings did not gain the momentum needed to propel us forward. Our fourth screening had only seven attendees and an equipment failure which forced that event to be cancelled. Future screenings at this location were aborted.

In a final attempt to find an audience I partnered with Tugg, a film distributor who helps independent films get shown. We devised a one-day festival at a theater in Tampa to showcase the remaining GFI films I was contracted to screen and planned to show several short films procured from Florida based filmmakers we screened at the first two festivals.

I did all of the free advertising I could as I had nothing left to invest. Not a single ticket was sold.

FINAL STATS

3 Films with discussion panels

50 Attendees

Fees paid through sponsorships

THE WAVECREST AWARD

In the spirit of competition and to honor those artists who excelled we proudly presented the Wavecrest award.

The Wavecrest award is an original design by San Jose CA sculptor Jeff Owen. A sleek plate of shining steel dances with a ribbon of hand cut metal filmstrip to become a one of a kind work of art that we are proud to have as our own. The Wavecrests were awarded to the best works in these categories: Feature Film, Short Film, Documentary, Animation, Director, Original Music, Screenplay, Actor, Actress, Supporting Roles, International Selection and Triple Threat Filmmaker. In 2011 the supporting actors, international films and screenplay categories were eliminated due to budget constraints.

Some winners and nominees listed below are linked to IMDb pages or videos.

2010 Winners & Nominees

Best Supporting Actor

Winner John Webb – Railed Up And Wrecked

Nominees

Carson Grant – Sneakers & Soul

Bryan Lukasic – No One Island

Don Stark – My Name Is Jerry

Best Supporting Actress

Winner Kate Layden – Innocent Crimes

Nominees

Katlyn Carlson – My Name Is Jerry

Catherine Hicks – My Name Is Jerry

Ali Webb – Railed Up And Wrecked

Best Animated Film

Winner Thembi’s Diary

Nominees

A Soldier’s Tale

A Tall Tale

Entanglement

The Stain

Who Do Voodoo

Best Documentary

Winner The Story Of Human Rights

Nominees

Absent

Astronaut Pam: Countdown To Commander

Healing Neen

The Day The World Turned Dayglo

Walking With Life: The Birth Of A Human Rights Movement In Africa

Best Screenplay

Winner Twenty Ten

Nominees

Innocent Crimes

Over Cards

Best Musical Score / Soundtrack

Winner Sneakers & Soul

Nominees

Entanglement

The Story Of Human Rights

LASTRAIN

Best Short Film

Winner LASTRAIN

Nominees

Dialing Amy

In Our Closeness

Over Cards

Picture Day

Sissy

Best International Film

Winner LASTRAIN

Nominees

Innocent Crimes

Railed Up And Wrecked

The Day The World Turned Dayglo

The Stain

Twenty Ten

Best Actress

Winner Malerie Grady – Sissy

Nominees

Megan Alston – Twenty Ten

Marie Cecile Anderson – Sneakers & Soul

Flora Martinez – LASTRAIN

Best Actor

Winner George Telfer – Innocent Crimes

Nominees

Raul Alvarez – LASTRAIN

Mitch Firth – Twenty Ten

Neil Webb – Railed Up And Wrecked

Best Director

Winner Tony Lopez & David Sanz – LASTRAIN

Nominees

Justin Evans – A Lonely Place For Dying

Jonathan Green – Innocent Crimes

Byron Kaye & Mark Alston – Twenty Ten

Neil Webb – Railed Up And Wrecked

Best Feature Film

Winner Twenty Ten

Nominees

A Lonely Place For Dying

Hope For A Thorn

Innocent Crimes

My Name Is Jerry

Sneakers & Soul

Best Triple Threat Film Maker

Winner Neil Webb – Railed Up And Wrecked

Nominees

Eric H. Heisner – Friend Of The Devil

Stacy Marr – No One Island

Christian Cooks – Positive

2011 Winners & Nominees

Best Animated Film

Winner The Happets: In The Kingdom Of The Sun

Nominees

Bait

Sharfik

The Birds Upstairs

Tooth Fairy Affair

Best Documentary

Winner Chasing Water

Nominees

Ask Us Who We Are

Challenging Impossibility

Return

The Test

The Triangle Of Death

Best Musical Score / Soundtrack

Winner Sharfik

Nominees

Challenging Impossibility

Fatakra

New Year

Some Jobs Are Simple

Best Short Film

Winner 21 (Twenty One)

Nominees

ashley lynn

Fatakra

Finding Soil

God Of Love

Some Jobs Are Simple

Best Actress

Winner Joanna Douglas – New Year

Nominees

Karin Bertling – 21 (Twenty One)

Molly Ryman – Some Jobs Are Simple

Meena Serendib – Fatakra

Best Actor

Winner Aaron Salgado – ashley lynn

Nominees

John Bregar – New Year

Ryan Herman – Tears Of Remedy

Matthias Malgren – 21 (Twenty One)

Best Director

Winner Csaba Bene Perlenberg – 21 (Twenty One)

Nominees

Phil Borg – New Year

Alex Colls – The Happets: In The Kingdom Of The Sun

Peter McBride – Chasing Water

Best Triple Threat Film Maker

Winner Luke Matheny – God Of Love

Nominees

Ronnie Kramer – Sixty in 60

Lee Thongkham – Tears Of Remedy

FESTIVAL PROGRAMS

The 2010 Clearwater Film Festival Official Program

The 2011 Clearwater Film _ Music Festival Official Program.pdf

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