SPECIAL UPDATE!

We have secured writer/producer/director John Hancock as our keynote speaker, along with guest Dorothy Tristan (writer/actress). We will have a special screening of his film WEEDS starring Nick Nolte and a workshop presentation as well. His film company Film Acres is based in LaPorte, IN. Website: www.filmacres.com

We also be joined by our friends and River Bend supporters of Glass City Films, who will do workshops, head shots, and present their latest film SEPARATION ANXIETY. Website: www.glasscityfilms.com

The 4th Annual River Bend Film Festival will be held April 11 – 14, 2012. The main fest takes place at the Century Center in downtown South Bend Friday night April 13 and all day Saturday. Two special events will be held that week prior to the main fest: On Wednesday night, April 11 (TBA) and Thursday night, April 12 (our usual free screening on the IU South Bend campus).

Keep checking back here for announcements regarding films, special guests, and other events connected with the festival. We are proudly sponsored by Mid America Filmmakers and Downtown South Bend.

We will be doing quite a bit of updating our sponsors, info, and ticket prices and so forth.

Due to Easter, we have decided to moved the festival to Friday & Saturday April 13 & 14, 2012.  We have also confirmed a free Thursday night screening of RBFF 2012 films (like we have done the last 2 years) on April 12 at the Indiana University  South Bend campus sponsored by the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts.  So mark your calendars!

We are now accepting entries for the 4^th Annual River Bend Film Festival, which will be held Friday & Saturday April 13 & 14 (Updated), 2012 at the Century Center in downtown South Bend, Indiana.

The festival is an excellent opportunity for Midwest filmmakers and beyond to screen their shorts and features and to network with other filmmakers.  We’ve screened hundreds of shorts and features from across the U.S. and from around the world. This year we are excited to feature a unique event called 3-Fest during our festival, which show cases 3-minute short films by adults and students.

We accept entries by students and filmmakers of all ages. Early and regular submission fees range from $5 to $25, and include student discounts of $5 off any entry.  All entries go through Withoutabox.com:

We are sponsored by the non-for-profit Mid America Filmmakers (www.midamericafilmmakers.org) and Downtown South Bend (www.downtownsouthbend.com). We have received an Indiana Arts Grant for our 2012 festival.

Mid America Filmmakers recently was awarded a generous matching grant through the Indiana Arts Commission on behalf of the 2012 River Bend Film Festival. The festival has been sponsored by MAF for three years and is the premiere film festival of Northern Indiana, bringing in local, regional, national and international films of all genres.

Each year over 50 films are screened, as well as a variety of film related workshops presented by independent filmmakers and industry professionals. Past speakers have included Stephen Susco (The Grudge), Lloyd Kaufman (The Toxic Avenger), Jack Olesker (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Rodney Sciba (Fast and Furious) and the film production company Glass City films. MAF looks forward to working with the festival again this year.

Congrats to everyone on the achievement of this grant.

During the festival screenwriter/keynote Stephen Susco heard many pitches, then narrowed it down to five finalists, and here are his official results for the winners from an e-mail he sent today:

To the point:  in keeping with my tradition of indecisiveness, I’ve decided to pick TWO projects to mentor – UNTITLED MOBY DICK SERIAL KILLER PROJECT (Jon Simpkins) and HUMBLEFIST (Ken McCoy). In spite of having to pick “winners”, I sincerely hope the rest of you push onward with each of these! — Stephen S.

Congratulations to Jon and Ken, and thank you to everyone who made the pitch workshop a huge success!

Due to the number of excellent pitches at the 3rd Annual River Bend Film Festival, Stephen Susco has picked five participants to take to the next round of the pitch process. These five participants will have until Friday, April 22nd to develop their ideas in more detail. They will present their detailed pitch one of three ways– a phone call, written as an outline or treatment, or as a pre-recorded video. Whatever mode you choose, must be relayed through myself. Again, congratulations to the following five people for making it to the next round in the pitch process:

Mike Malesa
Stephen Bailey
Jon Simpkins
Ken McCoy
Theron Patrick

Keep checking back for the official announcement of the Pitch Workshop winner!

We are still awaiting Stephen Susco’s winner of his pitch workshop, but here are the results of the awards presented Saturday night. Each winner will receive a certificate in the mail and the Local Gem winner’s film will air on local SBT2.

Audience Choice Award-Toddstock
Best Animation Award-Kidnap
Local Gem Award-Fresh Fruit Pie
High Point Award-Missle Crisis
Program Director Award-Toddstock
Best Documentary Award-China: Rebirth of an Empire
Friend of the Fest Award-Glass City Films
Honorary MAF Member Award-Stephen Susco
The Stephen Susco Award Winners-Der Sandman (Feature Film) and a tie: Two Friendly Ghosts & Madness of War (Short Film)

Congratulations! We had many amazing film this year.

Another fantastic fest has come and gone, and I’m always happy to say it was our best one yet! So many great things about it, but I’ll touch on some of the highlights. We’ll also be uploading videos and photos soon.

#1 Films & Filmmakers – Everyone commented on how great the films were this year – the quality and variety.  Many local filmmakers attended  of course, but we were excited to see many others from across the country, including New York and California. They all enjoyed talking about their films during Q&A’s and said they really loved the intimate nature of a festival our size.

#2 Stephen Susco & The Pitch Workshop – Stephen is a good friend, very generous, and a super smart guy. His film High School was very well received, but the best part was his movie script idea pitch workshop where attendees got to tell him their movie idea, and he gave feedback. Winning idea gets personal mentoring from him on it. Original scheduled to run 2 hours, attendees couldn’t get enough so we had to move them to another venue to continue their discussion for another 2 hours! Incredible.

#3 Glass City Films (Head Shots, workshops & their movie!) – I can only saw wow and thank you, guys. We awarded them our Friends of the Fest award for their incredible contribution to the quality of the festival. Actor head shots were a smashing success, keeping the photographer Cole and the makeup artist super busy. John and Mike’s cinematographer and editing workshops were hugely beneficial, and their new film Happily After really wowed the audience.

#4 Acting Workshops – Scot’s interactive acting for the camera workshop and Ed and Rodney’s Acting in the Midwest & LA workshop really gave local actors a lot of awesome tips and techniques for working in film locally and beyond. I appreciate Rodney flying in from LA to bring us his experiences.

#5 Other Fun Stuff – Kessler Crane had a fantastic display of camera support equipment, including too large jibs to hold up out entrance banner. Fun F/X gave away prizes and gift certificates and decorated the whole hall with their movie character stand-ups. All the filmmaking booths had really outstanding displays. Attendees really enjoyed all the cool stuff to look at and interact with.

#6 Festival Awards – We handed out a number of awards (soon to be listed here), including the Local Gem award which went to Carl Obremski and his TV pilot  Fresh Fruit Pie.  As a prize, he will have film aired on our local  SBT2 station.

#7 Our Sponsors  & Press – A major thank you to all our incredible sponsors and coverage we got from local TV stations, magazines and newspapers. We are especially thankful to Notre College of Arts and Letters, Downtown South Bend, the Century Center, SBT2, Mid America Filmmakers, WNDU, Duley Press and every one else listed on our website. You helped make this event a huge success.

Online ordering has ended so please purchase your tickets at the door. You may still purchase a head shot session for $25 at the door.

We had another amazing night at the festival this evening at the Century Center with screenwriter Stephen Susco, some cool short films, a batch of recent Notre Dame student films and the award-winning feature Happily After by Midwest filmmakers at Glass City Films.

Films start up again Saturday at 9 a.m and run all day until 11 p.m. Three screening rooms and five workshops on acting, editing, cinematography and script pitching. Check out our 2011 festival schedule link in the left-hand column to see everything at a glance.