This coming Saturday, I depart for Amsterdam, Holland where IDFA (the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) is held annually. This year, the festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary. I’ve been obsessed with going for a while, and it’s sort of miraculous that I’m going this particular year, but I am.

from Kara Herold’s short Bachelorette, 34, USA, 2007

One of the largest and most important documentary markets and festivals in the world, IDFA’s program is the standard bearer of what will play at a lot of domestic festivals in ‘08. Scrolling through the film program, there seems to be quite a few older films and not as many premieres as they’ve had in the past, and the opening nighter, Richard Robbins’ Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience is a film that’s already had its television broadcast. I don’t know if they’re trying to mix it up because of the anniversary thing, or if there just weren’t more compelling films to show that were made in the past year. However, IDFA, because of where it falls in the calendar year, is usually showing what we might see at, say, Sundance early next year. In the States, the Utah fest, for a lot of folks, is the true commencement of a festival season.

This will be the first time I attend a major festival outside my own country and I’m anxious to see what the differences will be, if any, particularly in terms of what will be talked about at panels and other events and discussions that they have on tap. I feel certain topics at this point have been beaten to death. There is also an Online Docs and Cross Media section which will include mashups, vlogger videos and online premieres of films screened at past IDFAs.

I think the closest I’ve come to a truly international scene, domestically, was at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, California (which just ended a few days ago). I also help produce festivals and, part of what I do is oversee the creation of the brand and identity of a festival and its execution in all forms of media. The more I do this, the harder it gets, because more and more entities are vying for the hottest products out there. But not all festivals consider clamoring for the premiere or the first-look a top priority. Depending on where they are in the world, the artistic director or executive board may have a very particular ethos in mind, due to where they sit geographically, and what happens to be going on in that region politically, socially and economically.

As more and more local and regional festivals crop up, the truly international fests can, perhaps, pull more specific focus on their sense of place in the world, or specialize in some other way, because calling yourself “international” is the equivalent of saying “all natural” or “new and improved.” It’s more advertising speak than anything substantive. And it sounds impressive.

The Middle East is a part of the world vociferously courting culture from abroad. Formerly closed societies are poking out into the world by making a splash in the arts and are anxious to open doors to exchange, and, to me, this is a good thing. The Dubai International Film Festival started in 2004 and, in just three years, has grown in stature and international notice very quickly. It’s prime objective, as is true for two more new fests that will crop up there in spring 2008, is to highlight and showcase Arab cinema and its filmmakers, to recognize other countries of Asian cinema, and to focus on what’s coming out of Bollywood in India. Dubai is not a place short on glamour, but it’s also not Hollywood, either. It’s a region with many restrictive mores, but those restrictions can create new ways of communicating artistically and that’s quite exciting. And it’s not difficult for a festival to succeed when it concentrates on the filmmaker and provides lots of networking and exposure to press and sales agents for that filmmaker.

What’s interesting is that online studios are now coming to people like me wanting to create physical festivals based on the success of their Internet ventures. They have a built in audience of filmmakers and film watchers; they have revenue structures; they provide a showcase; and they help market and distribute original content. But, seemingly, people still want to physically gather and sit in darkened theaters and watch films together. And then talk about those films afterwards, preferably with the filmmaker present. And then go drink and carouse. And get up the next morning and do it all over again. Some of these new fests are turning away from the competition or prize-winning models, which is also interesting since this has been de rigueur ever since festivals existed. This is part and parcel of a filmmaker’s “festival strategy”–to see which prizes they can bag, or how many festivals they can appear in as an “official” selection.

It would be nice to see juries expand a bit beyond the usual suspects, too. It’s time to mix it up a bit and, perhaps, have films judged by folks that don’t necessarily come from the film world. There is already stifling insularity that exists right now at most fests. And, as articulate and engaging as these festival panelists are, I want to see new faces and hear new voices. Again, that’s why I’m anxious to see who’s there in Amsterdam or who will be there in the Middle East or who will show up for a tiny new festival on some small island off the coast of, say, England next year. Lots of little pockets of the planet will be populated by film festivals and those “communities” that will stem from them will, hopefully, become more relevant than what the event’s profile on the world’s stage happens to be.