Universal Film Magazine - Issue 8 - www.ufmag.biz

Universal FilmIssue 8 - 2013UFFO “Best Business Practices”adopted by 185 InternationalFilm FestivalsBest Business Practice forFilm Festivalscompetition in their own festival.Nothing illegal aboutthat; a number of festival organizersregularly promotetheir own and even theirfriends’ films.The screening programmewas set up with their own filmtaking prime position in thewhole lineup. In addition thefilm was nominated in 7 ofthe 10 categories. Althoughthe film was slated by manyof the UK critics it managedto win an award in every category.Almost 400 other filmmakerswho submitted theirfilms to this festival paid $50for the privilege of their filmbeing chucked in the trash.What was very apparentwas that there needed to besomething in place to stopthis from happening. Therewas no code of practiceanywhere in the world thatwas fair to both filmmakersand film festival organizers.We wrote a very basic set ofbest business practices andpublished it on the socialnetworking sites LinkedInand Facebook to judge thereaction. The response fromboth communities was phenomenal.We were inundatedwith e-mail from all cornersof the globe, telling us horrorstories, and why the code ofpractice is needed.The whole idea behind acode of practice was to improvethe relationship betweenindustry professionalsand acknowledg theimportance of enhancedcooperation between filmmakersand film festivals. Itled to a heated debate overmany months by festival directorsand filmmakers. Bothcommunities had very strongopinions about what shouldand should not be included.On the one hand the major-ity of festival directors run legitimateoperations, providea great service and want toplay fair; on the other handthe filmmaking communityhad a gut full of the fraudulentactivity that was takingtheir hard-earned dollars. Thefew bad apples in the barrelwere blighting the entire filmindustry.The UFFO best business practiceshas ten simple guidingprinciples. The successfulimplementation of this codewas largely dependent onits acceptance by the filmfestival and filmmaking communityas a whole. It is completelyvoluntary and hashelped define the obligationsand responsibilities that filmfestival organizers have towardsthe filmmaking communityIt has a pragmatic approachto implementation that isbased on rational and transparentworking methods.It promotes good businesspractices and assists in thedevelopment of relationshipsbetween film festival organisersand the filmmaking community.The Universal Filmand Festival Organizationwas later formed to monitorthe database of accreditedfilm festivals. Membershipto UFFO is completely freeand is open to all creativeindividuals, filmmakers andfilm festivals. It is completelyvoluntary and easy to implement,in addition it’s also ablueprint for filmmakers inNo 1: Film Festival organizers shouldoperate a transparent selection processand publish details of the selection processand the names of the Jury/selectioncommittee (publication can be after afestival concludes)No 2: Film festivals organizers shouldprovide full contact details for the festivaloffices including address and telephonenumbers and the names of thefestival directors and or committeeNo 3: A Film Festival should publish itslegal status as a company, charity ornon-profit (this only applies to a registeredentity)No 4: Film festival organizers should notshare filmmakers’ financial data with anythird partiesNo 5: Film Festivals should publish a yearby year history of festival winners andfilms officially selectedNo 6: Film festival organizers, committeeand or jury should not show ordemonstrate any favouritism to any filmsubmitted to the festival or attempt toinfluence other members of the jury orselection committeeNo 7: Film Festivals should declare thenumber of films sought and/or invitedby the festival organizers to participatein the festival prior to and before thegeneral call for submissions is sent outNo 8: Film Festivals should provide thenames of the selection committee and/or jury members who viewed the submittedfilm screeners to the festival (thiscould be after the festival has concluded)No 9: Film festival organizers should viewat least 5 minutes of all submitted filmsNo 10: All Festival organizers shoulddeclare any conflict of interest that mayarise from any film submitted to or invitedto participate in the festivalwww.ufmag.org60