It feels like it was just a while back, and well, it was a while back actually, that I got to be involved in a film festival overlooking submissions. I remember I got both a chance to be on the team for HNIFF, AND do coverage on it as well. Well, they’re back for another year and they’ve made amazing improvements. Thanks to the help of partners, and sponsors. If it hadn’t been for their amazing PR person, Lesley Diana, they wouldn’t have reached it to the heights they’ve made by now. And those heights are so sky high. Even better, since Lesley was in our contacts, she reached out to me offering an interview opportunity with Dean Redman and Marc Prinizvalli which caused me to excitedly jump sky high. I met with them the last time and we all had an awesome experience both at the festival and the afterparty.
When I met Marc last time, his wife was having a baby and ever since the baby was born, Marc and his lovely little family have been traveling all around the world, checking out many different locations. During that time, he still kept in contact with Dean, and the best friends talked about how to improve the festival with their coordination methods and tips. So we planned to meet at a lovely little coffee shop in Vancouver and talk about what is going on for this year’s HNIFF. Upon arrival, Dean and Marc exchanged the coolest hug/handshake combo I ever witnessed. The two truly are the bestest of friends. We went on to talk and talk and I learned that things are certainly different compared to last year. For starters, there are about 4 events going on in-person, so let’s learn about those and the rest of the festival right now.
HNMAG: It’s been quite a while since I saw this festival and you guys. What has changed lately?
Marc Prinizvalli: Well, we haven’t slept much. (laughs)
Dean Redman: What’s changed is that we have a new venue. The HR McMillan Space Centre, Marc was able to use his powers to attain and I don’t know of any other film fests that have taken place there. Maybe space-oriented film festivals, but this is the first one I’m thinking that’s at the space centre AND we have not only online screening this year but also in-person screenings, in-theatre screenings as well. We did not have that last year.
HNMAG: So there’s multiple methods with screenings? Why is that?
Marc Prinizvalli: It starts with the online screening, that started January 11th and will run all the way to February 8th which is 2 weeks after the awards ceremony. The reason we did this is because once we know who the winners are, I want people to go and actually watch the movies. Right now, 95% of the movies are available to view online for free. When I’m saying for free, it’s because that all of our partners basically paid for everybody to see. That’s really important to us because we want cinema magic experience for everyone. No matter how much money you make, whether you have or don’t have, where you are in the world, you can still experience it.
HNMAG: And where can we expect the in-person events to be happening?
Marc Prinizvalli: The first event will be online, then the second one will be held at Cineworks. We’re going to use the screening as a way to announce the nominees, publicly and officially. We will basically screen the 5 nominees per category. We wanted to get something kind of low-key and chill, what we’re going to do is it’s going to be from 4PM until 10. I don’t expect anyone to run a marathon, otherwise we will need a lot of coffees. We’re going to do the categories. There will be livestreams as well, so people can watch all over the world.
For those wondering about the screeners, that’s happening today at 1131 Howe St, back entrance to be exact. Marc explained from 4 to 5 will be student films to start things off, and then the other films by category will be in a order that goes like this: Best Animation, Best Documentary, Best Cinematography, Best Director, and finally Best Actor/Actress.
And thanks to their awesome partners, every screening is absolutely complimentary. Come on in, step out for a while, check out another category in an hour or two. Dean himself had to add it was quite the process for the judges. I can understand that. Something else understandable is how people want to learn more about cinema, so there will be a panel with the judges which will be a Q&A on Jan 23rd at the D6 Lounge at Parq Casino. There are also Q&A’s with filmmakers during certain screenings, so I had to delve deeper into that.
HNMAG: The livestreams along with Q&A’s with the filmmakers is an interesting new idea. Given how films are coming all around the world, how were those coordinated with all the different time zones?
Marc Prinizvalli: Well, obviously, we can’t be everywhere at the same time. The festival is being held in Vancouver so we’re going to stick with the Vancouver time. While we’ll be live-streaming, it will be recorded so anyone can watch it later whenever they want.
Dean Redman: You may be in Uganda at 3 in the morning, but we’re not going to have 24 different shows to cover the time zones. Maybe in the future, but not right now. AI is amazing, so who knows what that has in store for us?
Marc Prinizvalli: Maybe AI can replace our host for streaming.
HNMAG: I guess we can expect more interesting things for the future?
Both: Absolutely.
Dean Redman: Yup, we can guarantee that.
Marc Prinizvalli: What I’m trying to convey is I want our festival to be as much for filmmakers as it is for general public. After the first one, I got to spend time with all the judges understanding cinematography. We wants our judges to give as much tips and tricks to the public.
Dean Redman: Free knowledge.
HNMAG: So you’ll find this will expand the audience?
Dean Redman: A lot of movies you’re going to see in this festival are going to end up being feature films. A lot of the directors, producers, and writers are future big stars. It’s kind of an opportunity for somebody to actually see their lineage. It’s on exciting opportunity to see what happens in the future.
Marc Prinizvalli: It’s like peeking in a curtain and you get kind of a sneak peek.
As we talked about how everything has beginnings, Dean mentioned how he saw the very first film George Lucas made was a student film and how it had those Star Wars elements in it. We all agreed that in a matter of time in years, just about anything can transform into greatness. That’s when I went into the next important factor: Progress.
HNMAG: And with it being your second year, what have you learned from last year to contribute to these improvements?
Marc Prinizvalli: Everything we talked about, accessibility, and a lot of work into making sure people don’t have to spend money to view the content. There’s so much good content that comes in and we want everyone to see it. That’s what the online screening is all about. That’s what we learned from last year, and there’s a lot of stuff we want to do but we’ll wait till next year.
HNMAG: As festival coordinators, what are your primary duties?
Dean Redman: I am in charge of judges, so I’m in charge of acquiring the talent. Getting the judges, choosing them, and explaining what their duties are. Also the pre-screeners that watch the movies before and filter the movies before being watched by the judges. I’m responsible for scouting and finding them, and I’m also the MC so I’m basically the person who mic’s the night. Also lately, I have been press, so I’m also a promoter. I’m not the face of the festival, more like the mouth.
Marc Prinizvalli: I’m in charge of the logistic moments. How do we make things happen? Just securing venues and partners to match what we’re trying to accomplish, so me and Dean, we talk to the team about what we want.
Dean Redman: I’ll say that Marc and I, and the team, have had lots of communication and he was in Paris. It didn’t matter, sometimes Marc would stay up late and I would too, talking about different things. We have our duties, but our hands are never empty.
HNMAG: With the festival’s current duration, has there anything you’ve witnessed that was really amazing?
Marc Prinizvalli: To me, it’s how many votes. Today, we got 16,000 since we started. It shows that people are wanting to see more, so we see what they connect with, it’s crazy.
Dean Redman: He’s just like Magneto from X-Men. He puts on a device and sees what’s happening in Austria, and New Zealand. That’s interesting.
Marc Prinizvalli: And just how people have been sharing the festival with people. The Choice award brings a lot of that sharing aspect of their work.
Dean Redman: For me, it’s the vast amount of global submissions from different countries. It’s not just US, England, and Scotland. It’s many many places and what I found interesting is the amount of people just from our 1 year how many people were interested and wanted to come to the festival or having their film put in the festival or helping out in some way. I didn’t realize how much word of mouth got out, because we didn’t have much time but this year we’ve had a little more time with the help of Lesley Diana. And I must say to Marc’s credit, the website he created is honestly one of the most amazing websites I’ve ever seen and I’ve had a part in saying “Oh, I’ve noticed this” and he’s so good for taking comments. Even as I’m on the phone with him, he’s taking care of it.
HNMAG: What topics do you have to discuss with the rest of the team to make sure the festival runs smoothly?
Dean Redman: One of the things to me is making sure the guests have a pleasurable experience, but not to their expense. Our guests are welcome, they’re going to enjoy the experience, but if there’s any people acting in a not-so desirable way, our volunteers safety comes first.
Marc Prinizvalli: Bottom line is it’s just like running a company. There’s not much difference so we follow our own weaknesses and strength and then we use that so we have memorized everything so we each have our own kind of thing. The bottom line is project coordinated. Topics have been started from the top: This is what we want on this date. That’s the project management style I’ve always had.
HNMAG: And how long did it take to get this one ready for the run?
Marc Prinizvalli: I think it’s years in the making. Logistically it would take a good year to have everything sorted.
Dean Redman: Year and some.
Marc Prinizvalli: It’s a year once you know what you want to do. And that’s the biggest part, that takes a long time. It’s all that brainstorming with the development team, and Dean, knowing exactly where you want to be in 1 year, what people think of what we do at the event, and what we want them to remember. From then on, we all agree on what we want to do and work on delivering it. 8-10 months of full time work.
Dean Redman: And often some things you have in mind, you realize it might not be the best idea or two ideas might be best combined together. There is always a lot of room for adjustment.
Marc explained he spoke with Dean throughout the year, and the team. The way ideas bounce off everyone really works well and with the tools they have, they make vast improvements. Dean mentioned how he’d give Marc an idea at the beginning of the year and they’d come back to it a long time later. What started as a good idea would become even better after a discussion. Other ideas included acquiring a location for the Awards ceremony and Marc found a place he had never been to before. The Space Centre of course. Anyways, what I’m getting to is that’s the big night, and we hope to see you there. It’s sure to be the experience of a lifetime.
HNMAG: And the Grand Award Gala at the Space Centre. How did you manage to get a place like that?
Dean Redman: I think he’s from another planet.
Marc Prinizvalli: I know film festivals are at usually at theatres. I thought “When it comes to awards ceremonies, what do we want to happen?” because there’s no rules that say it has to be done this way. You see what the Oscar’s look like.
Dean Redman: They don’t do it in movie theatres.
Marc Prinizvalli: No, exactly. So we thought, “Let’s see what else is out there” and we find something a bit different. Give a different kind of flair to it, so when we started looking, I came across this and thought “Let’s check it out”.
HNMAG: Have you already made plans for the next one, and what do you hope to improve on for it?
Marc Prinizvalli: We haven’t made plans for next year, we are at the stage where it’s all about taking notes, what do we want. The awards ceremony on the 25th, we’re probably going to take the Sunday off and on the 27th, we’ll decide what do we want.
Dean Redman: How did we do, did we like it, what do we improve…
Marc Prinizvalli: Yes. What feedback did we get. I don’t want to get too far ahead, I do have some ideas in my head of where I want to take the festival. But I need to review this one first and get feedback from everyone. See what people liked and didn’t like, what can we do better. That’s the starting point to next year.
It’s a continual project that goes on all year long and and a lot of filmmakers could relate to something like that. The festival is just getting more and more exciting, I advise heading on out for one of those screeners today, and while you’re at it, book some tickets for the Awards Ceremony. If there’s something you REALLY want to learn, book a ticket for the Q&A because that sounds like it will be a learning experience like no other. You can grab your tickets on film freeway today. Hope to see you at the festival.
