Council OKs $30K for film festival

Noaki Schwartz

NEWPORT BEACH -- The new Newport Beach Film Festival received a major pat

on the back Tuesday from the City Council, which granted the event

$30,000 -- 10 times the amount awarded to the former festival.

The council approved the grant in a 7-0 vote with little or no

deliberation.

The now-defunct Newport Beach International Film Festival only once

received $3,000 from the city during its four-year run. The original

festival folded when founder Jeffrey S. Conner declared bankruptcy last

fall.

“I think [former festival organizers] asked every year, but were never

able to provide me with as much information as I needed to make a

recommendation to the council,” said Assistant City Manager Sharon Wood,

adding that the current group of local business people, members of the

Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau and UC Irvine and Chapman

University faculty, is much more organized.

Wood said that because the new festival board was able to give her basic

information -- such as a budget and how many screenings would be featured

in Newport Beach, city staff was able to recommend the grant to the

council.

However, festival spokesman Todd Quartararo pointed out that the $30,000

is still a fraction of what most comparable festivals, in cities like

Palm Springs and San Francisco, request from their local government.

Last winter, the council gave the festival $7,000 to help with start-up

costs. Council members at the time agreed to consider chipping in more if

all the screenings took place in Newport Beach and after supporters

recruited other sources of funding.

Organizers were able to attract more than $540,000 in sponsorships, but

could only secure $56,000 in cash. That prompted them to approach the

city just weeks before the event’s start date.

The festival begins with a gala reception March 30.

Indeed, the biggest difference between this year’s festival and those in

the past is that the new event will center entirely in Newport Beach.

The eight-day event will feature 137 shorts and 45 feature films. There

will also be a two-day seminar series for the community April 1-2,

Quartararo said.