Film festival comes into focus

The 2005 Newport Beach Film Festival is coming into focus. Festival

Executive Director Gregg Schwenk and the festival’s staff are moving

into an intense time these days. They are preparing for 300-plus

films and various film-related events to be shown and organized at

theaters and other venues around town April 21 through 30.

More volunteers are needed, and a film entry deadline has been

extended into early February. By April, a year-round core staff of 22

volunteers will balloon to more than 200. Plus, 2005 is a year of new

goals and some firsts for the now 6-year-old festival, which brings

classic and contemporary film to Newport Beach.

During the day, Schwenk -- a Newport Beach resident and a founding

member of the festival -- is senior vice president for RSM EquiCo in

Costa Mesa, where a knowledge of the mergers-and-acquisitions

marketplace is essential to leading a research-and-analysis team for

the firm. The firm helps owners of companies maximize their firms’

value before being acquired by new owners. But in his spare time, a

keen interest in film -- along with his business acumen -- has helped

him and his staff develop the festival.

Schwenk talked to the Pilot’s Ryan Carter.

What are your goals for the festival this year?

We believe that we’re going to be building on what has been a

strong foundation of success over the last five years, and that our

sixth year is going to reflect those strengths. We plan to integrate

different facets of the community into all portions of the festival.

We plan to expand the into areas our audience wished us to. We really

don’t think we’re going to be doing anything revolutionary, but we

think we’ll be very evolutionary in the growth for 2006.

How has the festival changed in these six years of existence?

I think we’ve become more professional. I think we’ve been able to

develop certain facets of our staff and certain components in ways

that are beneficial not only to our local community, but the arts

community overall. These things vary from an extremely successful

seminar program to integration of the universities in the local area.

Now, in 2005, we’ll have our first youth division at the Newport

Beach Film Festival, where we give future filmmakers a chance to

screen their works to a mass audience. These are filmmakers under the

age of 18.

I’d say that when we started the festival, it was two computers

and a copy machine, and now it is scores of computers and multiple

copy machines and a very passionate, motivated staff of people who

want to bring to our community the very best in classic, contemporary

filmmaking. What’s nice about this is that through the experience of

the festival, many of the filmmakers and those who have participated

at some level have come back to work with the festival. An example of

this is Lance Winkel, our director of shorts programming, who in the

second year of our festival actually one best animated short. He was

so impressed with what he saw, he is now directing the shorts

program.

You are seeing people who possibly were involved in the film

industry and are now working for us, finding films, scouting them at

major festivals around the world, members of the community who have

said, “We want to pledge our business support for the festival.”

Major corporations are now seeing the festival as a way to outreach

to the community. We’re excited about the progress we’ve made.

You’ve talked about the festival’s connections. Talk a little more

about them -- how recently they’ve been made and why they are

important?

From the very beginning, the city of Newport Beach and the City

Council, along with Lucy and Leigh Steinberg of Newport Beach, have

been steadfast founding sponsors of the festival.

You’ve got other organizations, like Adelphia, Absolut Vodka,

American Express, First Republic Bank. All of these institutions and

companies have been there for quite some time as sponsors and

supporters of the festival. And then, you’ve got a few new ones, like

the Pacific Life Foundation, that have come on board this year.

We feel our outreach in sponsorship development, which will be

pretty much concluded over the next month, will allow us to do some

things we’ve never had the chance to do before.

Like what?

I mentioned the youth program. We’re going to be having a special

focus on the importance of the written word in film, with a focus on

the art of screenwriting. We’ll have an entire day dedicated to

screenwriters. And we’re working with UCI and with the Newport Beach

Public Library to host that seminar. It expands what was usually a

one-panel discussion to an entire day of screenwriters. We’ll

continue with a rich tradition of making the arts festival

accessible. That is one of the big goals that we have -- that the

arts are not something removed from our community or culture. We feel

we can live up to that expectation through the festival.

We are also taking an experience, which for most people is a

commodity. We want to make going to see a movie a unique experience.

The films that are screened at the festival, this might be the only

time they are seen in Orange County and quite possibly the only time

they are seen in Southern California. And so, for those people who

want to have a fun and unique experience, that’s what these 10 days

offer -- the ability to see amazing works of art that are extremely

accessible, which you might not see anywhere else.

What kind of films will be shown this year?

We will probably, by the time the screening is finished, have

screened between 1,000 to 1,200 films to find the more than 300 films

we’ll screen at the festival. We are confident we’ll have a strong

showing of Sundance films that will be making their West Coast

premiere at the festival. We’ll have a number of films from the Pusan

Film Festival, one of the largest film festivals in Asia. We have a

few people scouting early films in Berlin. We’re working with some of

the consulates and film agencies of different countries to bring in

some outstanding foreign-language films. That would include not only

many of the films submitted for foreign Oscars but films that have

done exceptionally in their native countries and are trying to make a

run of it here in the United States.

Last year was a huge spike in film entries for us, and we’re

really riding on that success. Newport has gained a great deal of

industry buzz as far as a festival that is very filmmaker friendly,

that is a wonderful location to spend your time, and its proximity to

Hollywood is also a great place to bring distributors.

Are there challenges that this area presents in putting on a

festival?

The challenges of this area are its strengths. When a filmmaker

comes here, it’s very expensive for them to stay at a hotel; it’s

very expensive for them to eat out. But those are things they’d have

to do no matter where they were.

That’s filmmakers. What about your audience? Are there pros and

cons about the demographics of this area?

There was a report that came out a few years back that Orange

County was one of the largest per capita movie-going audiences in the

United States. The audience at our festival is a very strong

reflection of that. It is a very well-educated, very demanding

audience. It’s one that will accept different ideas and perspectives

as long as it’s a well-crafted and well-made film.

How many of your film entries are from local artists?

It really varies from year to year. Of the 300 films that we have

in the festival, with our partnerships that we’ve forged, especially

with the film schools locally, you will have a focus, or spotlight on

OCC filmmakers, or Chapman filmmakers, or Cal State Fullerton

filmmakers, or Long Beach. You have a number of people who you live

and work next to who have a film in our festival. We’re also proud of

the diversity at the festival ....

Is the festival as accessible as you’d like it to be? Are you

attracting the audiences you want?

Accessibility is so important. Often, people will approach me and

say: “Oh, well I thought the festival was for people only in the

industry.” It’s for people in the community. This is for everyone.

You might not like everything you see, but out of 300 films, there’s

probably something you are really going to enjoy.

How’d you get involved with the festival?

There was an old festival in Newport Beach that didn’t do so well

financially. I had been working on the [Newport Beach] Economic

Development Committee for a number of years and still serve on that.

I worked my way through school during research work and happened to

do a great deal of work on the film industry. Those all sort of fused

together, and I felt the idea of a film festival in Newport Beach was

very sound as long as the right business structure was in place. And

that was about 5 1/2 years ago, and I’ve been doing it ever since.

Anything else you wanted to add?

I think another important thing for the festival is, we have the

ability to bring unique film opportunities year-round. For example,

we are a partner with Regal Cinemas on their Flashback Features.

We’ve partnered with the UCI Extension program for their Sneak

Preview program. For a number of weeks in the fall, we were able to

work with them to bring pre-release films to UCI to screen the film

and do a Q&A; afterward. We’ll be very, very busy throughout the year

and have opportunities for people who enjoy the 10 days of the

festival to continue that enjoyment throughout the year.

* For more information, go to https://newportbeachfilmfest.com.