FirstGlance Film Festival Conquers New Frontiers

by Douglas Polisin | Published October 6, 2008

What began 12 years ago in the basement of a little movie theater in Center City Philadelphia with a group of indie moviemakers scrounging up every big screen TV and movie projector they could find has become one of the most revolutionary film festivals in the country. With more than 400 projects shown to date, an audience of more than 10,000 and two separate bi-coastal events (one in Philadelphia and the other in California) being held annually since then, the FirstGlance Film Festival has come a long way from its humble basement beginnings.

But don’t let the success fool you, FirstGlance was and will always be an indie moviemaker’s dream come true, providing moviemakers the thing they want most: A chance to have their movies seen. As new technologies emerge, FirstGlance is at the forefront of a new frontier in movie distribution, thinking outside the box and updating the old festival paradigm with online film contests that allow viewers to decide which shorts make it to the festival and opportunities for moviemakers to circulate their films through new mediums like the Internet and handheld technologies.(read more)

A Film Festival Moving Up

Source: Carrie Rickey INQUIRER MOVIE CRITIC

Born in a basement nine years ago, Philadelphia's edgiest film festival, FirstGlance™, has ascended to the Painted Bride, where the ninth annual event opened last night and runs through Sunday.. Of the 31 shorts and features screened, nearly half are local or world premieres. Tonight's offerings include Rent Control, about a prospective renter's mania to marry off the man living in the apartment she wants, and The Kings of Christmas, about New Yorkers from

Published on June 2, 2006, Page W09, Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)