DivX film festival

1. Film festivals are just awesome—they turn everything into this big celebration of cinema where the movies feel a bit more special. You end up watching stuff you’d normally skip, and honestly, it feels like a crime if you miss out on them.

2. DivX files are great because they're everywhere and easy to pass around. They make distribution a breeze.

3. Even Bill Gates had this quirky, almost romantic way of doing things; back when he and Melinda Gates were living in different cities, they’d actually coordinate to watch the exact same movie at the same time in their respective towns, then hop on the phone to dissect it together.

4. A little while back, I tossed out this wild, slightly crazy idea about us starting our own virtual film festival.

So, those are my four sparks for a virtual film fest!

What we really need is a festival director and a selection committee to hand-pick the competition entries. We’ll also need a jury to hand out the awards, while the rest of you—the audience and the critics—round out the experience.

Look, I’m not going to get bogged down in the nitty-gritty of how the committee, the jury, and the fans actually track down the films, because I’m convinced that’s just a technical hurdle we can jump over. 😉

It doesn't even have to be about the latest blockbusters; it should be about those rare gems that most people here haven't laid eyes on because they never hit theaters, DVD shelves, or TV, but are easily snagged via DivX. We could treat them like "virtual premieres." We might even throw in some big DVD releases you'd find at a local video rental shop, though I guess that would kill the whole "festival vibe"—that sense of snobbery and elitism. 😉 And that exclusivity.

For the selection committee, we’d want real cinephiles—people who live and breathe movies and know exactly what's worth watching. This crew would work closely with our "distributor" to shape the lineup. As for getting the movies to the people, we’d handle all that through private messages. If a local video store like Pacman is already doing this openly by renting out pirate DivX copies, then what we're doing isn't exactly a felony either. They’re chasing profits, whereas our only goal is this pure cultural showcase. Maybe we could even hunt down some funding from the Department of Arts. If One-take was able to land some cash... 😁

To kick things off, let's say we run a one-week festival with one featured film per day. Everyone watches according to the official schedule at a specific time, each of us tucked away in our own homes... 😎

And that’s pretty much the gist of it. I started writing this as a total joke, but now it’s starting to look like an actual, legitimate concept.

Huh?

It sounds like an intriguing concept... though I can't help but wonder if the sheer logistics of preparation would pose a massive headache, specifically regarding the distribution of the right films, because if we’re aiming for more exclusive titles, they become notoriously difficult to track down.
On the flip side, there are likely plenty of attendees who actually live "outside" the Western North America—people who aren't stuck scavenging for DivX copies just to see something decent, and who have actually experienced these things at legitimate, high-end festivals.
So, perhaps the answer lies in curating a massive pile of interesting titles first... then, depending on how accessible they are through local distributors, you could narrow it down into a proper selection.

Here are a few names I've come across on various DivX collections that I think are absolutely worth a deep dive discussion:
American Splendor, Whale Rider, Owning Mahowny, Demonlover, Raising Victor Vargas, All the Real Girls...

I'm glad you jumped into this conversation, so let's keep the momentum going. Honestly, I don't see distribution being much of a headache. We could easily handle it using a sort of pay-it-forward model—say, I send you a DivX file if you don't have it yet, and then you just pass it along to everyone in your neck of the woods. You cover a few major hubs like Chicago or Seattle, and boom, you've got an audience. Really, all we need is one high-speed connection at every "distribution hub," and before you know it, the movie has traveled halfway across the country in just a few hours.

I’d say there are actually pretty few people living outside the Western North America who have actually sat down and seen those films. Honestly, let them stay out of it—it just means we get a much better selection committee for ourselves. Besides, movies showing up at FEST or the Sarajevo Film Festival probably already had their big premieres somewhere else overseas anyway, so that doesn't exactly kill the hype for the festival. If anything, I’d argue it makes things even more interesting.

Those titles you’re bringing up are actually pretty fascinating—from what I've gathered in my reading, anyway (I haven't sat down to watch them all yet, though I've got a few on my list), they seem like perfect fodder for a film festival. And honestly, that was exactly the whole point of the thing. We should be out there championing great new cinema, getting people talking about them, and making sure they aren't just stuck in some niche corner. It would be cool to give them an official seal of approval, you know? Like, slap a little "Winner at the DivX festival" or "Grand Prix DivX festival winner" badge on them just to let everyone know they're worth the ticket price. 🙂

And honestly, we shouldn't have to sit around waiting an entire year for the next festival to roll around. I mean, if people actually show up and there’s some seriously hot new movies hitting the scene, they could basically pull this off every single month.

Alright, let me ask you two things.
1. How are you planning to handle the rights and obligations for the copyright holders or distributors of the films you want to screen?
2. How do you plan to convince those same owners that it’s actually okay to show their movies from DivX? (I'm assuming they'll have a lot to say about that.)

From what I understand, you have to secure the screening rights for every single title featured at a festival. So, you'll need to look into that.

ruggedmarlin15

Jesus! You're right! That’s not what I meant at all. If that's the case, then forget it. 🙄
Of course there aren't any rights. We'll just hit up the local Pac-Man video rental shop and have them clear everything for us. We'll just rent the movies straight from them and suddenly everything is perfectly legal 😉. It's pretty obvious you aren't part of the DivX crowd if you're even worrying about licensing.

Look, let's be real here—I'm just throwing out these illegal, underground ideas for the hell of it; I'm certainly not going to take responsibility for them or leave behind any actual criminal paper trail. Just think of this as a bit of subversive dreaming.

This topic is interesting enough that I actually went through the trouble of registering for this forum.
Living in France, I probably have a bit more luck tracking down certain DivX releases, though honestly, I'm already getting pretty sick of mainstream American commercial cinema.

I want to throw out a few movies that I personally found great—films you can mostly only find on DivX because of various reasons: Nine Queens (Argentina), Dirty Pretty Things (United Kingdom), Mediterraneo (I), Los Amantes del Círculo Polar (The Lovers of the Arctic Circle, E)... there are plenty more where those came from...

BTW, I've already seen Demonlover and it hits the spot. It’s not quite a perfect ten, but it’s definitely better than 90% of the stuff made in USA. Thx Robert Cooper41 for the list; I'm heading off to go hunting now to see what I can dig up. I trust your word that they aren't bad.

Alright. I could probably handle the distribution in the city center. Hypothetically...

Patrick Mendoza3 said:I wanted to throw out a few movies that I absolutely love—the kind of stuff you can mostly only find on DivX these days for one reason or another: Nine Queens from Argentina, Dirty Pretty Things from the United Kingdom, Mediterraneo, and Los Amantes del Círculo Polar (The Lovers of the Arctic Circle)... there’s plenty more where those came from...

Honestly, I have all those except for that sugary little thing "Mediterraneo" on DVD... I just never figured out how to rip them over to DivX myself.😁

Oh, and if you're looking at the list from Coppov, you definitely need to check out American Splendor and All the Real Girls.

Whale Rider is a total sentimental crowd-pleaser... basically a movie for kids...

Raising Victor Vargas was a bit of a letdown for me, though...

@PaleBlueEyes

Since you’re clearly sitting on a goldmine of DVDs, please, enlighten me with a few more titles. Honestly, sometimes trying to find a decent movie feels just like stumbling around in the dark.

You haven't actually told me what you think of those films yet—assuming you've actually watched them, of course?

Don't be surprised if you can't find Mediterraneo on DVD; the only place you'll likely track it down is in its home territory—Italy. Trust me, I've searched everywhere. It isn't even available on Amazon. At this point, downloading a digital copy was my only real option. It actually won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film back in '92, but some movies just fade into obscurity no matter how good they are.
btw, I've been having a blast lately rediscovering gems from the 80s and 90s that I totally missed out on back in the day.