1st Annual NWCC 72 Hour “ NIGHT CITY “ Film Noir Festival
This year we put on a fun modified version of a 72 hour Film Festival. We held a kickoff event at the end of February, each team selecting one “Event”that had to take place in each film; MURDER, MISSING PERSON and THEFT/ROBBERY. All films had to live under the umbrella of “ FILM NOIR “ but was not limited to the classic 1940s style of noir. Modern takes such as Neo - Noir, Tech-Noir and other variants were encouraged. Teams were then given 2 weeks to write and prepare for their film. From March 8th-10th, Teams began production which then was followed by a 5 day edit period. All films were submitted the following Friday by 5:00 PM to meet the requirements and be in the running for awards. A week after that, we screened all films over two nights. Here are Friday, March 22nd and 23rd’s Screeners!
Following the Screening on the 23rd, we handed out prizes! It was very important for us to have quality trophies to give out as it’s unfortunately a common practice for film festivals to have somewhat underwhelming physical awards for winners. Films were judged on all the classic elements, with the added category of “ Film Noir “ granting extra points. This generally was the difference between teams winning or falling slightly short.
WINNERS
While all the films submitted were fantastic… there can only be a few winners. We judged this festival slightly different than your typical style. 1st and 2nd place were viewed as the best overall and if selected, you were ineligible to win any other category. Because of this we delegated the term “Achievement in“ instead of “Best” as this event was more of a community event and was more about accomplishments in film rather than hardest winners/losers.
1st Place : “ Housekeepers “ by Filthy Film Friends || 2nd Place : “ Why not Murder “ by JMAK Studios || Best Noir : “ Housekeepers “ by Filthy Film Friends.
Achievement in DIRECTING : "Revelation" - Lightform || Achievement in ACTING : "Revelation" - Lightform || Achievement in CINEMATOGRAPHY : "Revelation" - Lightform || Achievement in EDITING : "She's the One" - Go Somewhere Cinema || Achievement in WRITING : "Revelation" - Lightform || Achievement in SOUND : "She's the One" - Go Somewhere Cinema || Achievement in SCORE : "She's the One" - Go Somewhere Cinema || Achievement in PRODUCTION DESIGN : " Bias" - Transatlantic Films.
While I was one of the judges for the event, I have a personal love for Noir and wanted to make something myself. Instead of following the festival guidelines, I decided to make more of an anthology film to play as a bookend to each nights screening. This project turned into one of, if not my favorite film I’ve had the chance to work on to date and I couldn’t be happier with the result. My entire cast and crew brought 110% to every day of shooting and pulled together a massive film considering we had basically zero budget and used what was available to us. Its pretty special to me.