newjerseynewsroom.com

BY PAULA SCHWARTZ

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Tony Bennett stopped by the Players Club in Gramercy Park in Manhattan Thursday evening at a party to celebrate the launch of the First Time Fest. The new film festival is the brainchild of his daughter Johanna and the documentary film producer Mandy Ward. First Time Fest will run from March 1 to March 4 of next year, and its mission is to discover and showcase the films of first-time filmmakers, including screenwriters, producers, directors and composers.

So does New York really need another film festival? Only last night the cinematic juggernaut that is the New York Film Festival opened with the premiere of Ang Lee’s 3D spectacular “Life of Pi,” and the Tribeca Film Festival, which showcases over 100 films, will roll around again in the spring. But what makes First Time Fest unique is that it is offering a grand prize to a filmmaker that includes theatrical distribution. The distribution deal will be arranged through a partnership between First Time Fest and Cinema Libre Studio, a Los Angeles entertainment company.

Ms. Bennett told us the idea for the film festival came about while she and Ms. Ward were sitting on the couch watching the television series “True Blood,” and both of them started to think about their own careers and how difficult it was for anyone to to break into the film business “no matter who you are, no matter what your credits are.” Making things even worse, “the market had just crashed.”

She asked Ms. Ward, who is a seasoned producer, what makes a film festival important. “What makes Sundance 'Sundance' other than Redford’s attached to it?” Ms. Ward told her that what made a festival significant is the “market attached to each festival over time.” After mulling it over, they concluded that none of the festivals had distribution attached to the prizes. “We realized that had never been done before, or if it’s been done before it’s been done in a weird kind of way.” Ms. Bennett added, “We’re much more of a contest in disguise as a film festival for the ultimate, ultimate audience award where the prize is distribution.”

From a potential pool of thousands of films, the Next Fest films will be whittled downy to the work of 12 finalists. The judges of the Grand Prize winner will consist of four industry professionals and 480 audience members chosen by lottery from the thousands of moviegoers expected to attend the festival. Another 12 voters will be selected in a nation-wide contest.

During the run of the First Time Fest there will be panels as wide ranging as how to understand the process of filmmaking and how to score a film. There will also be discussions with directors, cinematographers and producers talking about their first film experience. All of the talks will take place at the Players Club, while the films will be screened at the Loews Village VII on 11th Street and Third Avenue.

A highlight of the First Time Fest will be the presentation of the first John Huston Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Cinema to “an individual who has made a significant contribution to the art of cinema, and whose presence in our community has offered leadership and inspiration to other cinema artists.”

Ms. Bennett told us her father is hugely supportive and thinks the idea for the festival “is great.”

The music legend is the subject of a documentary called “The Zen of Bennett,” which bowed at the Tribeca Film Festival last spring but has only just found a distributor. It will be released in New York on Oct. 24 and open wide a week later.

For more information on the First Time Fest, including how to submit films, go to http://www.firsttimefest.com/.