The Circuit

As hot as they are, festival sneak screenings now lead to the inevitable blog leaks… and long, long lines.  Gone are the days when Telluriders would line up to get the latest sneak announcements.  Now word gets out.  As quickly as the first “Juno” was uttered, text messages, IMs, emails, and then blogs spilt the screenings all over the mountain town.  The winding line outside Chuck Jones' Cinema foretold they’d be a lot of unhappy badge holders. 

Rumors circulated that the fest sold too many Patron badges.  But Telluride’s Gary Meyer (pictured at Telluride's Sheridan Opera House) told me they sold the same number as last year.  And overall they actually sold less badges than last year (that includes Festival and Acme levels).

Said Meyer: “We had more screenings than ever before, and the addition of The Backlot which should have taken pressure off of screenings.  But people want to be the first to see high profile movies… and they all rush to see those movies causing horrible over-crowding… The reality is that every year there are people turned away from certain shows. We wish it wasn’t the case. And I wish I could predict what will happen but I can only guess.”

And as Fantastic Fest opens under a rumor of a “There Will Be Blood” screening, you can expect a repeat of Telluride – where lesser badgers scowl at the VIPs being ushered in first.  Said one Fantastic goer: “There are humongous lines for all the secret screenings, which end up being some of the town's worst-kept secrets.”

One might think the answer is to not make them secret.  Simply make it a part of the festival, red carpet and all.  But a fest programmer explained: “More often than not, it's due to a distributors' desire to save the film's premiere status for a later opportunity. Either for a later festival or because they don't want to diminish the film's actual Hollywood or New York premiere."

"That said, the nature of events like film festivals lend themselves to that air of mystery and surprise. So, it's actually kind of fun instead of frustrating.”

Is a distributor angered when their sneak title is leaked?

“It depends... I think as long as there are no trade reviews, it's not a big deal. But as we know, blogs have changed everything.”

Indeed, the currency of blogs and fanboy sites is in their value as first-look trade reviews.  No one knows that better than Harry Knowles, who is one of the Fantastic Fest’s founder/programmers.  Bet on Hollywood watching his site this week and next for first-words on big films.