The Circuit

In response to The Circuit's post on Sarasota's homegrown opening night film, programmer Tom Hall posted a lengthy explanation on his blog.  Tom has always been wonderfully upfront about the fest biz -- the good and the bad.  His comments on selecting an opening night film are interesting:

I am not sure which film festivals don't have this problem, but the Opening Night Film, while a high profile slot in terms of visibility, is without question the hardest slot to fill in our entire program. I never have the problem of multiple films that we feel are high profile enough to sell-out a 1736 seat auditorium beating down the door to take this slot in our festival.

In fact, we usually have to work incredibly hard to find a film that will accept the slot. I have been rejected by just about every film company in America over the course of my career, and a majority of those rejections are companies and films declining our invitation for Opening Night.