MoMo Film Fest Weekend is Here!
Another year has flashed past and here we are again. The 5th Mobile Motion Film Festival begins today!
When Andrea and I launched the festival using Kickstarter, back in 2014, I don’t think either of us imagined the event would become such a big part of our lives. We started with 131 backers and £5,627. Since then we have watched over 2000 films – not all of those films were submitted us.
Yes, we have even spent hours searching YouTube and Vimeo for smartphone-shot films.
From the first year, MoMo got plenty of attention. The short film festival was featured on the BBC and Swiss national TV, newspapers and online news.
In the first year, we screened 14 short films (the finalists). We also had an interesting industry panel discussion about using smartphones to shoot films with.
The second year we screened 13 finalist short films plus Sundance Film Festival hit Tangerine, which was shot on iPhone 5s. That year, we were honoured to have the America co-producer and co-writer of the film, Chris Bergoch, as our guest. Chris gave a brilliant talk on how they went about shooting Tangerine on a micro budget.
We also screened a feature film shot on iPhones about refugees’ hazardous journey to Europe, #MyEscape.
In the third year, we screened 17 finalist films and 12 semi-finalists. We also screened a film which is claimed to be the first feature length film shot on an iPhone, Uneasy Lies the Mind. The film’s America director Ricky Fosheim was our guest and we were thrilled to have him give a brilliant masterclass on smartphone filmmaking.
That year we also had another industry panel, there to discuss the future cinema itself. Our guests were a successful smartphone filmmaker and Samsung ambassador, a YouTube representative and a producer from a top UK sales agent and distributor.
In the fourth year, last year, we screened 14 finalists, 16 semi-finalists, and a shot on iPhone feature called High Fantasy. We also screened the first episode from our Silent Eye series.
We also had 2 fantastic masterclasses from legendary #Filmbreaker Jason van Genderen and a panel of successful smartphone filmmakers, talking about using the camera in our pockets.
That leads us to our 5th year, which begins today! This year we will screen 14 finalists and 2 episodes from Silent Eye, including a Q&A with cast and crew. We will also have our first industry panel on the subject of Mobile Journalism and I’ll be hosting a workshop on how to shoot a film with your smartphone, too.
You can view the full schedule here.
All together now
In total, by the end of MoMo 5, we will have shown 107 films in a cinema since we had our first event in 2015. As a filmmaker who has struggled with self-distributing to theatres, I know how hard it is to get a film shown. So it’s very rewarding to know we’ve helped a few more filmmakers achieve this dream.
This year was one of the hardest ever due to the ever increasing quality of the films submitted. We had to turn down some amazing works simply because we are not able to show more than the best 14 or so films.
However, with more support we hope to be able to show more films in the future by adding extras days and screenings to the festival.
MoMo is Growing
Judging by the traffic we are receiving to our website, smartphone filmmaking is on the rise. We’ve gone from 3,423 page views in May 2018 to 48,891 page views in April 2019.
MoMo is right there, helping filmmakers with tips, “how to” articles, reviews of the best equipment and more.
Only by running a film festival can you understand the huge amount of work which goes into running a good festival. Andrea and I work all year round on MoMo and we’re only able to keep the festival going because if the amazing support we receive from our Patrons, volunteers and other supporters.
You can support us by becoming a Patron and receive extra rewards in return, such as joining our growing network of filmmakers, free unlimited film submissions to future festivals, promoting yourself or your business on our website and more.
Check out our page on Patreon to see what we have to offer you.
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