LIDFF selection Criteria

I am often asked "How do you go about selecting work to feature in your festival?".
As a contribution to the current interest in and growth of the the whole curation notion, herewith some thoughts.

There are two parts to compiling the London International Dancefilm Festival programme.
The first is inclusion by invitation. Films are watched either at other festivals, online, on commercially available DVD’s or through suggestions and submissions made directly to me by third parties. The curator and a small group of choreographers, dancers and general film audience look at the selections in various forums and make a shortlist of possible exhibitees.

These will already have been filtered through a number of considerations including but not exclusively:

• the particular focus of attention of the current festival as far as current trends and future development of the form as far as professional practitioners are concerned
  
• whether there have been a particular group of films and other work made by practicing, professional artists which has offered a coherent "pattern" or creative "drift" in the relevant festival year
  
• are there any unusual levels of activity and critical attention currently being paid to areas in moving image and dancefilm making, which might benefit from closer scrutiny in a festival environment
• the particular aesthetic predilections of the curator and his or her team
  

The makers of work to be shown are then invited to give permission for their films to be shown at the Festival through their agents, distribution channels or directly with the film makers themselves.

A second curatorial process is that of canvassing for submissions online, in the press and by word of mouth. Submissions are then processed, watched shortlisted and the filmmakers are informed of the decision to exhibit their films

The criteria for selection for a work to be shown are numerous, subjective and occasionally entirely emotionally based.
There is, however a shortlist of particular, practical objective considerations given to members of the selection groups which includes:

• Is the film well made cinematographically – ie well shot, well composed, well lit, well designed with discernible production “values” appropriate to and concomitant with, the style and scale of the enterprise?

• If not, is this because the artist has deliberately chosen to ignore craft-skills for a particular effect and if so has this been creatively successful?

• Are the ideas contained in each film sufficiently well developed intellectually and aesthetically to generate informed critical debate on review?

• Do the films contain well developed movement ideas irrespective of the choreographic medium of expression chosen or utilised?

• Do they truly engage the audience at a narrative, conceptual, emotional, intellectual or aesthetic level?

• Is there a discernible link between the performances and the creative intentions of the filmmaker(s)?

Every film must satisfy a minimum of four of the above criteria from a majority of those given the responsibility for making these judgements. At this point an entry qualifies for second consideration in the shortlist of potential exhibitees in the festival programme.

From the this shortlist a final programme of work to be shown is then published.

Once the main event has been programmed, the secondary considerations such as talking shops, evaluative debates, critical forums, guest lectures, seminars and papers and all of the attendant miscellaneous programmatic activity associated with gatherings of the self-interested can be looked at and a selection of the more informative and relevant activities can be programmed around the film-showings.

For consideration for inclusion in LIDFF, please contact Sandy Strallen in the first instance by email: sandy@londondancefilmfest.com