The 2023 inaugural Foxtail Film Festival lacked just one thing: the history of the Berlin International Film Festival.
“I had this one assignment on the syllabus,” said Dr. Andrew Ventimiglia, director of the Foxtail Film Festival and professor of the corresponding undergraduate course, COM 334: Film Festival Curation & Management. “But the history of Berlinale just kept getting pushed back week after week because we had so many other urgent things to do to prepare for the festival.”
The first run of any event (and in this case, classroom, too) often comes with the “unknown, unknowns,” said Ventimiglia. “There was a certain degree of chaos in the classroom last year that I would hope to mitigate in the future!”
But despite the lack of Berlin’s history of film to inform Illinois State University’s first film celebration, the students in COM 334 rolled out the red carpet and impressed all who attended. Held April 27-29, 2023, at the historic Normal Theater, the Foxtail Film Festival spotlighted young filmmakers who walked away motivated, celebrated, and inspired to create.
“The inaugural run of the Foxtail Film Festival was a tremendous success!” said Brendan Leahy, board member and assistant professor in film & digital media. “We were able to recognize young talent and support their work. Presentations by established industry professionals, demonstrations, discussions, networking, photos on the red carpet, and film fest swag made for a spectacular three-day event.”
With incredible keynotes by professional filmmakers, Doug Spilatro ‘79 and Griffin Hammond ’07, M.S. ’09, the festival drew in several hundred attendees.
“It was exciting. It was exhausting. And it was invigorating, to the extent that everyone said, ‘let’s run it back’ when the festival concluded,” said Ventimiglia.
And “run it back” we will. On April 25-28, 2024, the School of Communication, in partnership with the Department of Sociology & Anthropology, the School of Theatre & Dance, and the Wonsook Kim School of Art, will host the second annual Foxtail Film Festival at the Normal Theater. With a mission to support local and regional filmmakers and to connect Illinois State University and the Bloomington-Normal community to the broader industry, the highly anticipated festival will return—and it promises another successful year of film celebration.
Celebrating success
The Foxtail Film Festival has been a decade in the making. Originally the brainchild of Dr. Brent Simonds, professor of mass media, the festival saw setback after setback before coming to fruition. Most notably, the delay the COVID-19 world pandemic caused.
“After 10 years of dreaming and planning, I couldn’t have been more pleased with our inaugural film festival,” said Simonds. “I am very proud of Dr. Ventimiglia and his students and the work they did to pull it off. I have even greater hopes for success next year.”
His sentiments are widely shared within the School of Communication.
“The inaugural year for the Foxtail Film Festival was such a success,” said Dr. Aimee Miller-Ott, interim director of the school. “The entire team did an amazing job organizing the festival. From the speaking events with award-winning filmmakers to the high school and college film competition, I’m in absolute awe.”
It’s no easy feat curating a festival from the ground up. While the planning process and classroom experiences are invaluable, it’s just one part of the grand equation that makes the Foxtail Film Festival a one-of-a-kind experience for all.
“It’s vital for the budding filmmaker to have such a positive experience screening their film within a genuine exhibition space like the historic Normal Theater,” added Leahy.
Cultivating the next generation of filmmakers is at the heart of the Foxtail’s mission.
“I’m most proud of the way the festival provided a supportive environment for the filmmakers who came,” said Ventimiglia. “Seeing that level of excitement and engagement by those who attended made the entire festival for me because those are things well outside of my control. That felt really good.”
A one-of-a-kind student experience with room to grow
The festival is a unique experience for Illinois State University students. Not only do students get the opportunity in class to learn the business and art of film festival management, but students also have hands-on opportunities to create evaluation rubrics, judge film submissions, and produce a fully curated festival lineup.
“There are not that many classes like this in the country,” said Ventimiglia. “There’s a small group of people who teach in the film festival area and there’s a film festival research network, but even there it’s only a handful of people who get to teach a class like this that builds a festival. I can count on one hand the classes similar to this across the country. What we have here in the School of Communication is really exceptional.”
Offered every spring semester, COM 334 fills with 25 undergraduate students from all majors across campus interested in the film industry.
“One thing that will keep the festival new and different every year is the degree to which it is student run,” said Ventimiglia. “The interests, the programming, and the points of emphasis we want to highlight in films each year are going to be highly dependent on what students we have enrolled. That means there’s always going to be a level of unpredictability because we’re going to find those themes and figure out what we want to highlight based on who chooses to take the class.”
The 2023 festival received upwards of 40 film submissions, but Ventimiglia would ideally like to see an increase of 100-120 in 2024.
“To me, the more submissions we get will be an added challenge,” he said. “Obviously, there will be more to sift through, but I do think that’s the biggest step to start elevating the festival.”
The inaugural festival’s success demonstrated that Illinois State University has a community that supports local filmmakers and is excited about the filmmaking community. With enthusiasm, comes room to grow.
“I’d really like to focus on increasing the visibility of the festival in the local community and by extension within the broader film festival industry because that allows us to get more film submissions and then make better lineups,” Ventimiglia added. “The more visibility, the stronger options we have.”
But it’s not just the Illinois State University community Ventimiglia plans to target. As the festival grows in scale, he anticipates connecting with Heartland Community College, Illinois Wesleyan University, and Eureka College, too, to gain a wider reach.
From building sponsorships with local small businesses to growing the Foxtail social media platforms, Ventimiglia anticipates incorporating new assignments into the classroom in 2024 that will make use of student talent while simultaneously growing the festival.
“I had students last year who created amazing merchandise and drafted sponsorship requests to send out to local businesses. Most of which, we didn’t get to use,” he said.
As the Foxtail Film Festival enters its second year, Ventimiglia is keenly aware of the role students will play and how their interests and skills will grow the second annual celebration.
“The students will always have a strong voice in anything we do. My role is as much quality control and management as it is director of the film festival,” he added.
Support the festival
The Foxtail Film Festival is an excellent opportunity for alumni to visit campus and support student-run initiatives.
“I hope to see the Foxtail run forever, but in order to do that we need a sustainable budget,” said Ventimiglia. “As we enter our second year of planning, we’d gratefully accept any financial support.”
The second annual Foxtail Film Festival will return to the historic Normal Theater on April 25-28, 2024. Show your support for this unique, one-of-a-kind student-led experience and contribute today. Connect with us on social media, too. The Foxtail Film Festival is on Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
