Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival expanding its reach

You never know where you’re going to find films and filmmakers with Iowa ties, but they’re zipping down the FilmFreeway, and finding their way back home.

This year’s 20th Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival, running April 14 to 16 at Collins Road Theatres, has a global feel, thanks to the wider reach through posting the call for entries on the online portal FilmFreeway.

“It’s the gold standard, as far as film festivals go,” said Eric Dean Freese, 52, of Marion, stepping into the director’s chair for the 2023 Cedar Rapids event.

Filmmakers can go to FilmFreeway to discover festivals in which to enter their work, then submit their videos with a click.

If you go

What: Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival

Where: Collins Road Theatres, 1462 Twixt Town Rd., Marion

When: April 14 to 16, 2023; screenings Friday afternoon and evening; Saturday morning through evening, with Eddy Awards at 9:30 p.m.; Student Cinema showcase Sunday afternoon

Tickets: Adult full event $35 advance, $45 after April 13; student full event $25 advance, $35 after April 13; adult single session $10 in advance, $12 after April 13; student single session $8 advance, $11 after April 13, and $5 in advance and $8 after April 13 for Student Cinema Sunday (adults pay single session price); crifm.org/2023-festival/tickets/

Details: crifm.org/

“We had at least twice as many entries as the previous year,” Freese said, crediting the marketing tools available through the online platform.

“That allowed us to really reach out to a lot more filmmakers, making it easier to run the entry process, as well as the judging process that’s built right into the platform,” he said. “It made it a more streamlined process all the way around.”

Organizers received 99 entries — the most since 2007 — and 51 were selected to be screened during the festival. They include features, shorts, documentaries, music videos and experimental films, at the Student, ProAm and Professional levels.

“It was a tough decision for the judges,” Freese said. “We say this every year: ‘Oh, it was great crop of films — terrific stuff.’ This year, all around, it’s just really phenomenal films. Very well-made, great stories, and a variety of topics, a variety of genres.”

They will vie for Gold and Silver Eddy Awards, Audience Choice and Iowa Connection Awards, as well as a $1,000 Collins Road Theatres Scholarship given to a student filmmaker — presented during the Eddy Awards Ceremony at 9:30 p.m. April 15.

Freese was especially happy to see more film submissions from students. The 19 selections in that category vary in length from 2 minutes 31 seconds to 47 minutes. Many will be sprinkled among the offerings April 14 and 15. All will be screened during Student Cinema Sunday. Those blocks begin at noon and 1:50 p.m. April 16, with a Q&A after each session. The Student Audience Choice Eddy Award will be presented at 3:30 p.m.

Nothing pleases Freese more than seeing student filmmakers progress through the years, citing Bettendorf natives Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. They made the leap from their 2005 entry, “Her Summer,” and their 2007 entry, “The Bride Wore Blood: A Contemporary Western,” to Hollywood fame with “A Quiet Place” and the recently released “65.”

“(They) started out as high school sophomores entering our festival in 2002, and now they're doing blockbuster films,” Freese said. “It's neat when you can see those students evolve, and see their craftsmanship and their storytelling evolve.”

Iowa connections

“Filmmaking with Iowa connections is alive and well,” Freese said. “The big key of our festival that distinguishes us from any other festival is that all of our films must have an Iowa connection.”

One misconception he heard from a filmmaker this year, is that the festival is only for local films. Fearing others might think that, too, organizers made a point of saying the films can be from anywhere — they just need to have an Iowa connection in some way, whether they’re filmed in Iowa, directed by an Iowa native, or have actors or crew members from Iowa.

“We’ve had films from around the world, but they have a connection to Iowa,” Freese said. “There are filmmakers all across the country and all around the world that just happen to have Iowa connections.

“We tell filmmakers that if you don’t think your film qualifies, ask around on set, because it’s very likely that you have someone with an Iowa connection on set.”

Audiences will see a global flair on the big screens.

“We’ve got some really interesting international connections at the festival this year,” Freese said.

“The Edge” is a Loras College Media Studies project, he noted, where nine students shot and produced a 7-minute experimental film about their travels in Italy and Sicily in January 2020. Part of a J-term Global Filmmaking course, it was edited at the college in Dubuque.

“Letters” is by a filmmaker from Spain, who recently relocated to Sioux City. “It’s a short narrative film, about the trials and tribulations of making a big move. So it’s reflective of her experience having to move from Spain to Sioux City,” Freese said.

“Reveille” is a World War II professional feature by a team that includes German natives, all of whom now live in Wellsburg, west of Cedar Falls.

“Period films are always a challenge to make because of costuming and props,” Freese said. “This was really very well done. … It’s really cool (and had) a lot of support from Ellsworth Community College and Marshalltown Community College students.

“It's a big leap to try and do a period piece — especially war picture where you’ve got all sorts of uniforms and weaponry — and they do a good job.”

Freese added that other filmmakers are coming from across the state, with more from Sioux City and throughout the Cedar Valley.

Film shorts

What is the life for the shorts after they leave this festival?

“It is the rare short film that makes it to the Academy Awards,” said Freese, who makes documentaries.

“A lot of times, filmmakers are using the shorts to get their name out there or to use as a calling card to moving towards larger projects,” he said.

“A lot of filmmakers just make shorts out of the love of doing the film. They have a story that they want to tell, and it’s not necessarily suitable for a feature (length). It’s something that’s a smaller scale story, good to be told in a short period of time.

“A lot of times it’s a budgetary thing. They don’t necessarily have the budget to make a feature, but they have the ability to make something that’s a little shorter.”

Since they aren’t apt to rake in big bucks off their short films, they find their rewards in the festival experiences, from screenings to networking opportunities.

“The big thing that the filmmaker gets out of it is just the ability to have an audience to see their film, react to their film and to talk to people about their film,” Freese said. “ … They’re not trying to make a living off of doing shorts.

“And a lot of them are student shorts. It takes a lot of work to put a long-form film together as a student, so the majority of the student films are shorts.”

Q&As

Based on a survey with filmmakers, festival organizers are adding a Q&A session after each 90-minute film block, which could include several short films or one long-form film.

“We’ll bring all the filmmakers from those particular films up in front to have a conversation with the audience, as well as with each other,” said Freese, who has seen these sessions at other festivals.

“My experience has been, it’s a very organic kind of interaction, because you might have a filmmaker who’s a documentarian up there next to someone who’s making music videos. You would think there’s absolutely nothing in common that they could talk about, but you’ll find that there’s things about the filmmaking process that crosses genres.

“And it’s just fun. It’s fun for the filmmaker, it’s fun for the audience, and it was something that the filmmakers really were asking for.”

Freese is excited about that part, too.

“I’m looking forward to talking to a lot of the filmmakers,” he said, “because in addition to the questions and answers, I’ve got my own questions.”

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