Katy Kleinginna
In Motion Staff Writer
Film festivals bring forth local talent and movie goers alike in order to celebrate film and it’s impact on society. In the case of the Flagler Film Festival, Daytona State College alumni Orion Christy decided to create a local festival in hopes of creating a local hub for movie fans.
“I’m hoping that when this goes off that we’ll get enough local involvement so locals will take part and come see the festival,” says festival creator, Orion Christy. The festival highlights local students and community members who have put together short films, roughly ten minutes in length, and submitted them for approval for the festival. The original intent of the film was to showcase local filmmakers, but there were several submissions from overseas as well. “We’ve been getting entries and reviewing them and making sure we have enough to put together a festival,” stated Christy in regards to the large volume of submissions. Entries were accepted through the website withoutabox.com, similar to the popular software dropbox.com. Once a submission is accepted, the film will be registered through imdb.com, a world wide website featuring information on film makers, actors and movies. Films of all lengths were accepted and placed into categories: short and feature films. Short films are under 44 minutes while feature films are longer than 45 minutes.
Though Christy has been accepting entries since June the festival will take place from Jan 10-12 of 2014 at the Hilton Garden Inn of Palm Coast starting at 5 PM. The Hilton will offer a reduced room rate for out of town visitors and film makers in hopes of boosting traffic to the event.
This is the festival’s first year in Palm Coast, but creators are hopeful that each year of the festival brings forth more submissions and a greater interest in local film.