SDCFF2010 – Wrapup    

I hardly know where to begin in talking about the experience of the production of our first annual San Diego Christian Film Festival. The atmosphere was electric and people were nearly universally complimentary in their feedback as the days passed. We made many new friends as well as reconnecting with many of our supporters and acquaintances that developed during the year and a half production schedule for this first event.  It was an awesome four days of exciting new films, networking, fellowship, and learning as our attending producers shared notes, talked about their films and shared their passion for visual story-telling.

We had a fascinating collection of films and having many of the filmmakers present added to the festival atmosphere and allowed festival-goers to ask questions as they interacted with the filmmakers. We had the great pleasure of hosting Gavin MacLeod who recently completed the film The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry with filmmaker Rich Christiano of Christiano Films, and Corbin Bernsen and producer James Greilick whose film Rust which was filmed in Kipling, Ontario. We hosted the World Premiere of the surf-themed film Cutback filmed in Encinitas and produced by Johnny Remo and Lance Bachelder of Orange County. But in addition to those films, we had a great collection of films in our competition. It is encouraging for the future of Christian independent film to see such great, creative faith-friendly films being produced. For a complete list of our films and award winners visit our festival website at www.sdcff2010.com

The week culminated on the last day of the festival with the screening of the film Amazing Grace hosted by producer, Ken Wales. The closing day also featured a film industry insider round-table discussion comprised of Corbin Bernsen, Dan Rupple, Mark Clayman, Ken Wales, Simon Swart, and Dr. Alan Hueth which I had the privilege of moderating. We closed the day with a grand reception catered by Chick-fil-A, and our awards ceremony with live music interspersed between the awards announcements.

Producing the festival was a huge amount of work and a huge thanks goes out to all of the volunteers who helped to make the event a reality! I hope you'll plan to join us next season! Register your email address on our website so you can stay informed of plans for SDCFF 2011!

See you next festival!
Rich