We had a film-maker meet and greet this morning which was fantastic as it was a great ice-breaker. We had our 1st real ‘Americana’ experience with coffee, bagels and cream cheese, amazingly it kept us full through our hectic day until late afternoon.

We decided that we wanted to at least see some of the snow before we had to attend out appointments, so we grabbed a foot pass to go up the Aspen mountain gondola, we received our 1st warning about the dangerous wildlife as there were ‘cougars’ about! A bit like ‘drop-bears’ but worse… old rich ladies on the prowl for young men!

After the amazing gondola ride up the mountain we had to rush to meet our ‘chauffer’ to see and talk to school students about our film. We were assigned a class of 200 kids from year 5-7ish, they responded fantastically to the film and had a good 3-4 questions for us… one of which came from a boy who had an obsession with finding out if we came from Germany! Hopefully our school session tomorrow will be a bit more intimate as we’ve been told we’ll only have about 20-30 kids this time.

I continued my search for over sized beverages, I discovered the American sized Chai Latte from the cafe near our ‘condo’. Yes it all sounds very metro, but if you saw the size of this massive mug you’d know I was simply indulging my inner bogan.

We still can’t get over seeing real snow falling around us in the streets or when we’re ‘sipping’ buckets of chai, it’s hard to remember that we actually came here to see the festival.

Tonight we attended our 1st session of the festival, and as expected it was fantastic, the caliber of the films is obvious, and it is really cool to hear from the film makers who are here, we all have to give a Q & A to the audience after our films have shown. Dave mustered his remaining strength to stay awake and not miss a thing.

Many more films to watch over the next few days, ours will be screening in the last session on Saturday. Anyway, fine and sunny day tomorrow, with light cloud cover and a possible chance of late snowboarding… see you from the hospital.

Gareth

The trip didn’t seem as long as it was as I got quite a lot of sleep. We had multiple planes that were delayed and were lucky to get on our connection… good thing we budgeted an extra few hours. The last leg was on QANTAS which was really good, as they really are a big step up from Air France. The food, staff and general comfort are so much better. I watched a couple of movies on the way, helping to pass the time.

We touched down at 6 AM on Wednesday morning. It was great to be back in Oz and return home. The weather was great and I can wear shorts again! 

Our last day in France was always going to be a bit of an anti climax. Our plane wasn’t due until 5 PM and we would have to check out of the hotel with all our bags in the morning. I still had to find a way to distribute the 20 kilos of paper that I had accrued on my stay. I managed. After packing our bags in the morning, we checked out, settled the bill. We were able to leave our bags behind. It was so difficult settling the bill with the French only speaking staff and I wasn’t sure what they were going to do with our bags. Everything seemed cool though.

We then caught the tram into Clermont Ferrand for a last stroll through the town. We hooked up with one of the filmmakers from Mexico who was still here and headed up to Clermont Ferrand’s own Notre dame cathedral. Apparently you can climb up the bell towers there so we thought it would be a good idea. Once we arrived, we found out that the towers wouldn’t be opening until later that afternoon. Too late for Erin and myself, so we said goodbye to our filmmaker friend and headed back to the Motel. Erin managed one more profiterole on the way.

We picked up our bags and waited for our taxi. It never came because the motel staff had misunderstood our request. Eventually we ordered another one. It was going to be a long trip.

Sunday seemed to disappear as Erin and I slept right through it. We got up for a few hours for dinner and then went straight back to sleep. Not only were we exhausted from the party, but from the whole week as well. It was quite hard to find an open restaurant in Clermont Ferrand on a Sunday night after the festival but we did manage to find a little Italian pizza place. Our last dinner in France and it wasn’t French food!

I got up early to prepare for my question and answer session that was to be held at midday. I wanted to get there early to hear some of the other filmmakers in my category talk about their films. Although I have met a lot of people while I’ve been here, I only met the filmmakers in my category last night at our screening. They had been people that I had seen around.

At the question and answer session, it was the same old story with a lot of the dialogue happening in languages I couldn’t understand. Nevertheless I sat through the session and could make out a few of the things that were said. When my turn came around, I was surprised with the lack of enthusiasm that was shown by the interviewers when asking me about Burley. Up until now, I had been impressed with their enthusiasm and interest in the other films, but for me for me it was a little different. Maybe it was because I was one of the last interviewed or that Burley was just an animation, either way I felt a little depressed about the reception that our film was getting.

6 PM came around and it was time for the awards. In order for the event to run on time, I was quite certain that anyone who was getting a prize would know by now and would be sitting in the front of the cinema. I hadn’t heard anything so I wrote myself off and lined up to head into the theatre. My suspicions were confirmed when I spotted some of the filmmakers of films I enjoyed sitting in the front row. Erin and I sat down to enjoy the final ceremony.

The big winner of the night was “Auf der Strecke” winning the Grand Prix award of the festival. It was both Erin and my own favourite film of the festival so we were quite happy. We had met the filmmaker during the week who is also a top bloke and a deserved winner. Another notable win went to “I love Sarah Jane,” a hilarious Aussie film that we met the producer of. The top animation gong went to “The Pearce Sisters” by Luis Cook. Again, I was quite content at the selection because I thought it was the strongest animation at the festival. There were heaps of other prizes but you’ll have to check the Clermont-Ferrand website to get a full list.

After the ceremony, we headed out for dinner and the after party (starting at 11PM!). It was a wild crazy night where I met so many new faces that I again wish I had met earlier in the week. Despite a few negative thoughts over the last couple of days, the party brought home the best part of the festival for me, that being the mixing of the filmmakers, and the opportunity to meet similar minds from all over the world. The party finished up at 6AM and it was bit of a mission to get back to the hotel at that time. It was hard to believe the festival was over.

So, the main screening of Burley went down last night. It was good to finally see it in the main theatre but probably could have had a better response. It was a full cinema but a lot of the jokes that had previously been laughed at went over the audience’s head. I was left wondering whether they actually understood was going on. It wasn’t just for us though, some of the other good films in our category received a fairly lacklustre response.

A lot more people knew about our film as it was being shown in the main theatre and approached to meet me. It was a little unfortunate that we were not shown at the start of the festival because I would have enjoyed having the opportunity to meet these people earlier in our stay.

I was also a little disappointed to find that the jury were not in the main theatre to judge Burley on the big screen. They had already closed up shop and would’ve obviously had to have seen Burley at a less impressive cinema with a smaller crowd. I also noticed that the public voting box had also been removed before our screening. Considering most people would see a good film then come straight out and put a vote in the box, I think it might be a little unfair on the films in our category who had to wait until the end of the week. On reflection though, considering the reception that Burley got last night, I think it might’ve been better that the jury see Burley on a different screen.

Tomorrow is the final day of the festival. I have to do a small press conference thing, there will be the awards ceremony followed by a few parties.  

Again, not much has happened that is different from any of the other days. As the last few days of the festival are closing in on us, I decided to distribute a few more of our postcards around the place… I only have a few more left that I will use on the Friday night when Burley shows in the main theatre.

Walking around Clermont Ferrand and looking for lunch, Erin and I have decided we’re definitely over cheese. It’s just in everything and you can’t get away from it. Normally I love cheese but I feel like I’ve been eating fast food for a week. For dinner then, we decided to go to an Indian restaurant on the other side of the old town. Erin ordered the special and was surprised when it came with… cheese. Fromage Tikka Masala or something. At least we’ll have a healthy diet when we get back to Oz.

After dinner we stopped by at a lovely little wine bar we’ve been eyeing off for the last week. They’re loosely associated with the festival and were showcasing a group of Chinese films (Chinese new year tie in). We didn’t actually watch any of the films but met a nice guy who was organising it all. That’s about it for Day 11.

This morning, I went to the short film market in the building next to the festival. Most of the people in there were representatives of other film bodies… selling their own films rather than picking things up. I talked to quite a few people to get their ideas on different aspects of film, but that is all I was really able to do. There were of course more postcards and information brochures that I was able to add to my collection. I would easily have enough to fill an entire bag. I’m not sure how I’m going to get all of this stuff back to Oz… I will definitely have to cull a lot of it beforehand.

Apart from that, it’s been a pretty quiet day. We’ve basically just been trying to recharge our batteries. Tomorrow will probably be a normal day… plenty of films to watch, more croissants and more coffee.