The GIAA Film Festival: Sponsored by the Guild of Italian American Actors (GIAA)

From 2007 - 2011 this was the official website for the GIAA Film Festival. Content is from the site's 2010-20111 archived pages.

2010

2010 GIAA Festival of Short Films and Videos

October 1 - 3, 2010

New York City

GIAA is delighted to welcome Ink Tip back as a sponsor of our full-length screenplay competition! 

The 4th annual GIAA Festival of Short Films and Videos is now open for submissions!

Our preferred submission method is via Without a Box and we will be participating in their new Online

Secure Screeners system. But if you prefer a paper form and surface mail submission, the information is here . 

The Festival is sponsored by the Guild of Italian American Actors (GIAA - see www.giaa.us for more information), and will take place Friday October 1 through Sunday October 3 in New York City.  GIAA promotes Italian American culture and heritage, but welcomes submissions from everyone, both in the US and abroad.

Mara Lesemann will again serve as Festival Director; Debbie Klaar is the Assistant Director, and GIAA President Carlo Fiorletta is the Artistic Director.

The festival is composed of a Movie Competition (up to 30 minutes total running time) and a Screenplay Competition.  The Screenplay Competition is open to both short and full-length screenplays.  We welcome submissions in all genres, including dark and/or experimental works.

Prizes and Awards:

We are very pleased to announce that this year, for the first time, we will be presenting a $100 cash award to the best movie and also to the best screenplay (either short or full-length).

Medals will be presented for the best movie in each category (see below); and the Audience Favorite Award will also be presented at each screening session.  We’re delighted to have   Delicious Italian Gifts back as a sponsor of the Audience Favorite Award; they will again provide baskets of Italian goodies to the winner of the Audience Favorite Award at each screening session. 

We will once again present the Italian-American Heritage Award to the movie or screenplay that best exemplifies the Italian immigrant experience.

We’re very pleased to have Final Draft as a sponsor of the Screenplay Competition.  The winner of the Best Short Screenplay Award and the Best Full-length Screenplay Award will each receive a certificate for a download of Final Draft 8 (value $289).

We are also delighted to welcome Ink Tip as a sponsor of the Full-length Screenplay Award, as follows:

Grand Prize and Best in Genre Winners can place their winning script on InkTip’s password-protected website marketplace for 6 months free (a $60 value).  To redeem this prize, winners must at least place their winning title, logline and synopsis, and can opt to place their script and/or treatment.

All winning titles and loglines that are listed with InkTip will also be featured in one of InkTip’s weekly newsletters emailed to entertainment professionals (a service not available to the public).

The Grand Prize winner will also receive a free title and logline listing in the InkTip Magazine mailed to nearly 4500 entertainment professionals and e-mailed to thousands more (a $40 value).

*The winning title, logline and synopsis (at least) must be listed with InkTip.

General Information:

Movies can be submitted in the following categories:

  • Very short fiction (15 minutes or less)
  • Short fiction (16-30 minutes)
  • Very short documentary (15 minutes or less)
  • Short documentary (16-30 minutes)
  • Very short animation (15 minutes or less)
  • Short animation (16-30 minutes)
  • Music video (15 minutes or less)


2010 Official Selections

Movies

(alphabetical order by title)

 

  • 1117 to Midnight, dir. Nicholas Caccese
  • 3 Dates, dir. Philip Kates
  • Alienated, dir. Paul Borghese
  • Calamity 666, dir. Carlo Fiorletta
  • Carry The One, dir. Van Wampler
  • Cinderello, dir. Chie Mori
  • Dancer and the Red Ball, dir. Tony Cammarata
  • Dinner Guest, The, dir. Taylor Mosbey
  • Falling Apart, dir. Christopher Valori
  • Father and Sister, dir. Soyeon Kim
  • Finding My Magic, dir. Matt McCullough
  • Fluffle, dir. Stephanie Franz
  • Foreclosed, dir. Jeff Bellantine
  • Foreign Currency, dir. Tony Cammarata
  • From the Second Chair, dir. Darol Michael Carr
  • Garden of Light & Shadow, The, dir. Francesco Muto 
  • Go To Sleep, dir. Luis Carlos Uribe
  • Harlem Mother, A, dir. Ivana Todorovic
  • Inside, dir. David Patten
  • Interview, The, dir. Giovanni Zelko
  • Kidnappeando, dir. Norbi Zylberberg
  • Kissed, dir. Ruth C. Hemen Daniels
  • L.O.V.E., dir. Ngoc Phuong Vu
  • Last Supper, The, dir. Carlo Fiorletta
  • Liam and Ben, dir. William Casey
  • Lifestyle for Men, dir. Boris Kozlov
  • Light for Child Care, A, dir. Andres Otero
  • Love Me or Hate Me, dir. Hannah Lux Davis
  • Na Kolenach, dir. Linda Audyova
  • Night Terrors, dir. Matthew Thompson
  • Now and Forever, dir. David Goldstein
  • Pamplemousse, dir. Gavin Shapiro 
  • Pink Slip, dir. Steven Karageanes
  • Plan Doctor, The, dir. Ben Fiore
  • Prelude in E-Minor, dir. Luca Escriva
  • Proud Mary, dir. Dylan Kelley
  • Ready or Not, dir. Vanessa Bergonzoli
  • Rented Happiness, dir. Derrick Lui
  • Samsui Women, dir. Derrick Lui
  • Scotch, Takeshi Suzuki
  • Scottish Bob, dir. Darren McFarlane
  • Shotgun Wedding, dir. Mike James
  • Soundlabs People, dir. Raffaele Passerini
  • Steel and Glass, dir. Salvatore Pesci
  • Stuck, dir. Bruce A. Block
  • Tick Tock, dir. Jeffrey Reyna
  • Traces, dir. Benjamin Flaxman
  • Trah Shorts Episode 3, dir. David Zani
  • Transparent Movement, dir. Soyeon Kim
  • Unit 30, dir. Taryn Hough
  • Vinny Vino, dir. Bill Sorice
  • Waterfall, dir. Braide Keyland
  • With Anchovies Without Mamma, dir. Thomas Justino

 

Screening time at the GIAA Film Festival

Unit 30 will screen at the GIAA Film Festival on Saturday Oct. 2nd during the 7pm block.
The screenings take place at the Anthology Film Archive which is located at Second Ave and Second St. in New York.

Unit 30 was a delightful blend of campy horror, character-driven hijinks and tongue-in-cheek thrills that kept the audience laughing courtesy of rock solid performances from Mulder (Taryn Hough) and Scully (Sandra McCurdy), unrelated to our X-Files friends, along with supporting players Eric Pirooz, as an extremely motivated real estate agent, and Jaclyn Carmichael, a uniquely twisted Welcome Wagon you won't forget. This was one of my favorites at the 2010 GIAA festival. The company I work for provides janitorial supplies to the festival including wholesale Boardwalk brand paper towels. Most people don't really notice the paper towels that they use when wiping their hands in a public rest room. Probably the only time they do notice the paper towels is when there aren't any. Me, on the other hand, always check out the paper products in public rest rooms. And sure enough, there were the Boardwalk brown multi-fold paper towels we donated. GIAA said they would prefer environmentally conscious "green" products, if we carried them. And Boardwalk's brown towels are Green Seal Certified multi-fold towels are 100% recycled. Recently I looked for Unit 30 on Netflix, but unfortunately they didn't carry it. Such a shame. Unit 30 played at a number of film festivals including GIAA, Action on Film, Terror Film Festival, Hollywood Asylum 13 Festival and the Fargo Fantastic Film Festival, capturing a variety of prizes along the way including the Claw Award for Best Short Thriller at Terror and both Best Overall Short Film and Best Horror-Comedy Short at Cleveland's Indie Gathering Film Festival. It must be available somewhere on the web.

Full-length Screenplays

  • According to the Surgeon General, by Benjamin Bates
  • Chances, by Jeffrey Trently & Anthony Stitt
  • Clinch, by Greg Johnson
  • Dear Brother, by Christine Heinlein
  • Jackie & the World’s Fair Pear, by Debbie Klaar
  • Taku’s Quest, by Michael Pallotta

 

Short Screenplays

  • Blood Trigger, by Ron Podell
  • Frames, by Ryan Carbrey
  • Language of Love, by Katarzyna Kochany
  • Last Fairy Tale Chronicles, The, by Dadrea Heron
  • Prefer Not to Say, by Sharan Watson
  • Tell Him He Did A Good Thing, by Adrian Moss
  • The Beast on 92nd St., by Bruno Bonugli
  • Unplugging Aunt Vera, by Angela Page Conti
  • Violette Hayes:  A True Story, by Giancarlo Fusi
  • What’s Under Dmitri’s Bed, by Cody Calahan

 


2011

5th Annual GIAA Festival of Short Movies and Screenplays

November 5 and 6, 2011

New York City

New Sponsor and Award:

We’re delighted to welcome Openfilm.com as a sponsor of this year’s film festival.  The top 3 movies will receive as 12 month Open Film Pro membership, worth $240.  

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The fifth Annual GIAA Festival of Short Movies and Screenplays (formerly known as the Festival of Short Films and Videos) will take place Saturday November 5 and Sunday November 6 at Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan.  Mara Lesemann  will again serve as Festival Director, with Debbie Klaar as Deputy Director and GIAA President Carlo Fiorletta as Artistic Director.

The festival is sponsored by the Guild of Italian American Actors (GIAA) but we welcome submissions from everyone.  

Movies can have a maximum running time of 30 minutes (including credits) and screenplays are limited to a maximum of 30 pages.  Submitted works can be on any topic and any genre, including dark and/or experimental work.  We welcome animation, documentaries, and music videos.

Submission Procedure:

Our preferred submission is Without A Box. There’s no extra charge to submitters, we welcome on-line screeners for movies, and it facilitates tracking submissions.  However, if you prefer to use an off-line form, you can use our Submission Form.
 

Prizes and Awards:

We are very pleased to announce that we will be presenting a $100 cash award to the best movie and also to the best screenplay.

The top 3 movies will receive a 12 month Open Film Pro membership (see www.openfilm.pro).  

Medals will be presented for the best movie in each category (see below) and also to the best screenplays.  

The Audience Favorite Award will also be presented at each screening session.  We’re delighted to have   Delicious Italian Gifts back as a sponsor of the Audience Favorite Award; they will again provide baskets of Italian goodies to the winner of the Audience Favorite Award at each screening session.  

We will once again present the Italian-American Heritage Award to the movie or screenplay that best exemplifies the Italian immigrant experience.

We’re very pleased to have Final Draft as a sponsor of the Screenplay Competition.  The winner of the Best Screenplay Award Award will receive a certificate for a download of Final Draft 8 (value $289). 

General Information:

Movies can be submitted in the following categories:

  • Very short fiction (15 minutes or less)
  • Short fiction (16-30 minutes)
  • Very short documentary (15 minutes or less)
  • Short documentary (16-30 minutes)
  • Very short animation (15 minutes or less)
  • Short animation (16-30 minutes)
  • Music video (15 minutes or less)

 

Screenplays are limited to a maximum of 30 pages.

They must be submitted in proper screenplay format.  All screenplays must be unproduced, unsold, and unoptioned.

Important note:  if you pay the student fee, you MUST provide a copy of your current student ID

Early bird Deadline:  April 4, 2011
 

Very short movies:  $25 (student:  $15)

Short movies:  $35 (student:  $25)

Music videos:  $25 (student:  $15)

Screenplays:  $30 (student:  $20)

 

Regular Deadline:  July 15, 2011
 

Very short movies:  $35 (student:  $25)

Short movies:  $45 (student:  $35)

Music videos:  $35 (student:  $25)

Screenplays:  $35 (student:  $25)

 

Late Deadline:  August 15, 2011
 

Very short movies:  $45 (student:  $35)

Short movies:  $55 (student:  $45)

Music videos:  $45 (student:  $35)

Screenplays:  $40 (student:  $30)

 

Notification date:  October 1, 2011

Mail entry form (see submission Form fee, and movie (2 dvd’s) or screenplay to:

 

GIAA Festival of Short Movies and Screenplays

277 Fourth Street

Jersey City, NJ  07302

IMPORTANT NOTE:  DO NOT SEND BY ANY DELIVERY METHOD THAT REQUIRES A SIGNATURE!


GIAAFilmFest.com