The National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) takes place in Seattle this weekend. NFFTY is the largest youth film festival in the world showcasing films from directors under age 25.
Filmmakers from all around the world will gather October 25-28 to attend screenings, workshops, and networking events geared at young directors in the film industry.
Kyle Seago, in his first year as festival director, co-founded NFFTY 12 years ago.
"We were three high schoolers that realized that there wasn't a venue for people who were our age to come together and not only show their work and get feedback, but be able to make connections with other people that are their age," he said.
Taking place at the SIFF Uptown theater in Queen Anne, Seago gave remarks to a packed theater at the opening night screening. He emphasized how much hard work everyone put into their films to get there.
"The whole thing is, if your film is in the festival, you’ve made it. That’s the reward. So everybody, whether you’re 10 years old or 20 years old, you’re all on the same playing field," he said.
Filmmakers, friends, family, and film-lovers alike lined up waiting to snag a seat for one of the two opening night screenings played back-to-back at the theater. Before, the filmmakers had gathered at an event space for pre-screening drinks and red carpet pictures.
"Opening night is always funny because people are flying in from all over the world and it’s kind of awkward; you don’t really know anybody yet, but by the time Sunday rolls around everybody has made friends with everybody," Seago says.
The line-up for opening night featured six films, from a documentary on women in India breaking barriers by manufacturing their own menstrual pads for rural communities, to a short comedic film about two thieves who get stuck in a parking garage after a heist.
After the screening, the entire audience boarded shuttle buses to MOHAI for an after party to kick off a weekend full of film.
All of the screenings, each with its own theme or idea, feature collections of short films with many of the filmmakers in attendance participating in a Q & A after the show.
Emma Craft, a NFFTY alum and former volunteer, is attending the festival this year just to watch films and enjoy the show.
"I think you just never really know what to expect at NFFTY. Every year, each category leaves you with just a slightly different mood. I just love the variety, one screening makes you laugh, one screening makes you cry, some make you do both. It’s never boring," she says.
Beyond screenings, NFFTY puts on several events for the filmmakers themselves and to showcase the future of movies and how people view them.
"It’s hard for a young person to go to those festivals and be accepted and feel welcome, and it’s also hard because you don’t have the resources to make a film that can get into those film festivals," Seago says.
Because of this, NFFTY encompasses more than just a run-of-the-mill film festival.
2018 marks the second year of NFFTYx, a subsection of the festival devoted to 360-degree virtual reality storytelling.
A 48-hour film challenge will have high school groups competing against each other to see who can make the best film in such a short amount of time. A showing of all the 48-hour films will take place on Saturday morning.
NFFTY also offers masterclasses, lectures, and workshops for the filmmakers in attendance. For the young filmmakers, community is what drives NFFTY.
"I think what I hope for this year is that all the new filmmakers that come into this community recognize the power in it and have a great enough experience that they want to come back and they want to invite their friends to submit next year," Seago says.
Quinn Halleck and Sam Gershik, seniors at Chapman University, ended up submitting to NFFTY because a friend told them about it.
"My friend messaged me and said 'you should check out NFFTY.' I had heard people talk about NFFTY, I had heard of Chapman students who had gone to NFFTY and had a great time. I really wanted to feel like my film was going somewhere," Halleck said.
"I just wanted to come to Seattle in any capacity so I started looking for Seattle film festivals. Quinn suggested NFFTY, and when we got in it was not even a question of if we were going to come," Gershik adds.
Halleck directed and Gershik produced their film "To College," a film chronicling two freshman during their first year in the dorms, which premieres during "The Last Laugh" screening on Saturday night.
Halleck describes it as "a film about two people both trying to find themselves, they’re best friends in the beginning but as the year progresses you slowly see their relationship fall apart. It’s told through a single camera angle through the entire year of a freshman dorm room experience."
For these young filmmakers, just the experience of getting their movies shown in front of a large audience is a huge learning opportunity for them.
"I remember though when I first screened it at Chapman, and what I’m still scared about when we’re going to screen it at NFFTY, is the second half of the film. It’s a dramatic part and it switched from comedic to dramatic," says Halleck.
Craft remembers her first showing at NFFTY fondly. "At the end of the film, when the applause surges, you just feel like you’re like you’re with people that understand. When I get emotional during the film I can feel everyone else getting emotional, people are really entranced by what they’re watching."
Seago hopes that people from around Seattle and Western Washington will attend NFFTY and see the top-of-the-line talent that the festival has to offer.
"I hope that the community at large recognizes what a gem this is for Seattle and wants to support us moving forward," Seago says, adding, "It's a jammed-packed weekend like it is every year. We just hope that people leave their preconceived notions of what a youth film festival might be at the door and come in ready to support, cheer, and learn about these filmmakers, and their experiences and backgrounds. There's a lot of amazing people here."
The festival runs all weekend with showings at SIFF Uptown cinema. Tickets and a full schedule of the festival are available online and tickets are also available for purchase at the theater.
