I was in Cyprus with my film

I came back on Friday but I needed two days to recuperate. Unfortunately from Cyprus I was not able to post my impressions. Anyhow, the Cyprus Inernational Film Festival has finished, the awards were given and now is the time for analysis.
Personally, the festival was one of the most horrifying experiences in my life. When I came to the airport in the middle of the night, noone was waiting for me. I took a taxi, came to hotel at 5 a.m. just at the time to hear the first morning prayer from nearest mosque. Next day, Friday 13th :), I asked at the receptionist desk, where is the cinema where the festival takes place. First, the receptionist didn't know anything about the festival, second, he told me that the cinema is far away from city center and that I have to take a taxi. So, taxi again. When I came there, I couldn't beleive my eyes. This is what I saw:

Of course, the cinema was completely empty (actually, very soon 300 kids arrived to see Mr. Bean). Guy and the girl from the festival were there doing I don't know what. At 5.30, when the screening of paris.love started, we were two (2!) people in the room: Akemi Tachibana, the Japanese director and me. No audience. Not to mention that the first 5 min of the screening was with slovenian subtitles, until I finally didn't find the cinema operator. When the screening ended and I met Stephanos and Danae from the festival, they didn't seem at all disturbed that there was no audience. I was so shocked that I even forgot to be angry. In front of the cinema another shock: fucking limo was there to take Akemi and me back to the hotel. They should use that limo to bring the audience to that from god forgotten place. And these are my feet having fun inside.
However, here I will stop the diary narrative because in next six days things didn't change at all. We were 6 to 10 filmmakers who were watching their films by them self (I arranged another screening of my film so at least 5 people saw it :). If the screening was interrupted less than 3 times, we felt lucky. Some of the films were stoped at the half and never screened till the end. Normally, when we were searching for the cinema operator to tell him that there were problems, we couldn't find him. The worst is that the organisers didn't care about all those things, even worse, they were not even there. Very soon we started to joke about everything, the last defense one can take is to escape into the humour. The first joke by Victor Barrera was that the one who gets the main award will have to stay there for another year :), my joke was that we are collateral damage.
The conclusion is that recently a lot of new film festivals had appeared on the map. A lot of them (qouting guys from Crossing Bridges that just came from one) are run by the people who doesn't have any connection with the cinema: neither as a filmmakers, nor as a cinema lovers. They don't respect filmmakers, they don't care about screenings, they don't care about the audiance (the three most important things!). Obviously they care just about the money (which I don't care if the three first things are fulfilled).
So, be aware of Cyprus Film Festival. And even if you submit your film there, think 10 times before you attend it, because be aware that your dignity as a filmmaker will be challenged on every step. And on their website will everything still look nice and clean.

P.S. - 03.04.2010 - don't mix this event with Cyprus Film Days - their website look like they are serious film buffs

J.J.B.