In a cultural scene packed with festivals and events that compete for hosting films and getting people’s and media’s attention, Filmmaker has its clear and recognizable identity: a festival and workshop open to contributions, and interested in finding out and sustain new authors, new film forms and new relations with the audience.
Filmmaker is a space for watching films but also for reflecting on, creating, and financially supporting a new cinema: in more than thirty years of activity, it has launched at least three generations of film directors, produced more than eighty films, and spread a vocation to watch and see and think a new, free, international, outside-the-box cinema thanks to “mediators” of the likes of Frederick Wiseman, Johan van der Keuken, Luc e Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Rithy Panh, Errol Morris e Ulrich Seidl.
Filmmaker has been acknowledged over the years as the initiative that, more than any other, has shown new paths and new trends in cinematography. It has promoted new directors’ works, stimulated encounters between internationally-known authors and the city audience, actively encouraged an exchange of experiences in different disciplines. Its activity has been financially supported by public authorities, production companies, TV networks, and entities operating in the audiovisual market.
Today, Filmmaker is a rounded festival, where the International Competition, Retrospective, OFF, Masterclasses, and Production sections are parts of a harmonious program that on one hand offers the public the best experiences in contemporary “cinema of reality”, and on the other spreads seminal ideas and practices in the community of young Milanese and Italian filmmakers.