How To Be Fantastic with TOHorror

La Dolce Vita – or in the case of TOHorror, it’s less about the good life, and more about the supernatural life. Indeed, the Turin-based festival is focused on the fantastic genre, the old literary genre defined by an ambiguous presence of supernatural forces. It’s a genre which is constantly posing questions – most notably what’s real, and what’s not. Here’s one thing that’s real – TOHorror is a festival well worth submitting too. We spoke with their Artistic Director Massimiliano Supporta about why you should submit to TOHorror, finding out about a new category for 2015, the rules of a successful fantastic film and an Indiegogo campaign they are undertaking for 2015…

TOHorrorFF-Collage-FilmFestivalLife

Andrew Wilkin, FilmFestivalLife: What types of films are you looking for this edition? 

Massimiliano Supporta: TOHorror is a fantastic festival of both cinema and culture. We’re interested in any new ideas related to both of them, with special attention placed on the horror genre and the independent circuit. Mixing these two components, often you can find within hidden themes relating to the human condition and society. We’re especially interested in the works where you can find a mix of entertainment and social critique.

What makes a good film? 

A good idea. That’s why independent cinema is the most interesting domain for us. Apart from the FX – which is obviously still important in a good fantastic movie – creativity, intuition, freedom and bravery win out. At least in Turin, it does!

What’s new this festival edition?

This year there’s a new category for the competition, the web series, which will join the others – feature, shorts, screenplay, animation – in having its own category. We have also decided to create a web series in which we can present our (totally insane, by the way) festival crew, as the centrepiece of the crowd-funding campaign that we’ll start on the Indiegogo platform. Our fest is completely independent, totally self-financed and the budget is always a hot theme for the organization. So in May you’ll see the premiere of our web series on our channel and on our Indiegogo page.

What can filmmakers expect when they are attending TOHorror? 

The TOHFF is now in its’ 15th edition, accredited as one of the most important Italian festivals of genre cinema and one of the most interesting in all of Europe. That makes us an important showcase for the directors expressing themselves through the fantastic genre and a real resource for independent cinema. We also create an environment where new ideas can grow, creating a place where audiences and authors from different backgrounds can meet. And we succeed – in recent years new projects were born at TOHorror, and whilst some were able to find a place in the market, some didn’t. New projects will be born this year and our job is to help them grow.

Do you have tips for filmmakers? Any strategies they should adopt in the submission process? 

Never lose sight of your goal, but in general my main tip is to create a good movie. A short has to be short. And if the idea is good you must follow the literary rule: every excursion from the main idea, if it lacks motivation, destroys the energy of the film. The same principal applies for feature films, as does the opposite: if you don’t have enough ideas to create a feature film, don’t.

Why should filmmakers use FilmFestivalLife?

FilmFestivalLife is for both the perfect way, and the easiest way, to let the fantastic community know about your work. The same community that comes to the cinema to learn about new directors, to meet other guests in flesh and blood. Because FFL can eliminate the boundaries between our festival and the potential director. The boundaries that seemed like walls beforehand. Because Turin wants to know about your dreams and why you are afraid of the world.

 

Massimiliano Supporta, Artistic Director
TOHorror Film Fest

Oct 07 – 10, 2015
Turin, Italy

Submit to TOHorror on FilmFestivalLife:

Submit via FFL
Late Deadline: July 31, 2015


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Andrew Wilkin

Andrew Wilkin is the Client and Community Support Coordinator at FFL. His editorial background has involved working at unlike. His film experience has included a position at moviepilot. Reach him at andrew@filmfestivallife.com

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