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Despite waking up a little tired and not entirely sure where we were when our first alarm went off, we didn't have to get up too early which really softened the blow. Hotel Della Porta offers breakfast from 7am-10am, meaning that we can roll out of bed, dress and ready ourselves, and stumble our way to croissants, scrambled eggs, bacon, and ACE Juice (Indeana Underhill's current Italy obsession). It's convenient and communal as many of the filmmakers, festival volunteers, and sponsors stay at the same hotel. So, our first full day started with the exchange of many cheerful "ciaos", good food, high spirits, and Grace and I accidentally twinning again in the way we always manage to do. #Bestco-workersever.
Our first film festival activity of the day was a panel with producers Kim Magnusson, Rebecca Pruzen, and Francis Chapman called "Focus on Production". Magnusson and Pruzen both have Oscar wins under their belt, but Pruzen's 2023 Academy Award winning film, Ivalu, was the focus of their talk. The recent win allowed them to provide attending filmmakers with detailed and insightful advice about distribution and Oscar campaigning. There will be a full article up shortly here on League of Filmmakers, breaking down the panel in detail, so look our for "Nòt Film Fest Talk: Focus on Production" (please don't pester Grace about it, poor thing is writing as fast as she can). However, I will share our number one take-away if you're looking for a little pre-article drop teaser: DO NOT, no matter what, share your short film online for free as soon as it's done. This is how you kill it. Value your work, give it a chance at festivals, to build interest, gain momentum – find it a home for true distribution if you can.
After the panel there was a short window of time before lunch – but wait, you just had breakfast?! Yeah, welcome to Italy. We used our time to set up our home away from home CFA studio space, which happens to be right next door to Nòt's after-party bar, OltreBorgo. I'll drop a picture of the space below, LOOK! How cute?!
And now, for the pièce de résistance – if I may use a little French during this Italian film festival – lunch. Lunch is one of the many things that makes Nòt incredibly unique. Every day of the festival, a free lunch is provided for the filmmakers, not only is the food delicious but it takes place at an incredibly long table set between two long rows of trees in an Italian vineyard. Idyllic, we know. BUT, of course, the best part of the meal is the company. The goal of daily festival-wide lunches is connection. For an hour or so everyone has a chance to chat, drink wine, and eat without rushing off to a panel or screening. Whether the focus of your conversations is someone's festival film or career is up to you, but if you're more like Grace and I, you might spend a lot of lunch marveling over the cheese and potato cakes with anyone that would listen. They were delicious and we won't apologize. The first lunch of the festival consisted of a flat bread used for dipping in squacquerone di Romagna, the aforementioned potato cakes from heaven, and a vegetarian, mushroom lasagna. Needless to say, we're already looking forward to day three's meal.
Post lunch cappuccinos came next, followed by Grace conducting an interview with Victória Vasconcellos the lead actress in Hide and Seek, which screened here at Nòt. Haylee, not loving the idea of being on camera, worked on some writing... as much writing as can be accomplished while also listening to Grace absolutely kill (positive connotation) her interview. If you'd like to watch that interview it will go up on CFA's YouTube channel so watch that space, as the kids say.
We spent dinner with one of our fearless leaders: actress, director, co-founder of CFA, Haeleigh Royall. It took a moment of wandering the streets of Santarcangelo to find a viable option for food; most places here close at 2:30pm after lunch and don't reopen until 7:00pm. We were turned away from several spots with an apologetic "Ah, no – 7p.m." Eventually, we found a place and FINALLY we were going to have authentic Italian pizza!
Maybe it was our level of excitement that led to the evening's misunderstanding, maybe we can't really read as well as we thought we could, either way we had wandered into a focacceria, not a pizzeria. Eh, bread, cheese, and meats – what could go wrong? In the end, we stuck it out and had yet another incredible meal that was just more panini shaped than pizza shaped.
Grace and I headed back to our hotel room for what was supposed to be a quick 10 minute pause to pull ourselves together. It turned into an hour long giggle and the start of our Tik Tok journey – spoiler alert: all of our Tik Tok ideas were gelato related. We had a mission, a new spark, the muse had visited.
When we did finally make it out of the hotel, we headed to Fresh Mavi for gelato, and the creation of our very first Tik Tok. And possibly very last... hard to say, if inspiration strikes again you will all be the first to know. For the next hour or so Grace and I worked on our articles in the glow of the gelato shop lights. Our table was a bit sticky, it's not easy making art when your subject is rapidly melting in the summer heat. Check our home page for any articles with "Nòt" in the name to keep up with the fest and what may have been written by hands covered in hazelnut gelato. In the meantime, hang tight, we'll be back for our day three recap soon.
