Executive director Marc Lhormer likens it to planning 100
weddings on the same weekend.
“Ambitious” is not a big enough word to describe the 2011 Napa
Valley Film Festival.
After whetting local appetites through a successful soft launch
last year, 91 films are now listed in the 2011 Napa Valley Film
Festival program guide.
Those films — many of them short — will be played on 12 screens
throughout the Napa Valley, including screenings in Calistoga,
Yountville, St. Helena and the city of Napa.
It promises to be a very big event. And, Napa will hope, a
successful one.
And in order for it to be a success, Napans will have to be
involved.
Competition in the film festival world is intense. Lhormer, who
with his wife Brenda spent seven years heading the Sonoma film
festival, counts 60 film events in the Bay Area alone.
The need to carve out a niche in that well-saturated market may
have been the impetus behind hosting so many films and so many
special events in four different communities right from the
start.
Lhormer, however, said the growth was more organic. Each of the
four communities hosting events from Nov. 9-13 wanted the festival
to start in their town, he said, so the decision was made to make
the festival (almost) valley-wide. The film list ballooned, Lhormer
said, through the relationships that he and his wife have made in
the industry in seven years in Sonoma.
“So many films are coming to us from all these different
places,” Lhormer said. “So it’s like, ‘Wow! Look at this great
documentary. We’ve got to include that. Look at this amazing
feature. Look at these amazing shorts from Romania, we need to
include them.’
“We intended to have a much smaller, more contained program the
first year — maybe 60 or so films — and it just grew on us.”
In addition to the films, special events line the schedule
throughout the weekend, including a tribute night at the Lincoln
Theater on Saturday, Nov. 12, a handful of VIP receptions,
after-parties and dinners, an awards ceremony, several wrap parties
and, of course, the obligatory wine tastings and food pairings that
dot the large festival footprint.
It is a very big event. Bigger than its reputation, which
creates the need for a substantial local audience.
About 60 percent of ticket buyers to the Sonoma festival come
from the Bay Area, according to festival representative Ginny
Kreiger.
With every new film, venue or event, the stakes get raised.
According to tax filings, the Sonoma film festival lost close to
$200,000 in the two years prior to the Lhormers’ departure in April
2008.
But that festival, which included “up and down” years during
their tenure, turned a $132,000 loss in 2008 into an $11,000
surplus the next year, according to tax records, and has found
success since thanks in large part to a $100,000 grant, Kreiger
said.
Lhormer stressed that same need to rely on local patronage
rather than corporate sponsorships in order to build a festival
capable of lasting decades. Corporations, he said, are less likely
to stick it out for the long haul.
Without giving specifics, he estimated this year’s festival
budget to be under $1 million but compared the event’s scale to
that of the Mill Valley Film Festival, which has an annual budget
over $3 million.
It being year one, Napa’s event may not have the industry pull
to attract A-listers like Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney or
Clint Eastwood — all of whom have films that will be shown at the
festival. Lhormer said the staff is still working the phones in the
hope of attracting some big names.
What the festival does have is local buzz, and with it, local
volunteers. Lhormer said 450 volunteers are being trained right now
and the event staff itself has grown to 30 from its core group of
eight. The assistance of established local nonprofits like the Napa
Valley Vintners, Napa Valley Destination Council and Downtown
Business Association have also helped coordinate winery events and
hotel arrangements.
Ticket packages range from $2,500 patron-level passes to $10
individual film “rush” line tickets. There are $75 day passes and a
festival pass for $245, which has a $50 locals discount to reduce
it to $195.
The aggressive four-community approach makes community
participation essential. It was there — at least in Napa — last
year for the mini-festival, as the event helped the organization
end the year with a $32,000 surplus.
With hope, St. Helena, Yountville and Calistoga will join the
party this year (and American Canyon will get invited next
year).
Everyone in the valley would benefit from the successful launch
of a new Napa Valley film tradition.