The Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival takes place in mainland France in February on an annual basis.  It is the crème de la crème of short film festivals and a mecca for young film makers looking to be noticed, exhibit and sell their short films.

The FDMX team attended the festival for three days and shared a stand under the umbrella of the British Council. For us, the festival meant a whirlwind of meetings, networking, seminars and screenings to extend our knowledge and offer collaboration to potential partners on a global scale.  Film organisations across the globe attended the festival to tell the world of their film industry, or sell the films from their native countries.

Each evening a few of the different stands and countries would hold drinks and parties at different venues around Clermont Ferrand. The parties would be very popular and often difficult to get into, even with an invitation. Some were better than others, with music and dancing, but all opened the opportunity to networking in a relaxed and social environment.

A number of film festival programmers from all over the world were also attending the festival to find films to screen at their home festivals.  FDMX was presenting work from our body of students and was delighted to be approached by festival programmers from Korea, France, Canada and Italy.  The British Council stand had two handy monitors with ear phones so that potential buyers and programmers could take their chosen DVDs and watch them on site immediately.

Seminars were held by various international television and internet buyers as well as short film sales agents.  These proved enormously useful to the attendees, as they gave them insight to which buyers were looking for what, what kind of fees they could expect and the benefits of exploiting their films in different media.

Overall, the Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival allowed FDMX the option to collaborate with a number of different international partners including a Mexican and Israeli Film School, a British short film broadcaster, various different European festivals and a British short films sales agent.  So watch this space for some exciting developments!