Fantastic Fest Secret Screenings: When Festivals Collide

Secret screenings are a much-loved signature event at Fantastic Fest. Every year, four to six of these events are scheduled, labeled only as "Secret Screening #1" and so forth. They're the grab bags of the film festival -- you don't know if you'll get a glimpse of a world premiere with the filmmaker present, or an obscure Asian movie that hasn't hit the U.S. yet, or a big Hollywood movie that a studio is probably trying to test before release.

In the past, Fantastic Fest secret screenings have included the world premiere of There Will Be Blood with Paul Thomas Anderson in attendance; Mel Gibson turning up with a work-in-progress version of Apocalypto; the first screening of the post-Cannes cut of Southland Tales, with Richard Kelly attending; and regional premieres of films that played earlier fests, like The Brothers Bloom and Persepolis. This year, Secret Screening #1 was Robogeisha, and #2 was a version of The Men Who Stare at Goats that wasn't quite finished -- no credits attached, and in need of color correction. The third screening was Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus; the fourth was the Coens' A Serious Man.

Part of the fun, and a great icebreaker with people you meet at the fest, is gathering around trying to guess what the secret screenings might be. Some of the guesses are outrageous, and some seem outrageous until you get in the theater and realize that So-and-So was right.

But as much as I enjoy the Fantastic Fest secret screenings, I'm worried that they may be causing some bad blood in the Austin film festival community, and I'd like to explain why.

Last year, one of the secret screenings was the comedy Role Models. Director David Wain and actor Paul Rudd were at Fantastic Fest for the movie and held one of the best Q&As I've ever seen (as pictured above). Everyone got t-shirts after, everyone was buzzing, it was a shrewd move on the studio's part to generate positive word-of-mouth on the film.

Except: Role Models had already been announced as the Centerpiece film for Austin Film Festival, less than a month later, as a regional premiere. You can imagine the AFF programmers weren't happy that they'd essentially been "scooped" by Fantastic Fest -- they replaced the Centerpiece slot with Wendy and Lucy. AFF did ultimately put Role Models back on their schedule in a different slot, and the studio sent Jane Lynch and Seann William Scott to AFF to do a conference panel and a Q&A at the screening, which was not originally planned. So it all worked out well in the end, but it still seemed like a pretty crappy move on the part of the studio involved. I hoped this was a one-time mistake.

It wasn't. A press release from AFF last week highlighted the regional premiere of The Men Who Stare at Goats as a marquee screening this year. ("Marquee" means a fairly well-known film, usually with stars in it, usually playing at the Paramount.) Friday night's secret screening at Fantastic Fest was ... The Men Who Stare at Goats. The double-booking happened again.

The AFF press release I received Monday that announced the opening and closing-night films noted that The Men Who Stare at Goats is no longer scheduled for the fest. You could claim that some people might go back and see the film again in a more finished version (I would) but I can't argue with AFF for deciding not to put up with this kind of undercutting of their marquee films. I haven't confirmed with AFF that they pulled the film for this reason -- maybe it's because the film won't be finished in time -- but the timing points to a direct reaction to the Fantastic Fest screening.

Fantastic Fest may not be to blame for the double-booking fiascos. These are studio films, not indies, and my irritation is aimed at them and whoever manages their festival bookings. The studio behind the double-booking this year isn't the same one as last year. They have to be aware that they're undercutting AFF programming.

It could be argued, successfully, that Fantastic Fest and AFF don't have a lot of overlap in their audiences, except for a handful of local film geeks. It could be argued that since Fantastic Fest secret screenings are held in theaters that only seat about 200 people, that not many local filmgoers are affected anyway, and that the FF screenings actually build buzz for the AFF screenings.

But the perception that comes out of this undercutting of AFF premieres is that Fantastic Fest is "stealing" movies from AFF, and that's detrimental to the Austin film community. It looks like the two fests are competing with one another for films -- and maybe they are, to a certain extent, but you'd think that there would be enough genre films out there to make this unnecessary.

Fantastic Fest and SXSW worked together on midnight programming at SXSW this year -- you may remember the "Fantastic Fest Presents" series going on that week, which was very popular. SXSW is six months' distance from Fantastic Fest, so that's an obvious partnership. aGLIFF's Centerpiece Film this year, Antique, was originally submitted for Fantastic Fest consideration, and I'm told that the Fantastic Fest programmers referred the film to aGLIFF.

But I'd like to see Fantastic Fest and AFF work together, too, instead of the two fests having to deal with this stupid double-booking crap that spreads contention. Why not include some Fantastic Fest encore screenings, or movies that wouldn't fit into the schedule, as AFF midnight films? Or perhaps the two fests could co-sponsor a series or a few events at another time of the year.

To help solve the current problem, maybe AFF programmers could slip the Fantastic Fest folks an early list of their potential marquee screenings, and Fantastic Fest programmers might pick up the phone (or email) to check with AFF about whether their secret screening opportunities affect AFF premieres. Even though the studios might be responsible for the double-booking problems, there's no reason why the fests can't unite and communicate with one another to prevent future snafus.

I'm tired of hearing Austin film fans talk as though you have to pick sides when it comes to local film festivals -- if you love AFF, you have to backtalk SXSW or Fantastic Fest, that kind of thing. Maybe such an attitude is inevitable in a city that hosts and supports multiple large film festivals. But having big studios undercut AFF programming is only making things worse for Austin's film community. And at a time when the economic downturn is forcing some cities' film festivals to downsize, or even go "on hiatus" like Cinevegas, Austin film fests can't afford to lose support to perceived or actual infighting.