Huge Philly Film Festival Shake-up

We just received a very interesting press release from TLA Entertainment Group. (You can read the release in its entirety at TLAFilmFest.com.) The company says it will organize and present two brand new international film festivals this year: Philadelphia Cinefest, and an as yet unnamed gay and lesbian film festival. The former will run from March 26th to April 5th and feature over 225 films from over 40 countries, as well as the usual international guests, artistic achievement awards, and special events. The gay and lesbian festival will run from July 9th to July 20th. Both festivals will be helmed by Artistic Director Raymond Murray, former Artistic Director of both the Philadelphia Film Festival and the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

Which brings up the big question: why create these two new festivals when TLA already supports the Philadelphia Film Festival and PIGLFF? The answer is, because TLA won't be supporting them anymore. Apparently there's been some pretty big disagreements between TLA and the Philadelphia Film Society board leadership "over the management and artistic vision of the festivals" (read: money), and it's led to "a breakup of the business relationship." The press release goes on to say that both of the new festivals will be supported and nurtured by TLA until an appropriate non-profit organization can be created to ensure their longevity. Meanwhile, TLA has poached a lot of staff from PFS and the old festivals for this new venture: Thom Cardwell, formerly of the PFS, has come on board as Development Director, and the core curatorial team and management and operations staff will remain mostly the same.

This sounds very strongly to us like TLA has created these new festivals to replace the old ones, and since they've also taken away much of the staff and funding from the old festivals, it may very well be true that the Philadelphia Film Festival and the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival will cease to exist. A visit to the official website for those old festivals, Phillyfests.com, which is run by the Philadelphia Film Society, seems to support our theory of replacement, as the dates listed there for the 2009 Philadelphia Film Festival coincide almost exactly with those announced for Philadelphia Cinefest, and the same goes for the gay and lesbian film festivals.

Who knows, maybe we'll have four competing film festivals in the city this year, and the cinephiles amongst us will be overwhelmed with film-going opportunities. But from where we sit, the future does not look good for either of the old festivals, or for the Philadelphia Film Society. Regardless, we'll be sure to keep you updated when we learn more.

Image Credit: Flickr user ToastyKen