BIO

Aishat Lawal is a first-year Presidential Scholar at Florida State University pursuing a dual degree in English Literature and Theatre with minors in Film Studies and French. Aishat plans to use her undergraduate education to pursue careers in dramaturgy, theater division, and creative writing with an intercultural focus. Ultimately, Aishat plans to use her education and the power of words and storytelling to connect communities across figurative and geographical barriers.

Cocoa in the Dark: Film Festival Strategy and Understanding the Film Market

Abstract

Social justice films cater to a particular subset of film festivals, and uncovering the best-fit festivals gives this genre of film the best chance at a wide reach and a successful release. Professor Ryan Hope Travis’s film Cocoa in the Dark grapples with themes of wrongful incarceration and racial injustice in the prison industrial complex. In the film, a man wrongfully charged with rape is wrongfully sentenced to several years in prison, and is forced to come face to face with the ways in which the justice system continues to fail people of color. Together with the filmmaker, the research assistant will create a database of film festivals, highlighting those that prioritize themes of allyship and uplifting voices of directors of color, for the distribution of his feature film. Creating this database will be indispensable in helping the film reach its target audience as well as create a more efficient distribution plan for Travis.
The film festival selection process is lengthy, and it requires those hosting the festival to sift through thousands of submissions before programming a select few films into the festival’s run. By carefully noting which festivals have a proclivity for choosing films with themes of racism, injustice, and class, we can ensure the film’s success (as measured by how many festivals it is selected to be showcased in).

Keywords: film, social justice, actvism, filmmaking, film festivals