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Students learn the tricks and traps of running a film festival

In 12 short weeks, RMIT media students put together a film festival as part of their degree. The theme is nifty: first films by directors, both famous and emerging.

30 May 2023 16:51

Rochelle Siemienowicz

All Arts

Peter Murphy of Bauhaus performing ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ in ‘The Hunger’. Image: Supplied.

The Debut International Film Festival (DIFF) is an entirely student-run event, from theme to programming, website design, venue hire and fundraising.

Under the tutelage of film festival veteran and mover-and-shaker Cerise Howard (recently announced as the new program director of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival) the students have quickly learned the value of precision planning, how to ask for the moon in terms of venues and screening rights, and the importance of throwing a jolly great party to launch it all.

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Rochelle Siemienowicz

Rochelle Siemienowicz is a Melbourne writer and editor. Her first book Fallen, a memoir was published in 2014 and her second, Double Happiness, a novel, in 2024. She has a PhD in Australian cinema and was previously a journalist at ScreenHub and ArtsHub. ou can find her on Instagram: @Rochelle_Rochelle or at Substack where she writes a fortnightly newsletter, The Fool and the Queen.