Month: August 2025

Watch the DIVERSITY Shorts Film Festival (in case you missed it)

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Watch the festival NOW for the next 48 hours by signing up for the FREE 3-DAY trial using the link, or go to http://www.wildsound.ca

Watch today’s Festival: https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/diversity-shorts-festival

THE PRISONER, 1min., India
Directed by Allabhya Ghosh
Life is confined to a ten-foot-by-ten-foot room. That’s the norm in the suburbs now.

Don’t pretend you didn’t see me, 1min., Argentina
Directed by Jimmy Alejandro Castro Zambrano
The narration of the experiences of a blind person who moves through the city.

https://instagram.com/jimmyartista

MELODRAMA, 34min., Italy
Directed by Giuseppe De Vuono
Rebecca Reveal, a promising designer, lives with her husband in an old farmhouse lost in the middle of the countryside. She is a beautiful woman, visionary and devoted to the art world, he a paranoid and egocentric man. They seem the picture of the perfect family, but both are hiding a secret that will push them beyond their limits.

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Sizwe, 28min., South Africa
Directed by Ayanda Makayi
The story of a young, deaf Xhosa girl, overcoming adversity in the height of lockdown to save her gogo (grandmother).

https://www.instagram.com/sizweshortfilm/

Quantum Causality Conundrum, 2min., USA
Directed by Aki Aitos
While walking back to a college campus, Emma and Lila delve into the nuances of quantum mechanics and causality, balancing profound curiosity with the practical need to get to class on time.

Today’s Podcast: EP. 1561: Screenwriter Shaun Delliskave (CALIGO INN)

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LISTEN to the podcast: http://www.wildsoundpodcast.com/the-film-podcast-by-wildsound/2025/8/9/ep-1561-screenwriter-shaun-delliskave-caligo-inn

watch the best scene reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyK8K0-Hi3k

Get to know the writer:

What is your screenplay about?

Caligo Inn is about a power-hungry senator who goes to a secluded inn to work on his vice-presidential platform, only to be confronted by the ghosts of people destroyed by his ambition—soldiers, victims, even his own son. It’s part political drama, part supernatural reckoning, where he’s forced to face everything he’s tried to bury.

What genres does your screenplay fall under?

It’s a psychological thriller at its core, but it leans heavily into supernatural horror with a strong thread of political drama running through it.

Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?

It puts a fresh spin on the haunted house story by tying the horror directly to real-world politics and personal guilt. It’s creepy, timely, and has a central character who’s both fascinating and deeply flawed—which makes for a compelling watch.

How would you describe this script in two words?

Haunting retribution.

What movie have you seen the most times in your life?

Probably The Shining. That mix of isolation, psychological tension, and surreal horror really stuck with me, and you can feel its influence in this script.

Subscribe to the podcast:

https://www.instagram.com/wildsoundpod/

https://www.facebook.com/wildsoundpod

Today’s Writing Deadlines: August 9, 2025

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Submit to these exciting festivals today. Festivals that offer feedback from the industry, plus performance videos.

EROTICA Screenplay Festival:

EROTICA Screenplay Festival – Deadline August 9th

This festival has a guaranteed 4-tier set up for each accepted script. (No matter what, all screenplays submitted receive FULL FEEDBACK on their work.)
1) Full Feedback on your script
2) Actors performance video reading of your script
3) Blog interview promotion.
4) Podcast interview on the Film Festival ITunes show

HISTORY Short Story Festival (everyone wins):

HISTORY Short Story Festival (everyone wins) – Deadline August 9th

Submit you HISTORY short story to the festival here, and we will automatically have it performed by a professional actor and turned into a promotional video for yourself.

History is a narrative that describes, analyzes, and questions past events, and examines the patterns of cause and effect. It’s a collection of stories told by many different people, and is subject to constant revision and reinterpretation. Accept only stories that fit into the HISTORY genre.

CONTEMPORARY FICTION Novel Festival:

Get FULL FEEDBACK on either the 1st chapter or entire novel book from our committee of Professional Writers, and Writing Consultants. Get your novel performed by a professional actor at the festival.

NEW OPTION: Or, just submit for an actor performance reading transcript of your novel (any 5 pages of your book). Great way to promote the sales of your book if you’re already published. (see examples on the video playlist below)

Deadline Today; EXPERIMENTAL/DANCE/MUSIC Festival

Today’s 5 Star FilmFreeway Testimonial: ENVIRONMENTAL Film & Screenplay Festival

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Submit to the Festival via FilmFreeway:

This festival is truly one of the best film festivals I have ever been involved with. Their communication with the filmmakers is first rate. The way the festival is run is like no other and so is the exposure they provide for our films. And unlike any other festival I have ever seen, they do literal video reviews of the people who watched your film and you get to hear first hand what they think! Totally unique and totally amazing!-

August 2025 THRILLER/SUSPENSE Festival Testimonials

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Submit to the Festival via FilmFreeway.

Excellent and useful review notes. Notifications were timely and frequent. Excellent festival for networking opportunities.

Thank you again for your feedback! Honored to have won Best Direction for TEA TIME!

Very good festival and very good feedback. I really appreciate the honest feedback that the viewers gave. The reaction they gave was exactly what I was going for when we filmed the movie. The surprise was to have Stratagem the movie get voted for best feature film. Very humbled and honored. Thank you all for your professionalism and communication.

Awesome festival, but what really sold me was the audience feedback videos they made. Great marketing material for the project! Would definitely recommend for indie filmmakers.

Turning 57 Today: Eric Bana

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QUOTES:

I wanted to be a mechanic. When I was 14, I wanted to quit school and go work on my car. But my dad said, “Son, you shouldn’t do that. You should stay in school until your education is finished, and when you’re done, don’t make your hobby your job.”.

I race historic muscle cars back in Australia. And I try to race home as soon as I’m finished a movie but don’t tell anyone.

I could become characters and to me that’s what acting was – I didn’t want to shroud it in mystery.

Turning 35 Today: Bill Skarsgård

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QUOTES:

I have three older brothers, and each one of them has chosen one of my parents education. Two of them are actors, and the third is a doctor as my mother is. I wasn’t sure of what i wanted to do, until Arn.

[on succeeding Tim Curry as Pennywise] Tim Curry’s performance was truly great, but it’s important for me to do something different because of that. I’ll never be able to make a Tim Curry performance as good as Tim Curry.

A lot of people ask how actors learn their lines. It’s a very mechanical thing that anyone can do really. It’s all about repetition. The job as an actor is about blowing life into the text and finding pauses. That’s the exciting part, how to act and approach different parts.

Part of being an actor is having the face for the role, right? There’s always some extent of luck going into getting a job. I try not to think too much about my own looks or how I work. There’s a danger in becoming too self-aware.

Turning 40 Today: Anna Kendrick

festreviews Happy Birthday

QUOTES:

People like to make fun of the fans who camp out but people have renaissance fairs; people do Civil War re-enactments; people do what they like. I’m tired of hearing people rage on the fans. If you don’t like Twilight, don’t buy a ticket.

I guess I’m drawn to… I think, even when I read serious scripts, the moments that I connect to are the little glimpses of humor, because, you know, I think every script, no matter how serious it is, has bits of humor in it. Even End of Watch is really funny. So those are the moments where I can kind of see what I can do with it that’s different, and I feel like that’s the easiest way for me to get inside a character’s head, is through the humor, like what sense of humor they have.

I sort of marvel at myself. Maybe at a certain point everybody feels like the person they were when they were younger is a stranger. Because I seemed to be much more driven and focused at that age. I had the intention of being on Broadway. I am just very grateful that my parents treated me with respect… and really, really supported me.

Turning 71 Today: Sam Elliot

festreviews Happy Birthday

QUOTES:

[in the December 1976 issue of “Playgirl”] I don’t want to be known as a sex symbol. There’s a great stigma that goes with that tag. I want to be a Sam Elliott.

I’ve spent my entire career on horseback or on a motorcycle. It boxes you in, the way people perceive you. I read a lot of scripts. Most of ’em go to other actors.

I was really happy that Ang Lee won the Best Director award, I got to know him very well on Hulk (2003). But I’m not the Brokeback Mountain (2005) crowd, what can I tell ya. I’m more of a purist. But at the same time, it’s a new day.

I’m picky, very picky. I wanted to be an actor since I was nine years old and I figured that was only one way to ever have any longevity and that’s to be careful about what kind of work you do. You can work for money, do a lot of whatever comes your way and not have any kind of a yardstick to measure quality by, and people, you know you’ll make a lot of money if you’re lucky, and people will get fed up and sick of seeing you and that’s it onto the next one. – On his career choices.