The Fine Arts Film Festival premiered in Santa Barbara, California in 2010; it then occurred as a film festival in Venice, CA in 2015. In 2016 it will explode as an International Fine Arts Film Festival full of shorts plus a few full length features back in fabulous Santa Barbara, California! It will screen at more than one venue, including an outdoor night-time extravaganza. Originally conceived as a festival of films about the fine arts, it now incorporates dance and experimental art forms and approaches.

Interview with Lynn M. Holley:

Matthew Toffolo: What is your Film Festival succeeding at doing for filmmakers?

Lynn M. Holley: Exposure they might not get in major, all-purpose festivals.

MT: What would you expect to experience if you attend the festival this year (2016)?

LMH: Diversity of place, thought and disciplines. We will screen films from around the world.

MT: What are the qualifications for the selected films?

LMH: Made within the last 3 years; related to the visual arts or dance and have some importance to the field.

MT: Do you think that some films really don’t get a fair shake from film festivals? And if so, why?

LMH: All-purpose film festivals often ignore the disciplines in the arts: visual, dance, music, science and technology collaborations, etc..

MT: What motivates you and your team to do this festival?

LMH: The love film and the love of arts.

MT: How has the festival changed since its inception?

LMH: We now take in entries through http://www.Filmfreeway and focus on more genres in the arts.

MT: Where do you see the festival by 2020?

LMH: A larger, more international scene in Santa Barbara CA, which helps promote other film festivals here including the main one SBFF and the Jewish Film Festival.

MT: What film have you seen the most times in your life?

LMH: Caught-In-Paint by Rita Blitt (6 min); and numerous spy films over decades.

MT: In one sentence, what makes a great film?

LMH: There is an importance, a purpose for viewing it that does not require long narratives or dialogue.

MT: How is the film scene in your city?

LMH: Incredible; we are, after all, Santa Barbara, CA, home to Hollywood and the world.

Lynn M. Holley is an executive consultant to the arts, a resident curator at the new center in Santa Barbara, CA for art, science and technology (SBCAST.org). She was initiated into film as a young film reviewer for a daily newspaper, and then as a journalist and director of galleries and an art center. She is a former journalist, narrative writer and filmmaker for promotions in the arts. She has a B.S. in Communications and an MA in Museum Studies. Ms Holley just returned from giving a presentation to a Global Conference in England on Museums, titled: The Dance of the Muses from Las Vegas to the Louvre.

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Interviewer Matthew Toffolo is currently the CEO of the WILDsound FEEDBACK Film & Writing Festival. The festival that showcases 10-20 screenplay and story readings performed by professional actors every month. And the FEEDBACK Monthly Festival held in downtown Toronto on the last Thursday of every single month. Go towww.wildsound.ca for more information and to submit your work to the festival.