ABOUT US
“After playing the festival circuit for years, we decided to create the festival that we always wanted to go to,”
PUFF began in a mostly empty movie theater in California…
Our short film had just been awarded BEST OF FESTIVAL at a short film festival and we were excited. A celebrity handed us a trophy in front of a crowd made up of our family and friends. The future seemed bright. However, the celebrity was gone before we had the chance to trade contacts, or pitch a feature, or even pick their brain. In fact, we never got the chance to meet anyone at all. A week later the festival was accepting submissions again and there was no record of us on their website at all.
We realized that day that the festival we’d attended was not created to help filmmakers.
Filmmakers were their product. Between submission fees and ticket costs, the festival had made more than $500 off of our film - while we and the other 100 filmmakers at the festival received nothing that could truly help us.
Years later after many more shorts, we’d built established careers as writer/producers but we couldn’t stop thinking about that festival. We decided to create the festival we’d hoped to attend. One that treats filmmakers as partners rather than products. You’ve spent thousands getting your film in the can - we want to make sure every dollar you spend after that is worth it. A festival with judges that could actually help a filmmaker take the next step. And we wanted to give exposure that mattered.
So we stripped submission fees and ticket costs to cover strictly expenses. We started recruiting judges from our list of contacts - people that had also been where we’d been and wanted to help. Not celebrities but producers, managers, agents - people who can actually help advance someone’s career. Actors and Casting Directors who can describe how to navigate the casting process and book roles.
our relationship with our filmmakers doesn’t end when the festival ends.
Even after the festival we continue to promote our alumni’s achievements and spread their work as we recruit more judges and partners. Our ultimate goal is to reverse our story. We want our filmmakers to look back and say my success story began in a movie theater in California at the PICTURE’S UP! FILM FESTIVAL…