I appreciate seeing these replies. I can't judge any of them, of course,
but at least people are now presenting facts and opinions.
I have only been asked a few times to judge film festivals. The last
time was over thirty years ago, by a festival long since defunct. I
explained my two reasons for always turning down such offers. One, I
objected to judges having to agree on prizes. I thought the prize money
should be apportioned equally to each judge (in this case there were to
be two judges, unpaid, and $2,000 total) to distribute according to
their judgments of merit. The second objection was to entry fees. They
called me back the next day and said, "We are reducing our entry fees to
return postage, and doing as you suggested with the prize money." I then
accepted. My co-judge that year was Gunvor Nelson. I remember the
experience positively.
This is not intended as a blanket criticism of entry fees. I have no
idea what it takes to run a film festival. My bias would be to guess
that any festival that has lasted decades must be doing something right.
Fred Camper
Chicago
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