It’s the DaVinci International Film festival (DIFF), but also the biggest question most filmmakers ask themselves as they browse and filter through dozens, if not hundreds of online film festivals — what makes this festival unique or standout from the others? Like many online film festivals, we too honor the best in independent cinema, but have also expanded our Award Categories to recognize many
below-the-liners who largely go unnoticed and unrewarded. We seek the unsung heroes here at DIFF. From best editing, color correction, sound design, to theatrical creative / P&A, at DIFF, we want to shine the light on those who work silently, yet play an important role in getting your project to this very stage. DIFF founders are intimately familiar with, and appreciate the full cycle of, independent filmmaking and the demands therein. From perils of financing, through the distribution of any given work — the process is often complex and unforgiving. Most of these projects can take a short lifetime to complete, and whether or not your work is ‘accepted’ here at the DaVinci, we would like to both congratulate and encourage you to keep pressing forward. Unfortunately, we simply can not recognize everyone’s amazing effort and work. Another standout for DIFF, is that we are now offering development deals and Options for our unscripted and video game competition winners, which will afford them unmatched opportunity to put their projects in front of network and industry decision-makers. DaVinci was the epitome of the divergent and creative mind, and so our Mission Statement at DIFF is to recognize as much talent as possible. We host MONTHLY ONLINE COMPETITIONS for all of our categories. The “Leo Award” winners for our feature and short format narrative competitions will automatically be given a spot at our red carpet Live Event to showcase their work. The Live Event is not a competition, it is simply a Leo Showcase, which will be followed by filmmaker Q&A, and an after party. In time, we look forward to hosting larger weekend events to incorporate the ‘Best of’ in our other categories as well.
