Hello Filmmaker!

Thanks so much for your submission to the 2023 Lake County Film Festival. If I haven’t already been in touch with you, I’m very excited to announce that your film has been selected for our 13th Festival! This year we are again showing about two dozen features, and over eighty short films, which are split up into 13 short film programs, most of which are in the 40-50 minute range. (Generally, two shorts programs will play in the time slot of one feature).

If I haven’t spoken to you yet, my name is Nat Dykeman, I’m the Founder and Director here, and I handle just about everything for the festival, so if you need anything, please come to me. I’m trying to make this email as comprehensive as possible, and hopefully, this will be the only mass email you get from the festival.

We expect to announce the full lineup, and put tickets on sale, on September 22nd. Please do not announce your film publicly until then. Each screening has time budgeted for an in-person Q&A after the screening, if any filmmakers are in attendance.

EXHIBITION COPIES

Films at the College Of Lake County run on PCs running VLC, a fantastic program that can usually handle any file format thrown at it. Accordingly, we are pretty lax with file format. I have a slight preference for mp4 over mov, but I will take anything. If sending something huge (over a gig a minute) I might ask for a smaller 1080p as a backup.

Please send all exhibition copies to: printtraffic@lakecountyfilmfestival.org

SCHEDULE & ATTENDANCE

All selected films will be screened in person at the College Of Lake County in Grayslake, IL, between November 3rd – 5th and November 10 – 12. Additional screenings of select films will screen at The Gorton Center in Lake Forest, IL

Each film program runs twice, generally on separate weekends, but if an out-of-town filmmaker is planning to attend, I will try to schedule both screenings on the weekend they are attending. Please fill out this Google form for me, so I will have your contact info, and let me know if you think it is a possibility that you will attend, and which weekend would be better for you. https://bit.ly/2023LCFFQuestions

I do need this information ASAP please, so I can start placing films on the schedule.

HOTEL

A lot of attending filmmakers have family and/or friends in the area that they end up staying with, but obviously, some will require hotel rooms. For the last two years, we have had a block rate at a local hotel for under $80/night. The tourism board here is currently searching around for us for another great block rate. Please let us know ASAP if you are going to need a hotel, so we can negotiate a great rate for everyone again.

WEBSITE INFORMATION

This has been the main source of the delay in sending out acceptance notifications. You’ll be receiving a link to add in all of the information as it should appear on our website. We’ve recently set up the sub-website for this year’s festival, but waiting for the new DNS to refresh, which can take 24-48 hours. This week you’ll receive a personalized email with a link you can follow to fill out the form. Please keep an eye out for it.

PASSES

All attending filmmakers will receive complimentary All-Access Passes good for one ticket to every film screening/event during the festival. Please let us know by October 1st if you plan on attending so we can make sure you get the fancy printed passes.

LAURELS/SOCIAL MEDIA

You can get your laurels here: https://filmfreeway.com/laurels/45073/TheLakeCountyFilmFestival
Use password: LCFF

We’re also been creating framed pictures you can use on social media. Almost all of you have pictures waiting for you in the WIDE area of this webpage:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1W0TVZriyneJWlVQq-cTLEhuGmw1yclY_
Please remember not to post these until after September 22.
There are about 10 films that I didn’t have photos of. I will be adding those in over the next couple of days. We should also have square photos for profile photos and Instagram posts before the 9/22 date.

You can find us at the following social media links.

https://www.facebook.com/LakeCountyFilmFestival
https://www.instagram.com/lakecountyfilmfestival/
https://www.threads.net/@lakecountyfilmfestival
https://www.linkedin.com/company/28469130
https://www.youtube.com/@lakecountyfilmfestival5515
https://twitter.com/LakeCountyFF

Thanks again for sending us your films. I’m very excited about this lineup, and l can’t wait to show these films to our audience.

Best,
Nat Dykeman
Director
Lake County Film Festival
www.lakecountyfilmfestival.org
lakecountyfilmfestival@gmail.com
224.544.9261