Behind The Scenes at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival

Hello and welcome.

My name is Rebecca Louisa Smith and I am the film festival doctor.

And what I do is I help filmmakers get their film scene in film festivals around the world.

My podcast focuses on all things film festivals to help you learn more about this part of the film industry.

And my very special guest today is Cherie Federico, who is the festival director of the BAFTA and BIFA qualifying Aesthetica Film Festival, which takes place in New York in the UK.

It is also one of the UK's largest and most critically acclaimed film events and has been championing innovative independent films for the past 16 years.

I'm grateful to have had many of my clients' films screen at this festival since the very first year.

Cherie, welcome to the show.

Hi, thank you so much.

It's nice to have you here.

Well, it's actually great to have you here and see you.

Yeah,

I know.

I'm just delighted to live and breathe film festivals.

So I'm really looking forward to taking a deep dive into your questions.

That's exciting.

Fantastic.

Well, let's start like I always do at the beginning.