Est. 2013...Our baby is growing up!

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Its official, we're back it again, seeking a home for DC Web Fest 7! It was nice having a few months off from planning, but it's pretty exciting to get back into the groove of it all! 

Ayyyy our baby (DC Web Fest) is growing up so fast, what is a parent to do?!? It all happened so suddenly. Otessa Ghadar conceived the idea upon realizing the area's urgent need for a platform to showcase and promote the best of indie digital content. Upon carrying the new baby and enduring some labor pains that accompany the launch of a new venture, DC WEB FEST WAS BORN! Perfectly healthy, bringing joy, entertainment, and inspiration through digital content to people all around the world. Nothing makes a parent prouder than to see their baby making a difference, right?!?

To celebrate DC Web Fest's 7th birthday, we need to pick the PERFECT venue at the PERFECT location so our guests can have a PROFOUND experience. Much research to do, many places to consider. Stay tuned as the planning for DC Web Fest, Edition 7 unfolds! 

Love & Peace. 

 

DC Web Fest EDITION 7!

Cam Willams (left) & Romeo Carbarga (right) of the DC Web Fest Team. 

Cam Willams (left) & Romeo Carbarga (right) of the DC Web Fest Team. 

Here we are, August 1st. It is so amazing how time FLIES. It seems like just yesterday the DC Web Fest team was in the development stage for DC Web Fest 6. This exact time last year, the team was researching and location scouting to find a home for DC Web Fest 6. Then came the web development part, the sponsorship hunt, recruiting top-notch industry professionals to serve on the advisory board, etc. to build up to the amazing experience we all had on April 6 & 7. Its crazy that we're about to jump back into it all over again :) Exciting it is. 

How can we scale up this year? How can we provide our attendees with a remarkable experience that they'll never forget? How can we scale up our content? WHERE IS THE HOME FOR DC WEB FEST EDITION 7?? All things we have to consider and figure out over the next several months. Nonetheless, one thing we are sure about is we're SCALING IT UP and doing it BIG! Stay tuned folks! 

Love & Peace.  

Eighth Grade Press Screening- Thanks to The Wing!

All photo credit: Orla Conway 

All photo credit: Orla Conway 

The Wing DC, a co-working space for women who demonstrate excellence in their work, graciously invited their members to an exclusive screening of "Eight Grade" at E St. Cinema. Many thanks to the Wing for the awesome opportunity to screen this brilliant film! Also, may thanks to our friends Orla Conway and her beautiful mother, Peggy Pridemore (the locations guru for all movies that are shot in the mid-atlantic), who attended the screening on our behalf.

They had nothing but positive comments about the movie! Check out Orla's quotes: 

"Really fun, the panel afterwards was cool. It's definitely another white teen coming of age story but this one was VERY believable. The awkwardness was played so well that it had the audience verbally cringing and calling out with exclamations of advice lol." 

"I think we've ALL felt similarly to the protagonist when we were 13."

"They cover school shooting preparation drills and sexual assault in a very relatable way that most young women experience."

Our friend Hena Ghaznavi did not attend but she said this:
"Yeah Bo Burnam is a YouTube comedian I really like and he wrote and directed the film, so I knew it'd have some poignant moments."

I think that's all you need to know to GET OUT AND GO SEE THE MOVIE TOMORROW! Visit https://tickets.eighthgrade.movie/ for showtimes and tickets.

Meanwhile, enjoy the below photos from the screening at E St. Cinema (click the photo to scroll to the next).

HardDCcore & Wailing Wednesdays

Day 2 of shooting- Mosh pit scene. Photo credit: Cam Williams

Day 2 of shooting- Mosh pit scene. Photo credit: Cam Williams

So, as you all know, this is our first blog in a LONG time! We've been away for a while but we're super proud to announce we've been working on some new projects. 

After DC Web Fest 6 successfully wrapped, we immediately started working on the trailer to what we hope will evolve into a series. 2020 Productions teamed up with Astray Productions to make HardDCcore, a film about a group of high school kids who discover themselves in the midst of the emergence of the punk rock scene in DC in the early 80s. We shot the trailer in two days, in two northern virgina locations. We had an AMAZING cast and crew. DC Stunt Coalition came out to coordinate our mosh pit scene. It was so fun.

We're super excited about this new beginning! HardDCcore is just beginning and we are eager to tell the whole world. Today we're kicking off WAILING WEDNESDAY! Staying true to the theme of HardDCcore, we'd love to connect with amazing guitarists to promote their work on our social accounts and website! If you have skills, all you have to do is DM us a clip of you wailing, shredding, or whatever and we will choose one artist to feature each week. 

Do you follow HardDCcore on IG? If not, you're late, so get to it! Also, www.harddccore.com will be going live in the VERY near future, so stay tuned! Meanwhile, enjoy the below video- a major source of inspiration for the HardDCcore project. Bad Brains played a big part in the emergence of the punk rock scene in DC. 

Later.

ATTENTION FANS!! This is RARE exclusive footage I share with you Bad Brains fans! REMEMBER TO VOTE Bad Brains for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame but, Hurry! The VOTE ENDS first week of December 2016 & fan votes make up 1/3 of the tally.

 

 

DC Web Fest 6 recap: International & Alum highlight

So, it's been about a week and a half since DC Web Fest 6 and the momentum is still WAY up there! Today we would like to give an extra shout out to all of our international phenoms who stand as excellent creative ambassadors for their countries.

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To our winning creators from all around the world, we URGE you to keep up the good work! Keep creating, keep changing, and keep inspiring. You have every reason to be proud.

Also, we definitely want to shout out our official selection and winning alums from American University and Kenyon College. These universities are certainly turning out some amazing creators who are making their mark in this world. We're proud of you and we're sure your schools are as well! 

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2018 DC Web Fest Winners

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2018 Winners

In addition to taking home top honors, this year's DC Web Fest Winners will be receiving some pretty epic perks thanks to our amazing sponsors and partners. 

Web Series winners will be automatically entered into the top rankings for the Web Series World Cup. The WSWC is partnered with Cannes Series and MIPTV tracking winners in over 17 of our partner web series culminating in an overall winner. 

Winners of our Blog and Screenwriting Categories will receive the world's best selling scriptwriting software, Final Draft.

For our Podcast Category, Podcast Village is offering two hours of studio time or equivalent mentoring consultation at their state of their art location in Georgetown. 

And finally, for all our LOCAL HERO Winners, our fantastic sponsors at Make Offices Glover Park are offering 6 MONTHS of free creative coworking space at their Glover Park location!

Thanks so much to all our sponsors and partners and congratulations to our official 2018 DC Web Fest Selection and Winners. 

WEB SERIES GOLD

Nemausus (France)

Supa Supa (France)

Restoration (Australia)

WEB SERIES SILVER

Alice in Paris (France)

KYNNSTLAH (US)

Beast (US)

WEB SERIES BRONZE

Other People's Children (US)

Wishlist (German)

WEB SERIES SPECIAL JURY

PSUSY (New Zealand)

We All Wanted to Kill The President (Spain)

Mona Lisa Cowboy (US)

DOOMSDAY (US)

GAME GOLD

What Remains of Edith Finch

GAME SILVER

Serial Cleaner

GAME SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

Doki Doki Literature Club

VR/AR GOLD

The Crew

VR/AR SILVER

Lion 360

VR/AR SPECIAL JURY

The Killing Pits of Ponar

PODCAST GOLD

DC Diary

PODCAST SILVER

Good Grief

Dealing with my Grief

PODCAST SPECIAL JURY

Anansi Storytime

PODCAST LOCAL HERO

Garbled Twistory

DIGITAL SHORTS GOLD

If You Care

DIGITAL SHORTS SILVER

Introverted Girl

DIGITAL SHORTS SPECIAL JURY

Rock Bottom

BLOG & SCRIPT GOLD

PoPVille

BLOG & SCRIPT SILVER

Morning After Zine

BLOG & SCRIPT SPECIAL JURY

Heartstopper

LOCAL HERO AWARDS

Close of Business (Script)

Garbled Twistory (Podcast)

Introverted Girl (Digital Short)

The Story Unfolds (VR)

She's Got Grit (Web Series)

DC Web Fest Day 1 & 2 Info!

Friday:

  • Arrive no later than 12:00pm for briefing and lunch
  • 12pm-5pm events at the AT&T Forum for Technology, Entertainment & Policy (601 New Jersey Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001, 5th floor). See attached document regarding parking options. Nearest metro: Union Station (red line)
  • Malika Saada Saar, our keynote speaker, will be delivering her address at 1 pm. Do not miss one of the most important humanitarian lawyers of our age. 
  • 6pm-9pm events at Embassy of Australia, Washington, D.C (1601 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036). Please arrive at the embassy no later than 5:45pm as screenings will start promptly at 6pm and Embassy Security will not let you in!
  • Australian wine and cuisine served! We hear there may be kangaroo ...
  • Shofurr shuttle service will transport 50 riders from AT&T Forum for Technology, Entertainment & Policy to the Australian Embassy for the Friday evening event, then finally shuttle will depart from the embassy at 9:30pm to take 50 riders back to the official hotel (Hyatt Place)

Saturday:

  • Arrive no later than 12:00 pm for briefing and lunch
  • 12pm-5pm events at AT&T Forum for Technology, Entertainment & Policy (601 New Jersey Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001, 5th floor). See attached document regarding parking options. Nearest metro: Union Station (red line)
  • 6pm-10pm events at MakeOffice at Glover Park (2201 Wisconsin Ave Suite #200, Washington, DC 20007) A Conversation with FCC Commissioner Clyburn will start no later than 6:10 - do not be late for your net neutrality advocate! 
  • VIA will take riders from Official hotel (Hyatt Place) to the AT&T Forum for Technology, Entertainment & Policy, then to Make Offices at Glover Park. If you are a new rider, just download the app & use code DCWEBFEST! Already a Via rider? Use DCWEBFEST18 for 20% off! All rides at capped between $3.20 - $4.50
  • Some mapping apps will drop you off a 5-minute walk from MakeOffices Glover Park. Our suggestion is to use the address for the sweetgreen across the street: 2200 Wisconsin Ave NW. Cross the street, and the MakeOffices entrance will be right in front of you! (with a raffle to boot!) 
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DC Web Fest 2018: Official Web Series Selections!

Congratulations to our official web series selections! 

Wow. You all made this year a tough one. We got incredible content from all over the world, we send a hearty congratulations to everyone who participated - keep it up! This year, we are segmenting our selections into American series and international series. Take a look at their loglines below! 

AMERICAN WEB SERIES: 

Other People's Children: Margot Antler dreams of becoming a renown novelist with a three-book deal and a summer house in Ghent. Reality check: she's a rookie second-grade teacher about to experience the insanity of parent/teacher conferences for the first time! In each episode, Ms. Antler finds herself across the table from adults behaving like children, and slowly comes to realize it's not her students who have problems, it's their parents. 

#WhoKilledHeather: #WhoKilledHeather is a 36 episode murder/mystery web series following college student Andrew Olson on his personal investigation to uncover the truth behind the recent murder of a classmate. 

Kill Me: "Kill Me" is a comedy series about actors who specialize in playing dead bodies on TV procedurals. | Bernie Wentworth’s passion is playing dead bodies on TV, or as she calls it: corpse acting. Whether it’s crime procedurals or character-driven dramas, Bernie is always enthusiastic about lying down, silent, and motionless. Corpse acting mostly consists of morgue work and crime scenes, but Bernie’s dream role is to be an omniscient dead narrator. Like Desperate Housewives or Gossip Girl, but dead.

Saaba: Made by DC native Lance Kramer, SAABA is a six-part documentary series that traces the personal stories of residents and police fighting insecurity on the region's frontlines. The recent killing of four U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers in Niger and an attack in the summer of 2016 that claimed the lives of 18 people in Burkina Faso highlight the extremist violence and other security threats facing communities in the Sahel region of Africa. From the award-winning filmmakers at Meridian Hill Pictures (CITY OF TREES) and Big Mouth Productions (CAMERAPERSON), Saaba chronicles a USIP initiative to build trust and reduce tensions among citizens, police, local authorities and informal security groups outside Ouagadougou, the capital of the West African country of Burkina Faso.

Beast: After his father mysteriously goes missing at sea, a teenager rallies the help of his small fishing-island town to set out and find him. 

Photographers Without Borders: PWB (Photographers Without Borders) TV takes our viewers all over the world to explore the challenges we face on the planet and the people who are taking them on, all through the lenses of our heroic photographers. This season takes us to Kenya to look at human trafficking, to India to look at how women are affected by the caste system, to Bali to learn about sustainability and poverty reduction, and Bosnia and Herzegovina to learn more about how youth see the world post-conflict. PWB strives to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals through storytelling and PWB TV is one of our main vehicles. 

She's Got Grit: She’s Got Grit is a docu-series about female athletes with disabilities who compete at the highest levels, in an attempt to change the perception of disability in our culture.

DOOMSDAY: This dramatic series follows the daily lives of the dozen millennial commune residents in The Catskills. Dagny, the enigmatic leader of the sect, leads daily group unity exercises, enforces 'green initiatives' (ie: one bath a week, raw food diet and biodegradable uniforms) and preaches of the dangers of over-population (which rapes the precious earth of nutrients.) Abstinence within the sect is obviously mandatory. When Dagny has a prophecy about the end of the world, chaos ensues.

The Pepper Project: Ex-CIA super-sniper Pepper and her boys Friday must solve a series of increasingly dangerous puzzles in order to find her missing sister. We tell a story of personal challenge with intriguing and complex characters, plotlines that intersect and unravel, sans gratuitous violence.

People Who Brunch: Sunday brunch has become a staple for the upwardly mobile millennial. This series satirizes the high maintenance crowd and the requests one might overhear while enjoying a Sunday brunch.

KYNNSTLAH: KYNNSTLAH is a mini-doc series that discovers and portrays emerging artists and explores art as a means of expression, communication, and emotional connection.

Mona Lisa Cowboy: Living abroad can be a curse or a blessing. Playfully reflecting on misunderstandings, surprise encounters and the vagaries of an expat life, MONA LISA COWBOY (a dramatic comedy about two estranged Chinese twins brought together by a Japanese-American cowboy in Paris) tells the universal story of wanderers, living between comedy and drama as they straddle cultures. 

 

INTERNATIONAL SELECTIONS: 

This is Desmondo Ray (Australia): Internationally acclaimed that combines live action with animation, this unique series follows a peculiar man's search for love in a dark and troubling world.

Alice in Paris (France): A short-form, scripted series where we follow an energetic young woman through the streets of Paris to find the best food and places in a city she knows like the back of her hand, but one in which she can still easily get lost.

We All Wanted to Kill The President (Spain): A group of catering workers receive an unexpected visit: the arrival of the president of the government. A corrupt guy, known for his excesses and hated by much of the population. They will start joking with poisoning the food, of course, all in jest. Until, the next morning, Martinez de Ochoa is found dead in a hotel room in a mysterious way.

Restoration (Australia): In a near-future world, where individuals have their memories downloaded for backup, a man awakes in a body that is not his own.

Supa Supa (France): Supa Supa, the story of the unusual superhero guy who goes on a quest full of hope, energy, and first-world hardship before he can call himself a man. As he finds himself struck by The Perfect Girl’s beauty, he discovers his power: to bend and control reality thanks to pixilation. However, this amazing ability won’t necessarily make his hardships any easier. Will he romance The Girl of his dreams? 

Spectrums (Israel): Spectrums is a new Israeli documentary series that follows the social, political and spiritual world of 10 members of the transgender community in Israel.

The Amazing Hoolister Park (Uruguay/ Argentina): Alina is a young girl obsessed with all kind of detective novels, but she has a big problem: she works for the most boring theme park in the world. One night, her luck changes when one of her colleagues appears dead. Its seems that Hoolister is not that boring after all...

Wishlist (Germany): How far would you go to make your greatest wishes come true? This is the central question in "Wishlist", Germany's first mystery drama web series. The story revolves around Wishlist, a smartphone app which makes your wishes come true - in exchange for fulfilling tasks the app is setting. Within the ten-episodes of season one, 17-year-old Mira and her friends discover the app and initially love it wholeheartedly. Soon however, they discover that their actions have unintended and terrible consequences...

PSUSY (New Zealand): PSUSY follows two grotty girls as they suss out their offline lives as low functioning “adults”. On the backdrop of sexploits and getting high we follow their peaks and troughs dealing with various societal woes - albeit with splotches of the absurd.

How to Buy A Baby (Canada): Thirty-something couple, JANE and CHARLIE LEVY, have long given up on having a baby the fun way. Having been diagnosed with infertility, they are resigned to needing costly and invasive assistance if they are ever to become parents. They are determined, though, to keep things fertiliFUN and not lose sight of the reasons why they wanted to have a baby together in the first place. 

Dragon Race (France): Six people kidnapped by a Korean billionaire are forced to take part in a new kind of car race. Using VR simulators at first, they soon enough engage in a real race with no holds barred. Until death. 

Anachronism (Italy): Walter hasn't left home for over 7 years: he's tormented by his past and poetry is the only comfort he has. One day he hears a woman singing on the other side of his apartment's wall. This new potential friendship could be his chance to open up and easing his burden.

Nemausus (France): Ben just turned 30. He's a shy man, and in love with his coworker Diane. He's got two main passions in life: Historical reconstitutions with his figurines club, and his job at the Tourism Office in Nîmes, which consists in taking visitors on board across the city. One sad birthday party, time-traveling mystery folk, and a Roman named Volesus turn Ben's world upside down. 

Avalon Now (Australia): At the heart of Sydney’s northern beaches lies the sunny suburb of Avalon, where attractive, socially-progressive families cruise through life in four-wheel drives. But beneath the sunny veneer the suburb is gripped by crisis, mostly of the mid-life variety. Prosecco or Champagne? How does this Tinder thing work? And what if the year’s biggest social event – The White Party – is a flop? This series shows you the underbelly of Australia’s most glamorous postcode.

DC Web Fest 2018: Official Blog/ Script Selections

Congratulations to our official DC Web Fest 2018 selections! 

We are passionate about writers, of both scripts and blogs and digital art alike. We have a variety of exciting stories to tell, start diving in below! 

By the Close of Business: Burdened with an eviction threat, agnostic Trenton finds his solution an unlikely place, after a long day of unsuccessful last-ditch attempts to raise money.

The Morning After Zine: The Morning After Zine is a publication and workshop series promoting self-care for survivors of sexual violence.

Heartstopper: (UK) HEARTSTOPPER is a webcomic by Alice Oseman. Charlie, a highly-strung, openly gay over-thinker, and Nick, a cheerful, soft-hearted rugby player, meet at a British all-boys grammar school. Friendship blooms quickly, but could there be something more...?

Midnight Especial: (Iran) A middle-aged man, alone in a city of couples, gets ready to pop the big question, with unexpected results. 

Scientia Potentia Tumblr: Look no further than Scientia Potentia for all of your spaced-out, planetary-ogling needs. 

1990zzz Tumblr: A curated board of all your favorite 90s style icons and fades-from-years-past. 

PoPville: PoPville chronicles the happenings in Washington D.C.’s neighborhoods. Like Jackie Lee’s of yesteryear, PoPville has become the pulse of the nation’s capital. Topics covered include quality of life, real estate, restaurants, bars, retail, architecture, gardening, pets, transit, crime and other general observations about daily life in D.C.

DC Web Fest 2018: Official VR/AR Selections

Congratulations to our official DC Web Fest selections! 

We are pleased to announce the VR/AR selections for this year's festival. This form of digital storytelling will only grow in the coming year, and these selections illustrate just how far it can go. Check out these incredible works! 

Lion 360: Watch as Gibson the lion and his mother struggle with their pride’s alpha male in this groundbreaking 360-video, filmed completely in the wild from the heart of a pride of lions for National Geographic.

The Crew: A Filipino cruise ship cleaner finally gets a chance to perform an opera aria in the crew talent show, but when the show is canceled he still finds a way to sing.

I Saw The Future: In a dark expanse that could be the cosmos, we hear the voice of Arthur C. Clarke, whose face – taken from a BBC archive dating back to the 1960s – appears in the distance. His features quickly dematerialize into a multitude of shimmering pixels, creating an enveloping and immersive space out of which the thoughts of the famed author of 2001: A Space Odyssey emerge. At the heart of this spectral environment, A. C. Clarke tells us about the arrival of digital revolution, decades ahead of his time. This film is an invitation to travel, and a crepuscular form of poetry to be experienced immersively.

Alterations: Alexandro volunteers for an experiment carried out to study dreams. He doesn’t even imagine that he’s going to be subjected to the intrusion of Elsa, a form of Artificial Intelligence, who’s going to digitize and dematerialize his subconscious in order to feed off it.

The Killing Pits of Ponar: Done in conjunction with PBS NOVA, this is an immersive VR film that tells the little-known story of the origins of the Nazi genocide during WWII and the daring escape by prisoners who resisted.

The Story Unfolds: Created by the Alexandria firm Illustrate My Design, this Augmented Reality experience commissioned for the American Advertising Awards Gala, the only guidelines were a folded paper origami crane with the tagline “The Story Unfolds.” IMD created an interactive AR game that has the user collect glowing orbs so an origami crane is released into the sky. The crane symbolizes the possibilities of the future through collaboration.