After attending an international film festival, Larry Meli noticed what he felt was a need to allow emerging filmmakers to participate in those
gatherings.
While at First Run, an international film festival held at New York University, Meli and his wife were delighted to find a variety of features that had “good productions values, good screenwriting, good acting, editing and directing.” While at dinner afterward, he asked his son’s friends, “With the great work you did on your films, why didn’t all of you enter them into the Internet Film Festivals?”
“Much to my surprise, their collective response was, ‘Because there aren’t any,’” Meli said. “Astonished, I checked for myself the next day and learned that they were right. That was the birth of the idea which became SeeFlik.”
Meli, who is now the CEO of SeeFlik, then created the site as an opportunity for young, unrecognized talent to shine wherever it’s been rejected by film festivals across the globe.
“We hope that SeeFlik can become a destination for the emerging artist to showcase their work, enter our competition, find other filmmakers around the world, (and) receive notice and attention from decision makers looking for the next great film and the talent associated with that film,” Meli said.
Voting for the first round of the competition began Sept. 20 and will continue through Feb. 5. The second round begins Feb. 8.
Among the films selected for the competition is 2009 MFA film student Lucas Ostrowski’s short film Umbilical, a horror story about a man’s fear of fatherhood coming true.
Ostrowski based the short off of his own fears of fatherhood, along with films such as Rosemary’s Baby, Alien and Eraserhead.
“I had a hard time accepting the idea that my wife and I would be starting a family,” he said. “I have to get my fears out in some way and film is my chosen medium.”
Ostrowski said he heard about SeeFlik through an email he received about the company seeking work from students and alumni.
“It seems genuinely interested in helping give students and alumni a platform to get their work seen,” he said. “I’m a firm believer that a movie is meant to be seen, and you owe it to the cast and crew to try to have your work screened in as many avenues as possible.”
“The potential cash prizes don’t seem that bad either,” he added.
The winner for the competition receives a $50,000 prize along with a chance to showcase his or her work to talent agents and studios.
“Creative content is one of America’s largest and most important exports,” Meli said. “And we believe we can help sustain that position and develop a destination for anyone interested in creating content, viewing content and perhaps viewing the early work of the next great filmmaker.”
wa054010@ohiou.edu
