Brianna Datta-Barrow: I'm joined now by Alix Watson, director of Hobnobben Film Festival, and Amanda Hille, board secretary for the Hobnobben Film Festival. Thank you both for being here.
Amanda Hille: Thank you for having us.
Alix Watson: Thank you so much for having us.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: So congratulations, and how does it feel to be celebrating a decade of the Hobnobben Film Festival?
Alix Watson: It feels really good.
Amanda Hille: It does. I honestly cannot believe that we've been ten years strong, but this year, I think we are going to be bigger and better than ever.
Alix Watson: I think our programming keeps getting stronger every single year as well. It's just, we keep getting amazing films from all over the world to showcase at the festival. This year, five over five hundred films were submitted-
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Wow!
Alix Watson: Which was a record by far. We had, I don't think we had broken the four hundred mark before, and then we flew past the five hundred submission mark this year, which, for our size of festival, was pretty good.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Wow. Yeah, that's exciting. Five hundred is a lot. I can't imagine how long it took you guys to watch through all of those.
Alix Watson: Yeah, we did. We, I tell people that I probably watch each year, I probably watch about three hundred plus films, if I'm including Hobnobben and everything else. I watch at least three hundred films a year. So, so beat that!
Amanda Hille: This year, I was like, I think I've watched one hundred hours of independent film, which is such a privilege to have.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Yeah, that's amazing. So what would you tell someone who's never heard of Hobnobben, never been to a film festival maybe. Why should they come check it out?
Amanada Hille: Yeah, I think they should check it out because what I've loved about being a part of Hobnobben for so many years is just how different and amazing independent short films are.
I don't really know of another platform within Fort Wayne where you can see independent film on the big screen. So I love the fact that we get to celebrate independent filmmakers from various locations, ages, backgrounds, all in a few short four days.
Alix Watson: Yeah. I mean, if you like stories, if you like films, and if you've never been to a film festival, I think Hobnobben would be a really great place to start. All of us on the programming committee or in leadership have seen every single movie in the film festival. We built the programming. We built the blocks.
So if you don't know what you want to see, you can literally come to us, you know, we'll have our badges on and our T-shirts on, and you can come to us and say, Hey, this is what I like. What do you recommend I see? And I will circle and make suggestions on our programming schedule for you. If you just want to go try it out for a day or the whole weekend.
You will never see these films on any other platform. A lot of the short films don't make it to streaming. They are on the film festival circuit, and that's where you're going to see them. And we're really lucky to have a lot of them in Fort Wayne, we have films in the past that have gone on to be Oscar nominated shorts. And I think we also, I think we have a few contenders this year for the Oscar shorts. And so, first place, you can see them here, yeah.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Yeah
Alix Watson: And it's also like, I can talk about Hobnobben forever. No, super cool story, because I was making, finalizing some of the plans earlier. Hobnobben kind of showcases how small and big the world is at the same time. We have 40 countries represented in some way in the film festival, and we have a documentary, for example, this showcases how small the world is. We have a documentary out of Nepal, and it is about some really heavy subject matter. It's about human trafficking and the work that these Nepalese women are doing to combat it within their community and it, you know, our programming committee selected it, programmed it.
It turns out that this film that was shot in Nepal has a direct Fort Wayne connection; the company Destiny Rescue in Fort Wayne helped support and fund the production of this film as part of their anti-trafficking efforts worldwide. Destiny Rescue has headquarters in Fort Wayne, so they're coming out to the film festival and bringing filmmakers. And we had no idea that we were going to get filmmakers for this Nepalese for this film out of Nepal.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Wow.
Alix Watson: And they're in Fort Wayne and so, like, it's, like, amazing, like, again, how small, but how big the world is. So, yeah. So on Friday morning, we have a full panel of you know, we have Destiny Rescue workers and advocates and two filmmakers who worked on this film in Nepal who will be at Cinema Center in person to talk about this documentary.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: That sounds like it'd be an incredible panel to get to sit in on.
Amanda Hille: That's just one of the areas where I think Hobnobben excels. Not only do we provide a platform to tell stories, but one of the things that I absolutely love about working on this film festival is our ability to bring topics that are worldwide and have a conversation about them within Fort Wayne from subject matter experts who are in this area.
Additionally, I love that as a festival, we decided to program short films by theme and content and not just have them lumped in by category that they're submitted. So as someone who's just a lover of film, you can come in and kind of look at our block descriptions to better understand what's going to be appealing to you and what maybe wouldn't be.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Gotcha, I was going to ask, do you guys have a favorite block that you might be looking forward to? I know there's quite a few. There's over, I thought over thirty.
Alix Watson: That’s like asking us to choose our favorite child.
Amanda Hille: Yeah
Alix Watson: I love, I love our programming, and I love every block for, like, so many different reasons.
Amanda Hille: I think I'm, I think I'm excited about and I might not be getting the block description one hundred percent right, but the killer…
Alix Watson: Killer Films. It's called Killer Films.
Amanda Hille: I think it is super fun and perfect for getting into the spooky season. There may or may not be a lot of death, hence the title. But that one, I'm really proud that we were able to curate together.
Another one is the food block. I don't remember the title for it, but all of the short films within that block are related to food in some way, in a very interesting, quirky way.
Alix Watson: Food- a feast of film.
Amanda Hille: Yes
Alix Watson: Food a Feast of Film is what we're calling that block.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Yeah, I love that. I always, I know, I know you guys. I know the festival. I've been a few times, I've volunteered a few times, and I know so much heart and thought and intention goes into each, each curated block.
So, one of my favorite parts is always opening night, opening night shorts. That was fun last year. It's always fun. And I wondered if you guys could talk a little bit about how those always have kind of a focus on the Hoosier state, or some relevancy to the Hoosier State?
Alix Watson: Yeah, this year we have so we're having our opening night reception, and then immediately following that, at six, we have a block of short films. And this year we have ten short films, and they're all Indiana or local filmmakers, and a lot of them are really, really talented students from the area. A lot of them have come from undergraduate students in Fort Wayne, and it's just really cool to have them all be able to come together on Thursday and celebrate the super amazing creative filmmaking community that we have here in Fort Wayne and Indiana.
And then following that, we have a feature called Year of the Cat. That is from a Vietnamese American filmmaker who came to Indiana from Vietnam, I think his family came about fifty years ago. And it's an exploration. It's a documentary about, essentially, his search to find some answers about his past and about his family's past. And it's just, it's like, really well, it's a very well-done documentary.
The shorts are amazing, and they kind of span the gamut from, like, you have your narrative shorts, we have documentary, we have someone who's doing, like, a five-minute variety hour, kind of actually very “PBS” coded, or like, like "public access" coded, and super fun. And then yeah, we have The Fairy House, which I'm, remember the set design on that? The production design?
Amanda Hille: Oh yeah, so gorgeous.
Alix Watson: So, yeah, it's just the really fantastic variety of films and stories on opening night.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Awesome.
Alix Watson: We're also going to have amazing food provided by Acme.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Yes. Shout out, Acme.
Alix Watson: Thank you.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Yeah, no, I know they're awesome. So, you were just kind of mentioning about the students and that kind of community that they experience on opening night. But could you talk more about, like, the wider community aspect of Hobnobben and how it brings together audiences, filmmakers… I know you guys do workshops, and I don't think people are aware, but Fort Wayne has a pretty incredible creative scene. Like, for those who may not know, there is a pretty amazing creative scene out of Fort Wayne.
Amanda Hille: We really do. I am blown away by all of our local filmmakers, whether they are students from all of the wonderful colleges that have film production available around the area, to more just filmmakers. We have so many people who come to Hobnobben and then meet and connect with other filmmakers, and it's amazing every year to watch films that have been submitted by local filmmakers, and start seeing names and know how they connected through what we provide, which is just a way for filmmakers to get that community and that support.
So we have workshops for anyone who's interested in film. They don't have to necessarily have a film in our festival. It's varied from beginner to more advanced, topic friendly. So we cover everything there. We have networking opportunities throughout the entire festival.
And then additionally, I always like to say we have, like, three different audiences for Hobnobben, one being our filmmakers, and then the other, just being the local community and people who are just here to watch film.
And then the other audience is our partners, who we work with, either nonprofits, who we also want to provide a space to showcase their great work, or businesses that help support us and allow for us to have a film festival that's 10 years old.
Alix Watson: Yeah, just to highlight the workshops that we have, the filmmaker speed dating, kind of networking event that we have, those are open to everyone in the area. You don't have to be a filmmaker, per se. You don't have to be a director. If you're an aspiring actor, if you do makeup and want to get involved in film in any way, go to those networking events and meet people. We have seen people over the course of the past decade make connections directly at the film festival and I can think of like many handfuls of projects that have come directly out of that networking.
And so please, if you are interested in in making those connections, you do not have to have a film in the festival. You can come to the networking. You can come to our conversation about film and media tax credits in Indiana and what the current status is on that and we're going to have about three people on that panel to talk about what the status is, because they updated the General Assembly updated the law this year, and it's set to go in effect in January 2026 but what does that actually mean for filmmakers here in Indiana?
So, we're going to have a conversation about that, and then we have a writing workshop. We're going to have an interactive writing workshop where people just get a chance to work on prompts and get live feedback from producers and people who are seasoned screenwriters. And you don't have to have experience, right? You don't have, like, the idea is, you know, this is about networking, making those connections and kind of, you know, stretching those creative muscles a little bit.
And then we also have Derek Devine from Punch Films is going to be hosting a workshop about gear, right? Just a conversation about what projects are you working on and what gear most makes the most sense for your budget and for your project. Are you a doc, documentary filmmaker? Are you doing a sitcom, you know? And so just having those conversations about what camera build or what gear build makes the most sense for your projects, which is a conversation that we've heard a lot of filmmakers would love to have. So, so we're having it.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: That sounds awesome. These sound, yeah, these sound like amazing, amazing workshops. I mean, as someone who studied film for two years, and who, yeah, who was a media student, yeah, I can't imagine how helpful that'll be to not only new people, but it's always good to get a refresher. I mean, gear is always changing. Laws are always changing. You know.
Alix Watson: You might. I mean, if you, if you graduated and had, you know, from college two years ago, and had top of the line, like stuff, we get new stuff, like every second of every day and so, so, yeah, like, you can come to this workshop to talk about what you use and what you know, but then also to hear what other people are using and what they know, because I feel like everybody's level of knowledge about specific gear is going to be very different. And so, I think it'll be a really great space for a lot of people who work on different kinds of projects to talk to each other and learn something.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Yeah, that sounds excellent. And then lastly, where and when is the festival happening? And how can people get tickets and passes?
Alix Watson: The in-person festival starts on Thursday, October 23 and goes through Sunday, October 26 and then you can actually watch online through November 10, if you want to. I do encourage people come to come in person. It is a lot more fun to be in a theater and experience it and also attend with filmmakers.
We have about forty filmmakers attending so far, that's how many have RSVP’d and so it's really cool to be able to tell them, like, wow, you're here and what you made was amazing, and to have that conversation about making it. And if you are attending, talk to the filmmakers. Don't be shy, like they spent years sometimes working on this stuff. They want to talk to you about it. They would love your feedback and compliments.
Amanda Hille: Regarding the ticket structure, we have ticketing for individual blocks that you can purchase either at the box office at Fort Wayne Cinema Center 437, East Barry Street. And we also have passes for day passes if you want to just stay for an entire day and see all of the films there. We have weekend passes.
I do want to give a shout out that we provide a 50% discount to students for passes and ticketing, and we use a system called Eventive, so when you get a pass, what I love about this system is you can go ahead and sign in and make your own profile and then reserve your tickets for every block that you want to see, so that you know you're guaranteed a spot in. And then you can also, again, just see your entire schedule line up for the entire festival.
Alix Watson: Yeah, I feel like when we've set it up so that, no matter your budget or schedule, there is an option for you. We try to make it really accessible and affordable, and especially for students, like Amanda said, a day passes $30 but if you have a valid student ID and you're purchasing it in person, that's $15. $15 and you can watch up to seven films or seven blocks of films in one day for only $15 and so I think that's a pretty good deal, and you're going to see a lot of really amazing stuff for that.
You know, Fort Wayne Cinema Center is also a nonprofit organization, so you're also supporting, in addition to supporting these filmmakers and being able to appreciate and celebrate their work, you're also supporting Fort Wayne Cinema Center, which is an arts nonprofit here in Fort Wayne.
Brianna Datta-Barrow: Well, awesome. I'm looking forward to it. I know I'll be there. And thank you guys so much. Congratulations again on 10 years. Thank you for the work that you do. Thank you for lifting up independent cinema and the film scene here in Fort Wayne.
Amanda Hille: Yeah, thank you so much for having us, Bri.
Alix Watson: Yeah, thank you.
