WHAT MAKES LONELY WOLF?
CEO & Founder Adrian Perez keeps his focus on those indie creators/storytellers who don’t top the competition as much as on those who do. Lonely Wolf came into being for the very ideal that 'no wolf gets left behind'; Adrian's mission for Lonely Wolf is that it pushes beyond its principal faculties of an aspirational global competition + carefully-curated film programme, to providing a forever-home and educational resource for indie creators/storytellers across the globe, granting all the rare opportunity to watch all the best films of the competition from the comfort of their home, via its DRM-protected digital cinema, which is also accessed by film buyers and the wider industry.
Lonely Wolf is most renowned for its mystical 'wolfpack' community spirit, in the form of filmmakers' constant engagement with and affinity for the brand, through their UGC content and sendings of celebratory howls via social media. Here’s a film festival championing the online arena for managing to create the buzz only annual venue-held festivals are capable of.
Lonely Wolf is fit for the global age in that it recognises filmmakers’ desire to skip the year-long wait for their film projects’ results; whilst proving itself most prestigious for hosting its week-long, trimestral, competition rounds + virtual film programmes.
Lonely Wolf is most renowned for its mystical 'wolfpack' community spirit, in the form of filmmakers' constant engagement with and affinity for the brand, through their UGC content and sendings of celebratory howls via social media. Here’s a film festival championing the online arena for managing to create the buzz only annual venue-held festivals are capable of.
Lonely Wolf is fit for the global age in that it recognises filmmakers’ desire to skip the year-long wait for their film projects’ results; whilst proving itself most prestigious for hosting its week-long, trimestral, competition rounds + virtual film programmes.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
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Why did I create Lonely Wolf?
Because as a former filmmaker myself, I was lacking a virtual film festival that truly engages with its indie creators/storytellers and provides a positive experience for all regardless of your status in the competition. I also recognised the need for a hybrid, forward-thinking, film festival; one that retains its carefully-curated film programme through its traditionalist week-long cultural event, whilst champions the online film festival arena, currently saturated by below-the-radar online film festivals. Since our world quite literally came to a standstill with 2020's global COVID-19 outbreak, many have hopped on the bandwagon of low-cost, dead-end, online contests that quite literally service laurels to every single contestant for a cheap (and not so cheap) submission fee. Things have gotten out of hand and as more and more have hopped on this bandwagon and swam with the current, I decided to swim against it. What has Lonely Wolf managed to do in its short existence? It has preoccupied itself with organising THE virtual experience of ALL film festival experiences, the best one, an unforgettable one, one to want to come back to, one that inspires you, that motivates you, that literally makes you feel as though your film's in the running for an Academy Award or a BAFTA! Why can't that level of excitement and promise be delivered to filmmakers? Well, in creating Lonely Wolf, I've always put myself in your place, the filmmaker's place, if my film was competing, how would I want to feel throughout that whole process? Lonely Wolf is a hybrid film festival that aims to achieve the best of both worlds, the prestige + exposure that comes with traditional film festivals, and the service speed + accessibility that comes with online contests. This was all along Lonely Wolf's mission, to leave an imprint, just like Netflix did for the streaming circuit and made its way to creating Academy recognised content and leading a wave of streaming giants. Lonely Wolf is fighting to be the number 1 of a bad batch, the giant of the online film festival sphere and we hope it won't be long until Lonely Wolf is joined by another few great contenders that bring prestige to the toxic online circuit. Lonely Wolf eventually will take on cultural week-long events in London and other European cities. There are two main ways audiovisual projects can find exposure with us, by making Official Selection and their way into our digital cinema. Our paid media campaigns boost us to reach easily 500,000 to 650,000 people in the space of a week x 3 times every year. We host three film programmes + competitions every year, we're trimestral. From that paid reach, we end up at around 3.5K total attendees and 10K film streams! We were lucky to have Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment team redeem virtual tickets to access our programme last year! It's simply fantastic that we're managing to do this for INDIE cinema! Apart from exposure via streaming numbers, we also arrange for the top 60-80 official selectees to be featured on a main article across various press outlets, so this press currency is also phenomenal exposure! We don't drop all the news in one-go, we really work on our announcement process and stage it out, we love to keep you on your toes and be wired-into the FilmFest for a good two weeks! There's nothing more exciting than waking up to check out your results in a competition and to hopefully land some pleasant surprises! Nothing beats that feeling, and we work hard to deliver that feeling! Ultimately, you'll like the overall presentation and interactivity of the virtual experience so much, it'll motivate you into creating more and more stories, and in better more innovative ways, so that you can enjoy the thrill of Lonely Wolf again and again. Just like our industry's most elite players pray on landing Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations! You'll be praying to be in the running for a Wolfie! That's the level of excitement we work hard to deliver.
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FESTIVAL TRAILER
TERMS + CONDITIONS
Rules are reasonable and pretty straightforward to enter the Lonely Wolf competition (and join our 'wolfpack'!).
We only expect a few things from you which you automatically agree to upon entering your work into the competition...
BY SUBMITTING TO LONELY WOLF YOU AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING...
· Copyright — You authorise that your work is cleared for festival exhibition (all music, fonts, visuals etc. are cleared worldwide, in perpetuity, multi-platform), and the intellectual property is yours, or if acting as distributor — you have acquired permission from the copyright owner.
· Use of stills / clip fragments — You consent to the posting of stills and short clip fragments from the film on the festival's website/platform plus social media channels, for solely promotional, non-commercial and educational purposes. Stills from your film could be used for example within our final list of winners/nominees, and short clip fragments from your film could be used within our festival trailer.
· Downloading — You consent to the festival director having access to download your film(s) to facilitate offline study and the festival's programming/curation needs and functions. You can opt out from this whilst still being able to participate in the competition.
· Virtual cinema / critique journal — Lonely Wolf's virtual cinema is a private members-only online streaming platform built-into the festival's dynamic; the cinema's purpose is strictly non-commercial and for educational purposes. Independent filmmakers can both benefit from having exposure to film buyers, distributors and press via this private space, whilst being granted the rare opportunity to watch all the best films of the competition with great ease and from the comfort of their home. Upon entering the competition, you grant us permission to exhibit your film publicly under multi-DRM encryption and password-protection. You can opt out from being exhibited in this way at any point, it's not a requirement to allow this in order to compete. Some of you will opt to have your film reviewed also, your film review and star rating will be publicly shown on our website's critique journal. You can opt from your film review being publicly displayed, whilst still opting to receive this service. Let us know your preferences, everything we do is to advance your agenda and that of your film's. We're committed in protecting and leveraging your work.
· IMDb — Lonely Wolf's team make themselves responsible for syncing up your awards/nominations to your IMDb pages, but we do not make ourselves responsible for creating your film pages from scratch if they're not already in place.
· Code of conduct — Lonely Wolf uphold the outmost respect for every member of its "wolfpack" community and are committed in nurturing your growth and passion for the craft of filmmaking. In our mission, we endeavour to deliver most personable, friendly and motivational communications. We expect the same code of conduct from you — "treat others the way you want to be treated". Lack of respect and/or misbehaviour will lead to disqualification and legal actions.
· Feedback — We can’t be responsible for providing individual feedback on every entry we get (unless you opt for a critical review), nor justify/explain ourselves for not selecting your work. No inquiries or arguments will be entertained regarding non-selected films. The decision of the festival's jury and decision-making committee will be final. We will however point you to specific educational resources within our platform to help you find clues and nurture your growth.
· No refunds / we expect sportsmanship — If unhappy with your work's final verdict, we can't offer you a refund because a lot of hours have been invested into your work by the festival's jury and decision-making committee.
· One-click for all categories — We've comprised a flat fee whereupon entering your work via format/duration you will be automatically considered across all of the festival's competition categories for awards/nominations.
· Accepted submission types — We accept pretty much everything from short films, micro-shorts, medium-length films to feature-length films; to documentaries and TV pilots/web series; to animated films and music videos; to written unproduced screenplays.
· Submission permissions — Same team of filmmakers can submit as many of their film projects within the same competition round as they wish. Your film is allowed to compete even if it has already premiered at another festival or is already available in the public domain.
· Submission restrictions — Films already submitted in one edition can't be submitted again. If your film is not in English, we require English subtitles. If the film is in Spanish, you can submit it without English subtitles.
· Programming decisions — Not every film that gets nominated or selected will make Lonely Wolf's digital cinema straight away, Lonely Wolf's team may have plans to include your film within the private platform at a later stage.
· Policy on free waivers — Lonely Wolf is a high-value festival platform. Founder/CEO's philosophy demands a healthy balance. No filmmaker should be granted complete immunity from covering Lonely Wolf's entry fee whilst other filmmakers invest so much. Lonely Wolf's hybridity and modernity offer rare incentives that prohibit free waivers. Student filmmakers and disabled filmmakers are entitled to a discounted entry, and in exceptional cases free waivers will be permitted at the festival's sole discretion.
· Films reviews — In order to opt for a film review, your film must have participated within the competition. You can compete, and then opt for a film review months further down line.
· Entering the competition does not in-turn mean you're automatically 'Official Selection'. 'Official selection' is competitive, submitting doesn’t mean you’ll automatically be selected.
· By entering Lonely Wolf, you will automatically join our mailing list, we ask you follow us on Instagram to keep up to date with the status of your entry and wider festival news. And to also join our secret "wolfpack" group on Facebook.
· You confirm your credits list is as complete as possible to include members from all departments of production, failure to do so will mean that the director will be announced the nominee and/or winner for an individual merit category.
· Lonely Wolf reserve the rights to disqualify any film on certain grounds.
· You agree to have read and accepted Lonely Wolf's rules and regulations.
We only expect a few things from you which you automatically agree to upon entering your work into the competition...
BY SUBMITTING TO LONELY WOLF YOU AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING...
· Copyright — You authorise that your work is cleared for festival exhibition (all music, fonts, visuals etc. are cleared worldwide, in perpetuity, multi-platform), and the intellectual property is yours, or if acting as distributor — you have acquired permission from the copyright owner.
· Use of stills / clip fragments — You consent to the posting of stills and short clip fragments from the film on the festival's website/platform plus social media channels, for solely promotional, non-commercial and educational purposes. Stills from your film could be used for example within our final list of winners/nominees, and short clip fragments from your film could be used within our festival trailer.
· Downloading — You consent to the festival director having access to download your film(s) to facilitate offline study and the festival's programming/curation needs and functions. You can opt out from this whilst still being able to participate in the competition.
· Virtual cinema / critique journal — Lonely Wolf's virtual cinema is a private members-only online streaming platform built-into the festival's dynamic; the cinema's purpose is strictly non-commercial and for educational purposes. Independent filmmakers can both benefit from having exposure to film buyers, distributors and press via this private space, whilst being granted the rare opportunity to watch all the best films of the competition with great ease and from the comfort of their home. Upon entering the competition, you grant us permission to exhibit your film publicly under multi-DRM encryption and password-protection. You can opt out from being exhibited in this way at any point, it's not a requirement to allow this in order to compete. Some of you will opt to have your film reviewed also, your film review and star rating will be publicly shown on our website's critique journal. You can opt from your film review being publicly displayed, whilst still opting to receive this service. Let us know your preferences, everything we do is to advance your agenda and that of your film's. We're committed in protecting and leveraging your work.
· IMDb — Lonely Wolf's team make themselves responsible for syncing up your awards/nominations to your IMDb pages, but we do not make ourselves responsible for creating your film pages from scratch if they're not already in place.
· Code of conduct — Lonely Wolf uphold the outmost respect for every member of its "wolfpack" community and are committed in nurturing your growth and passion for the craft of filmmaking. In our mission, we endeavour to deliver most personable, friendly and motivational communications. We expect the same code of conduct from you — "treat others the way you want to be treated". Lack of respect and/or misbehaviour will lead to disqualification and legal actions.
· Feedback — We can’t be responsible for providing individual feedback on every entry we get (unless you opt for a critical review), nor justify/explain ourselves for not selecting your work. No inquiries or arguments will be entertained regarding non-selected films. The decision of the festival's jury and decision-making committee will be final. We will however point you to specific educational resources within our platform to help you find clues and nurture your growth.
· No refunds / we expect sportsmanship — If unhappy with your work's final verdict, we can't offer you a refund because a lot of hours have been invested into your work by the festival's jury and decision-making committee.
· One-click for all categories — We've comprised a flat fee whereupon entering your work via format/duration you will be automatically considered across all of the festival's competition categories for awards/nominations.
· Accepted submission types — We accept pretty much everything from short films, micro-shorts, medium-length films to feature-length films; to documentaries and TV pilots/web series; to animated films and music videos; to written unproduced screenplays.
· Submission permissions — Same team of filmmakers can submit as many of their film projects within the same competition round as they wish. Your film is allowed to compete even if it has already premiered at another festival or is already available in the public domain.
· Submission restrictions — Films already submitted in one edition can't be submitted again. If your film is not in English, we require English subtitles. If the film is in Spanish, you can submit it without English subtitles.
· Programming decisions — Not every film that gets nominated or selected will make Lonely Wolf's digital cinema straight away, Lonely Wolf's team may have plans to include your film within the private platform at a later stage.
· Policy on free waivers — Lonely Wolf is a high-value festival platform. Founder/CEO's philosophy demands a healthy balance. No filmmaker should be granted complete immunity from covering Lonely Wolf's entry fee whilst other filmmakers invest so much. Lonely Wolf's hybridity and modernity offer rare incentives that prohibit free waivers. Student filmmakers and disabled filmmakers are entitled to a discounted entry, and in exceptional cases free waivers will be permitted at the festival's sole discretion.
· Films reviews — In order to opt for a film review, your film must have participated within the competition. You can compete, and then opt for a film review months further down line.
· Entering the competition does not in-turn mean you're automatically 'Official Selection'. 'Official selection' is competitive, submitting doesn’t mean you’ll automatically be selected.
· By entering Lonely Wolf, you will automatically join our mailing list, we ask you follow us on Instagram to keep up to date with the status of your entry and wider festival news. And to also join our secret "wolfpack" group on Facebook.
· You confirm your credits list is as complete as possible to include members from all departments of production, failure to do so will mean that the director will be announced the nominee and/or winner for an individual merit category.
· Lonely Wolf reserve the rights to disqualify any film on certain grounds.
· You agree to have read and accepted Lonely Wolf's rules and regulations.
9 — 16 DECEMBER
