Established the same year as Sundance, the Denver Film Festival vies for equal prestige.

Since 1978, the Starz Denver Film Festival has routinely attracted Hollywood A-listers "” Joel and Ethan Coen, Steve Martin, Jamie Foxx and Tim Robbins to name a few "” yet, the festival's impact isn't limited to celebrities and their entourages. Young, hungry filmmakers are just as integral to the festival's success, and with a little luck and a lot of networking, a neophyte director can see his or her career blossom thanks to the Denver exposure.

Look no further than the first recipient of the festival's John Cassavetes Award back in 1989. A little-known filmmaker named Steven Soderbergh brought his independent film, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, to town, winning the festival's award for unique vision in American cinema. Catapulted off the win, Soderbergh has become a legend in the industry, going on to direct Erin Brockovich, Traffic and the upcoming Che.

This year's festival, which runs November 13 "“ 23, will pack the standard array of big-name projects, provocative imports, shorts and documentaries. Local filmmaker Daniel Junge, a 38-year-old based in the Highlands neighborhood, had his first feature shown at the Denver Film Festival in 1992. His latest work, They Killed Sister Dorothy, a documentary exploring the murder of Dorothy Stang, a 73-year-old nun found shot to death in Brazil, will make its Denver debut at this month's festival.

"It's great to have your film play before a living, breathing audience and a paying audience," Junge says. Since his first festival appearance in 1992, he's directed a number of features, some of which have aired on PBS and HBO.

Junge, a Denver resident for much of the past 15 years, has participated in many film festivals, winning the 2002 Best Documentary award at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York for the film Chiefs and this year's Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at Austin's South by Southwest Festival for They Killed Sister Dorothy. But Denver's festival remains his favorite.

"It's been around long enough to have confidence in what it is. It's a place for film lovers to come and watch films," he says. "I've met plenty of industry people who have come in for the Denver Film Festival because of its reputation."

Zachary Fink, a 33-year-old documentarian from Boulder, knows the transformative power of Denver's premier film festival firsthand. Fink showed his first feature-length film, Last Hat in Town, in Denver last year. "It lent credibility to the work I've been doing for the last 10 to 15 years," Fink says.

The festival didn't just recharge his creative engine. It made securing funding for subsequent projects easier and enabled him to forge bonds with crew members and distributors attending the festival. Those relationships endured long after the last festival film's credits rolled.

Festival director Britta Erickson says one of the goals of the upcoming festival is to provide mentorship opportunities for fledgling filmmakers. Expect more panels this year in which veteran talent, along with fresh faces, can swap ideas as well as the continuation of hospitality areas where filmmakers meet and mingle.

Startup filmmakers clearly benefit from a festival berth, but even more established directors can use the platform, and publicity, offered in Denver. The 2004 smash biopic Ray built some serious buzz when it debuted in Denver en route to Oscar glory.

Erickson says the festival exists, in part, to share a love of film and also to cement partnerships that help both parties regardless of their years in the business, partnerships that don't happen automatically.

Tony Gault, associate professor in the University of Denver's department of mass communication, says tenacity is easily as crucial as talent when it comes to a filmmaker's big break. "A student's ability to schmooze is very important," says Gault, a filmmaker himself whose short films have been shown in Denver and at other festivals. That isn't necessarily the case at the Sundance Film Festival, where industry types will only seek out those they deem talented.

But filmmakers in Denver must be proactive to make a connection, he says. That's a task made easier given the festival's collegial spirit and open-ended events.
"The quality of connections one can make [in Denver] is higher than at Sundance, but the quantity is higher at Sundance," says Gault, who advises festival-bound students to bring with them copies of their short films as well as any feature-length scripts they may have on hand. You never know when an industry insider or a big-name actor might take an interest in your work, he says.

It's vital for fledgling filmmakers to understand, and leverage, the film festival experience, says Sarah Beatty, owner and producer of HiJinx Productions and president of the Colorado Film and Video Association. "Get involved. Get your feet wet. Any aspiring filmmaker would be thrilled to be picked up by the film festival," she says.

Beatty applauds the Denver Film Society, the force behind the 30-year-old event, for doing so much to keep movies on the minds of city dwellers. That includes the Film on the Rocks summer program and special movie openings throughout the year.

But film production within the city remains a stubborn problem for those in all aspects of the film and video industry because Colorado lawmakers have been reticent to offer the kinds of tax incentives other states, such as New Mexico, serve up to draw productions.

"The key thing is that film and video production is a big economic engine," she says, pointing to the upcoming Eddie Murphy film NowhereLand, which was partially shot in Denver over a span of just a few days late last year. "When a film crew comes to town, they have to have hotels, food," Beatty says. "They hit hardware stores. They spend money at bars and restaurants."

Attracting film crews to Denver is like embracing a renewable energy source, she says: "It's an industry that comes in, spends a lot of money, cleans up after itself and goes home."

This Year's Festival
Festival officials screened more than 1,000 submissions before coming up with the roughly 175 films "” both feature-length films and shorts "” to be unveiled at this year's event. The 31st annual Starz Denver Film Festival will open with The Brothers Bloom, the second film by promising young director Rian Johnson. The director's first film, 2005's Brick, also played at the Denver Film Festival, and Johnson's father lives in Denver.

"Bloom" stars Oscar winners Adrian Brody and Rachel Weisz in a tale of con men trying to make one last major score. The film debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Expect some "Bloom" cast members in Denver for the occasion. "We've been really successful in getting the best artists here," Erickson says.

The Denver debut of Ray three years ago, which featured appearances by Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, director Taylor Hackford and his wife, Helen Mirren, "was the tipping point for Denver in terms of our red carpets," Erickson says. The festival provides studios with red-carpet affairs at sumptuous venues like the Buell Theatre and the Ellie Caulkins Opera House.

Another feature sure to stir Denver audiences is Slumdog Millionaire from Trainspotting director Danny Boyle. The underdog saga nabbed the Audience Award in Toronto in September, and Oscar buzz is building.

Other films set for their Denver close-ups include The Wrestler, the much-hyped return of "˜80s actor Mickey Rourke, and Surveillance, new from director David Lynch's daughter Jennifer, with Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond in a twisted tale involving a chase to find a serial killer.

The festival also will highlight Africa with films dedicated to the continent's environment, its ongoing regional conflicts and its battle against the AIDS virus.

Not So Easy Being Green

The Starz Denver Film Festival hired Boulder's Sustainable Travel International (STI) to create a carbon-neutral event. Ted Martens, director of outreach and development with STI, says his company calculates the amount of waste and greenhouse-gas emissions put out by events like the film festival and then tries to eliminate, or at least blunt, its impact.

STI suggested carbon offset purchases to balance things like the polluting effect of flying into Denver. Last year, some offset funds went to renewable energy projects; others focused on reforestation in Africa and solar projects in northern India. On-site efforts include composting waste and using recycled products.

"The green-ness of the event lies on the shoulders of the people who run the venues," he says. "The festival really went above and beyond what most people we work with do."