Swede Fest

Swede Fest returns to Tower Theatre on May 19th, “Be Kind Rewind” screening before festival

Roque — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:08:57 +0000

Film lovers rejoice, it’s time for the eleventh installment of Fresno’s very own Swede Fest. We’re returning to the historic Tower Theatre on Sunday, May 19th, doors open at 6 p.m. It’s FREE and suitable for ALL AGES. Thanks to our wonderful sponsors for making this all possible: Gotta Love Fresno, Fresno Filmworks, The Tower Theatre, Valley Public Radio and the Fresno Arts Council.

And if that wasn’t enough, Fresno Filmworks is screening “Be Kind Rewind,” the 2008 feature film that inspired the “sweding” movement, prior to Swede Fest 11 at 3 p.m. at The Tower Theatre. Tickets for “Be Kind Rewind” are $5 and are available in advance online at FresnoFilmworks.org or at the Tower Theatre box office. If you’ve never seen the film, check out the trailer below!

Just as a reminder, the deadline to submit your entry is Monday, May 13th at 11:59 p.m. so get started and you could be watching your film on the big screen at the festival. Check out our previous post regarding how to enter and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitiate to emai us at info@swedefest.com.

We have some more cool announcements coming soon so keep checking back here or follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the most up to date information. See you all on May 19th!

Call for entries! Deadline for Swede Fest 11 submissions announced

Roque — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 06:45:39 +0000

It’s 2013 and after after 5 years, Swede Fest is going as strong as ever here in Fresno. With May approaching, the time for you to start the creative process has come as we need your entries for Swede Fest 11! We will be announcing an exact date, time & venue in the near future as well as revealing our poster design for the event but for now, we’re announcing the deadline for you to get us your entry. The deadline for entries is Monday, May 13th at 11:59 p.m. That means you have over 2 months to get your team together, brainstorm and shoot you creative endeavor. Because of time constraints, we will again only be accepting the first 20 entries, so get started on your film and get it to us ASAP! As usual, the time limit for entries is 4 minutes, it must be suitable for all ages and contain no content that violates any laws. Film enthusiasts of all ages are encouraged to swede their favorite films and it is free to submit. If you have any further questions or if you have a film you want to enter, please email us at info@swedefest.com and we will guide you on how to get us your film.

If you need a little inspiration, feel free to visit our library of past entries right here and the ideas will be flowing in no time! Although it’s not necessary, we like to hear from people submitting films ahead of time to plan better for the program so if you are intending to submit, please drop us an email at info@swedefest.com to give us a heads up and if you have any questions about anything relating to Swede Fest, the same email will get you answers.

We’re looking forward to see all of your creativity displayed on a big screen in front of an audience, I hope you’re as excited as we are. Happy swedeing!

Swede Fest X – That’s a wrap!

Bryan — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 21:07:18 +0000

Thanks to everyone who created a swede and who came out for our 10th installment of Swede Fest. We had an estimated 500 people in attendance, our biggest event yet, and we couldn’t be happier with how it all turned out. We hope you were entertained and, more importantly, inspired to create your own sweded film. And speaking of that, Swede Fest 11 is coming May 2013, so start brainstorming and stocking up on cardboard now!

In the meantime, we’ll be uploading all the films from Swede Fest X here on the website soon! You might also check out what’s going on our with our sister Swede Fests in Tampa Bay and Palm Beach.

Get swedin’!

Dumb Drum talks Swede Fest X

Roque — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:26:50 +0000

Check out our latest video in which we talk about the event going down on November 11th at Tower Theatre. You have a week from today to submit your entry. Make it happen!

Winners of Swede Fest X grants announced, poster design unveiled

Roque — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 15:50:48 +0000

After sifting through all the entries, the Fresno Arts Council has selected the four winners of the $50 grants for Swede Fest X. Come November 11th, you will be seeing entries from:

- Vince Consentino
- Troy Cooper from Team Awesome Productions
- Alexis Chavez from SMT Productions
- Esther Yang from Alpacalips Productions

Congrats to the winners and we very much look forward to seeing your guys’ entries! Thanks to everyone who took the time and effort to submit an application for the grants and an extra special shout-out to Fresno Arts Council for putting this on.

And last but not least, we’re unveiling the poster design for Swede Fest X. Be sure to keep an eye out for flyers around and please help spread the word about our little event. As usual it is a free, all ages event and you still have time to submit an entry so it’s not to late to see your vision on the big screen at Tower Theatre on November 11th. Reminder! The deadline to submit is November 5th. Happy swedeing!

Fresno Arts Council offers $50 grants to create your film for Swede Fest X

Roque — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 18:39:04 +0000

UPDATE: The deadline for application has been extended! Now you have until Tuesday, October 23rd to submit your application so stop procrastinating and get to swedeing!

Need a little help creating your swede? The generous folks over at the Fresno Arts Council announced today that they will be offering $50 grants toward the creation of your entry for Swede Fest X. Use the money to buy cardboard, art supplies, pizza for your crew, WHATEVER it takes to create the most awesome swede your imagination can create! On top of the money, the winners of the grants will be guaranteed a spot in festival lineup and will be screened at The Tower Theatre on Sunday, November 11th. There are four grants to be awarded so don’t hesitate to submit your application. “So wait, all I have to do is apply for it?” NO! You think it’d be that easy?! Along with your application we want you to get artistic and create a hand drawn movie poster for your film which, if you are chosen, will be displayed at the festival along with your entry! So bust out your crayons, color pencils, markers or whatever you need to put your vision to paper.

The deadline to apply for the grant is ~~Tuesday, October 16th~~ Tuesday, October 23th so you need to hurry! And remember, Swede Fest X entries are due by Monday, November 5th at 11:59 p.m.

Download the application right here for more details and get your swede on!

Swede Fest X date & venue announced

Roque — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:22:58 +0000

I was leaving Corridor 2122 back in August of 2008 feeling pretty good that 30+ people had shown up for our fledgling little film festival. No one knew what was going to happen or what to expect but people came and that was a pretty awesome feeling. I knew at that point that we had something special with Swede Fest and we had to keep doing it, if at very least to see what would happen. What happened is that we kept growing. And growing. And growing. Here we are, 4 years later and we’ve reached double digits and that calls for a little celebration, methinks. And here’s the first little bit: We’re happy to announce that the historic Tower Theatre will be the site of Swede Fest X! This event is sponsored by Gotta Love Fresno, ABC30, Fresno Filmworks and The Tower Theatre and will remain FREE FOR ALL AGES! It will go down on Sunday, November 11th with doors opening at 6pm so please help spread the word so we can pack out the place for the Fresno original.

We have a bunch of cool stuff planned for this event which we will be announcing at future dates, including our poster reveal. In the mean time, I hope you guys are working on your entries because that November 5th deadline is right around the corner. If you want to see your film on the big screen at the Tower Theatre, you better get it in soon! If you have any questions, please email us at info@swedefest.com but in the mean time, GET SWEDING!

Call For Entries: Swede Fest X

Roque — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 06:20:41 +0000

Ten. There’s something special about that number. And it’s even MORE special when something that started in a downtown Fresno art gallery as an experiment to help build the local filmmaking community grows to such epic proportions that we’re celebrating reaching that number of feativals. But here we are, against all odds and still going strong. Swede Fest X is on for November 2012 right here in Fresno and we need your entry to help make it extra special! Consider this your invitation to join us in the fun!

WE NEED YOUR ENTRIES!

Swede Fest wouldn’t be as entertaining without your entry and don’t you want the opportunity to see your film with your friends & family on the big screen? Of course you do! The deadline for entries is Monday, November 5th at 11:59 pm. Because of time constraints, we will again only be accepting the first 20 entries, so get started on your film and get it to us ASAP! As usual, the time limit for entries is 4 minutes, it must be suitable for all ages and contain no content that violates any laws. Film enthusiasts of all ages are encouraged to swede their favorite films and it is free to submit. If you have any further questions or if you have a film you want to enter, please email us at info@swedefest.com and we will guide you on how to get us your film.

This is just the tip of the iceberg! Be sure to check out all the previous entries to help the creative spark and we’ll be back soon with more details regarding the event.

We will be announcing the set date for the event as well as more info on the venue in the near future so keep it tuned right here and DumbDrum.com for all the deets. And this being our TENTH Swede Fest, you know we’ll be doing some extra special stuff. So please spread the word and be a part of the global Swede Fest movement, all of which started right here in Fresno back in 2008. We can’t wait to see your entry!

Swede Fest 9 wrap-up

Roque — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 04:25:58 +0000

And just like that another Swede Fest has past us and this one was one for the record books. Not only did we continue with our tradition of breaking attendance records (we had about 320 people in the house) with every subsequent festival, due to the size of the theater we unfortunately had to turn people away. The theater management probably let more people than should have been in there (as displayed by the amount of people willing to sit on the ground and stairs) and it pained us to have to turn people away (for those people, our heartfelt apologies) but nobody could have predicted the kind of turnout we had.

Not only did Swede Fest 9 receive entries from around the Central Valley, we also had our most international entries we had ever hosted with films from filmmakers in Hungary, Germany & the U.K. Weren’t able to make it? Well you can catch all the films online over here.

Big thanks to Gotta Love Fresno for sponsoring our event, Kirk James for designing our flyer but most of all EVERYONE who participated & submitted an entry. This festival would be nothing without all your hard work and effort. Keep up the good work!

Now’s it’s over, we’re already starting to plan the first DOUBLE DIGITS Swede Fest coming in November of this year so now the perfect time to start planning YOUR entry for the next one. Remember, you’ll love this movie because you’re in it! See you guys around and be sure to follow us on Twitter & Facebook to get all the latest news, check out exclusive pics and more. See you guys soon!

Swede Fest 9 poster revealed, still accepting entries

Roque — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:35:35 +0000

As the date draws closer, we wanted to remind you all that you still ave plenty of time to produce your entry for Swede Fest 9, which goes down Thursday, May 24th at 7pm. The deadline to enter is still May 20th so get cracking, you still got time just get the team together and start creating! We also want to take this chance to premier our poster design for the festival and if you have eyeballs, you can see it up there. Designed by Kirk James, it continues our tradition of getting fresh designers working on our promotional materials. Keep an eye around town for the flyers and be sure to help spread the word on the festival. We will be announcing more cool stuff leading up to the event (including pre & after party plans) but in the mean time, just concentrate on making an entry. Thursday, May 24th is going to be AWESOME!