Each year, New Orleans celebrates the film industry and all of the visionaries within it with the annual New Orleans Film Festival. For over one week, the city turns into a filmmaker (or the average film-fanatic)’s dream, featuring exclusive screenings, panels, VIP events, and more.

Now in its 29th year, the New Orleans Film Festival has grown into an internationally respected annual event that attracts 20-25K people, 400+ filmmakers, and 240 films.  It is one of the few film festivals that is Oscar-qualifying in all three Academy-accredited categories: Narrative Short, Documentary Short, and Animated Short—and it’s been recognized by MovieMaker Magazine as one of the “Top 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee” every year since 2012.

As part of this year’s festival, The Shop was proud to host several events in the space, open to both the general public and our members already in the space during the workday. To kick things off, we hosted “Casting Confidential,” a session where casting professionals with experience ranging from acclaimed television to indies talked about their work finding the right actor and marrying them to the part.

Following the casting session, we hosted “Publicity 101 for Filmmakers,” a session that gave attendees a crash course on the basics on seeking a professional publicist, pitching films to journalists, and more. Guest speakers included David Baker, Vice President of the Press Club of New Orleans, Charlie Olsky, a publicist at Cinetic Media, and Ina panel of music-savvy filmmakers and film-savvy musicians ready to drop knowledge on composing for films, finding the right soundtrack, and more as part of the “Making Music, Making Movies” panel. Panelists included George S. Clinton, a film compose with over 100 credits to his name, Lily Keber, the visionary behind the documentary Bayou Maharaja, and Nikki Walsh, Director of Film Music at Universal Pictures.