May 14 — filmmaker boot camp — Washington DC
The GI Film Festival will host Stephen K. Bannon’s “Filmmaker Boot Camp” at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, DC

Led by a panel of Hollywood’s top producers and financiers, the Boot Camp will teach independent filmmakers the “nuts and bolts” of film finance, distribution, marketing, and pitching. For more information, visit http://www.gifilmfestival.com/.

James Caan, Scott Caan, Robert Duvall, and Mark Rydell have signed on as advisers to www.OpenFilm.com, which provides Internet distribution, awards cash prizes to filmmakers, and helps submit projects to festivals. Filmmakers can upload shorts to the site to obtain feedback from viewers. Filmmakers can also sell downloadable versions of their works through the site (OpenFilm takes 69 cents per sale). It has a deal with TiVo, which syndicates 3-4 films each week from the site.

OpenFilm also plans to award One Million Dollars in grants over the next 20 months. Four filmmakers will receive $50,000 in cash and $200,000 in financing. Any film uploaded to the site is eligible for the award. The six films that receive the most votes from the community will be viewed by the advisory board, which will select the winner. Each month, both Caans, Duvall and Rydell will host live web-cam chats with the site’s users. For more information visit www.openfilm.com.