The Film Food Festival

The Film Food Festival is a four-day event that occurs annually at the AMC Empire 25 theater in Times Square, New York City. The festival’s motto is “Taste what you see on the screen.” Guests attend screenings of food-related films, and the chefs featured in the films cook their dishes for the audience to eat while watching.. After the screenings, the festival hosts after-parties where guests can meet the filmmakers and chefs, and try food and drink selected from eateries across the country.

In addition to its primary festival in New York City, Food Film Fest also hosts annual festivals in Chicago and Charleston, as well as several smaller events throughout the year that take place across the globe. All events put on by the Food Film Festival benefit a food-related charity; past non-profit partners include The Billion Oyster Project, Slow Food Charleston, GrowFood Carolina, Food Bank For New York City, and The Good Food Project in Chicago .

Birth of the Festival

The festival was co-founded by George Motz and Harry Hawk. Motz is an author, TV host, and Emmy award-winning filmmaker best known for his documentary film Hamburger America . At the time, Hawk was the owner of Harry’s, a hamburger and hot dog stand on Water Taxi Beach in Long Island .

Motz got the idea for the Food Film Festival in 2007, when the owner of a burger joint asked to screen Hamburger America at his restaurant. 250 people showed up, and the event went so well that Motz was inspired to create an annual celebration centered around the “multisensory experience” of being able to taste what you see on screen .

Growth

The first few editions of NYFF were held on Water Taxi Beach in Long Island, an artificial beach that operated between 2005 and 2010. The beach’s main attraction was Harry Hawk’s hamburger and hot dog stand, which won first prize for Best Burgers in the Boroughs in 2008. Harry’s was known for its casual, friendly outdoor atmosphere and appreciation for simple yet hearty American food, making it the perfect hub for the festival.

In the festival’s first couple years, screenings were free, and food was purchased online beforehand. Motz describes the festival’s first edition in 2007 as “nothing but a crazy idea, ill-executed and not very well received” .

By its fifth year in 2011, the festival had expanded in size and popularity, and relocated to Tribeca Cinemas in New York City. Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave the opening night speech and officially declared October 13^th as New York City’s Food Film Festival Day .

In the coming years, the “foodie” phenomena took off in the United States, and the supply and demand for films about food increased dramatically. The festival evolved alongside this genre, and moved to the AMC Empire 25 theater in the heart of Times Square. It became more competitive, introducing the “Slotted Spoon Awards,” given out by a panel of film and culinary experts. Tickets are no longer free, and partial profit is donated to the various charities NYFFF has partnered with. In 2010, Motz announced a Chicago edition of the festival, and in 2013 a third opened in Charleston. Over the past twelve years, the Food Film Festival has hosted over 42,000 guests .

Notable Events

Each night of the festival explores a different culinary theme. Notable past events include:

• The “Food Porn Party,” a signature annual NYFFF event where guests watch “short pieces of visually stimulating shots of food set to creative soundtracks” while being served the featured food. The dishes are creative and indulgent—like ramen burgers or ‘Moffles’ (mochi on waffles)—and are shown in “steamy close-ups” on screen throughout the night
• A 2011 world premiere of New York Cooks for Tohuku to raise money and awareness for tsunami recovery in Japan. Five Michelin Starred Japanese chefs—Daniel Boulud, David Bouley, Michael Romano, Bill Telepan and Tadashi Ono—cooked for the event.
• A 2012 screening of George Motz’s The Mud and The Blood, with an Oyster Roast rooftop after-party in Brooklyn. 15,000 South Carolina oysters were cooked.
• A 2014 screening of John Markus’ The Kings of BBQ Barbeque Kuwait held on the USS Yorktown Aircraft Carrier in Charleston. Barbeque was smoked on the ship by the World Champion Pitmasters who starred in the film.
• A 2015 world premiere of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, Charleston, featuring a tasting menu from Sean Brock’s Waffle House and other famous Charleston restaurants and chefs.
• A 2015 event called “Restaurant Revival: Jodie’s Diner.” The event highlighted Jodie’s Diner, a local favorite lunch counter in Albany, NY that closed down the year before. Nothing With Something: Death of a Diner, a film about the diner’s closing, was screened, and Jodie and his family cooked for the audience.

Awards

Slotted Spoon Awards are given in eight categories:

1.    Best Feature Film Award

2.    Best Short Film Award

3.    Schweid & Sons Best Super-Short Film Award

4.    In the Raw Best Food Porn Award

5.    NY Distilling Co. Audience Choice Award

6.    Bloomberg Made in NYC Award

7.    The Food Filmmaker of the Year Award

8.    The Film Foodmaker of the Year Award

Past recipients:

	Best Short Film	Best Feature Film	Best Super-Short Film	Best Food Porn	Audience Choice	Made in NYC	Food Filmmaker of the Year
2017	Hometown Hero: The Legend of New York's Chopped Cheese, Dir. Justin Bolois & David Matthews	James Beard: America's First Foodie, Dir. Elizabeth Federici	Cooking with Dr. Taquito: 3 Ingredient Pancakes, Dir. Liz & Jimmy Reed	Wagashi, Dir. Hiro Ishikawa	Hometown Hero: The Legend of New York's Chopped Cheese, Dir. Justin Bolois & David Matthews	1 Minute Meal: A Documentary Portrait of NYC, Dir. James Boo	Justin Bolois & David Matthews, Hometown Hero: The Legend of New York's Chopped Cheese
2016	Volcano Bread, Dir. Alison Grasso	N/A	Volcano Bread, Dir. Alison Grasso	Chocolate Babka Assembly is Unbelievably Beautiful, Dir. Maureen Giannone	Sakurada Zen Chef, Dir. Hirokazu Kishida	Sweet, Sour, Dill, and Everything in Between, Dir. Justine Miller	Thomas Barnes, Pork Chop
2015	Central Texas Barbecue, Dir. Matthew Salleh	Nothing with Something: Death of a Diner, Dir. James Boo	Ravioli Perfection, Dir. Ben Effinger	Pasta with Ratatouille, Dir. Massimo Zambiasi	Matcha: an Ippodo Story, Dir. Michael McAteer with Kristoffer Brearton	Food Warriors: 125th St., Dir. Casimir Nozkowski	Michael McAteer and Kristoffer Brearton, Matcha: an Ippodo Story

NYFFF in the Film Festival Galaxy

Although big in heart and flavor, NYFFF is on the smaller side in terms of the rest of the world’s film festivals. It does not receive the massive influx of celebrities, big-name distributors, or media attention that are characteristic of festival giants like Cannes, Venice, and Berlin. However, relative to the niche (but quickly growing) market for food-related films, NYFFF is at the top of its game.

In the past couple of decades, the world has experienced a surge of new film festivals. Instead of trying to distinguish themselves by becoming the most prestigious—a probably impossible task considering the prestige of the aforementioned festival giants—these new festivals aim to make themselves known by becoming the master of a niche concept, and thus attracting the corresponding niche (yet passionate) audience.. The Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival boasts that it is “the only Swiss film festival devoted to the bizarre and the imagination”; the Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival focuses on myth and reality of mental illness; the Giffoni Film Festival in Italy recruits kids to discuss films with their directors and stars

NYFFF is no exception, and is fully dedicated to its food-obsessed theme. This theme has proven itself to be well-chosen, as the “foodie” movement picks up more and more speed each year. As of 2016, forty-eight million Americans define themselves as “foodies,” and twenty-nine million are further categorized as involved members of an established culinary group . A key part of this phenomena is “food porn,” the trend of sharing glamourized visual presentations of food on social media, in the form of photos and videos. NYFFF takes this trend to the next level, choosing films for its Food Porn Party based on their ability to make mouths water, and then satisfying viewers’ lust by delivering the serving the dishes afterwards!

NYFFF is a prime example of a festival that follows an “audience model” (vs. “business model”)—defined by Richard Porton as a lower-budget, less competitive film festival that prioritizes the audience experience over premieres, press, and corporate ties . While its events generate lots of press in the NYC foodie world, nearly all of the festival’s planning energy goes into choosing films and inviting chefs in order to make each event as enjoyable as possible for its attendees’ taste buds. In this way, the festival is similar to Finland’s Midnight Sun Festival—those who attend rarely reflect on the films, and instead rave about the times they had and the things they consumed . After all, isn’t bringing people together what both food and film are all about?

References

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