Short Summary

Hi there! My name is Maria, and I am a director and producer with a passion for creating captivating films, music videos, and commercials. With two feature films under my belt (one of which hit Regal Cinemas nationally), I am constantly pushing myself to new heights in the entertainment industry. 

The world was shut down and we felt it was a great opportunity to create a drive in film festival! We had a lot of support from incredible people such as The Scottish Rite, who allowed for us to host our first events in their parking lot as well as the LA 48 hour Film Challenge who allowed us to promote our event! For a first time event, we were a success! 

What was more exciting to me was the incredible amount of films that were sent by filmmakers particularly from the 48 hour film challenge, who got to watch their films in a drive in format! You can actually check out our festival at Jorjezian.com! As the owner and director of the Jorjezian Film Festival, I am dedicated to promoting and celebrating the work of talented filmmakers from around the world. And now, we have a huge selection of films and filmmakers from all over the world sending their incredible work! We haven’t even started marketing and we already have over 3 hours worth of short films submitted!!! 

Your contribution would mean the world to us as we are stepping up and are in demand to expand our operation to a whole other level! Multi day, more panelists and judges, we’d like to reach out to talent who will bring their expertise and stories to the event for our filmmakers to learn from! On top of that, your contribution would help us securing venues, media, panelists, staff, as well as the ability to potentially broadcast the event for overseas filmmakers!

Finally, we are currently working on creating a fun distribution network for our award winning films which will give our filmmakers an opportunity to elevate to a broader audience! 

Consider that, because this is an international festival, we get a lot of filmmakers from all over the world that love the opportunity to have exposure here and your contribution would bring a huge amount of inspiration to them!

What We Need & What You Get

I have attached below the rough budget of what we would need our funding for! Mostly this involves venues, transportation, purchasing of materials, as well as paying staff and volunteers who we could hire to help in our event! It definitely is a big number here, BUT whatever we raise, we can adjust to exactly that amount! We’ve worked with significantly less so no matter what we get, the show WILL go on!! 

In addition to needs of our budget, here are perks that you can benefit from with the type of contribution you choose!

The Impact

If you are a fan of films, you must know that it all starts small. The filmmakers who have the opportunity to share their work at smaller up and coming festivals get the bigger opportunities to grow and expand into the excellent content you get to see in your day to day life!

We’ve started the film festival from an idea in 2021! Within a month, we managed to go from an idea of the festival to having enough films submitted and screened at the Scottish Rite in Long beach!

We have incredible connections and networks of enthusiastic people who are excited about supporting our cause! We have run a successful event at every size since September 2021 and will absolutely put together a small version; however, by joining us with your support, you can help us make this event unforgettable and grand for both the filmmakers as well as the guests and families who come to enjoy their work!

We also want to build a community experience where local businesses as well as yourself can advertise their products and services! Ultimately, we are trying to bridge the distance between independent filmmakers and consumers as most of these films are not seen by the wider audience! Most film festivals remain in the niche world of films for filmmakers by filmmakers; however, we have been consistently working on new ways to bring a common audience who normally would not see these types of films into an environment where they would enjoy it!

We started off with drive ins, as well as done Speed networking, and finally did a double feature with Kevin Hart films around the time of their opening of Hart House, which was supported by Kevin Hart!

Risks & Challenges

We understand and as have done multiple of these events, realize that it’s not all going to be sunshine and rainbows as our event is primarily hosted by two people. We used to do primarily drive ins however weather made that difficult. So, what we did was, what I love to do and that is to create a Plan B! We had covered patio events!

What I’m trying to get at is that, I can’t promise that I will be able to predict every problem that comes our way, but what I will promise is to have most issues thought of and have secondary solutions. With your contribution, we are able to broaden our solutions as that will greatly allow us to hire more people as well as have the opportunity to secure a safety net!

Other Ways You Can Help

If you are looking for other ways to support us, please spread the word of our Indiegogo campaign as well as our website (jorjezian.com)! For lack of a better term, it would mean the world to us!

You can actively also check us out on Filmfreeway.com/jorjezian

Please use our Indiegogo share tools!