American Film Market Dailies

Two new consulting divisions, Film Festival Consulting and Filmmaker Consulting, have recently launched under the Cause Pictures umbrella, led by film festival veteran Jon Fitzgerald.  The festival expert has directed many film festivals, including Slamdance, AFI, Santa Barbara, Abu Dhabi, Hollywood and Naples. Fitzgerald co-founded Slamdance in 1995 and was the Executive Director there before becoming the Festival Director in 1997 for the American Film Institute (AFI), in Los Angeles County.  In addition to directing a number of fests, Fitzgerald has consulted to dozens more.

“I have never seen anyone handle a wider variety of demands with more grace and skill than Jon Fitzgerald. He has earned the respect and support of everyone involved with the independent film and Festival communities,” says director Steven Soderbergh.

Over the years, he has helped many new events establish a foundation to build upon, with Festival Blueprints and Sponsorship Programs, including the Bahamas, Lonestar, and Orlando Festivals, just to name a few). In addition, Fitzgerald has helped elevate existing festivals (Santa Barbara, San Diego, Newport Beach) by bringing in new sponsors or high profile Gala Presentations. “Jon was instrumental in bringing Crash to our Festival for the Opening Night Gala. We're proud to have presented the US Premiere of this great film from Lions Gate, a movie that has since gone on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture,” said Gregg Schwenk, Executive Director Newport Beach Film Festival.

On the Filmmaker Consulting side, Fitzgerald has guided countless directors on their festival journeys, with custom Festival Strategy packages, as well as introductions to talent managers, studio executives and distributors.  He is has been instrumental in numerous sales to companies, such as Netflix, HBO and Gravitas. “The Slamdance premiere of my first feature, Loungers, gave me firsthand knowledge of Fitzgerald's commitment to emerging artists. Having been both a filmmaker and a fest director his combined knowledge from these two experiences will prove him to be invaluable not only to filmmakers but to festivals as well.
says Academy Award nominated director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Quantum Of Solace).

Prior to setting up the new consulting divisions, Fitzgerald launched iGEMS.tv as a curated guide to help audiences discover the best movies and TV series streaming online.  The site provides Official Selections, as well as Collections, and the opportunity to track Watchlists through user profiles.  As one would expect there will be an emphasis on quality programming, with many festival favorites and more opportunities for audiences to discover emerging talent.

For more information, Festivals can see full biography and service categories here: http://www.filmfestivalconsulting.com/index.html.  Filmmakers can visit https://www.filmmakerconsulting.com/.