Face to Face with... Andy Greenhouse

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Cannes in a Van is the ‘four-wheel film festival’ that takes independent film to the heart of the Cannes Film Festival and beyond. This Thursday night (19 September) sees the programme’s third annual awards ceremony take place at the Truman Brewery with Edith Bowman hosting.

Since launching an international indie film awards (The Van d’Ors), the programme has come a long way and continues to screen and champion an eclectic mix of film, animation and music videos including BAFTA winners and Oscar nominees and also runs a monthly ‘music vs film’ night (Screen Social) in London. Here, festival director, Andy Greenhouse, tells us how Cannes in a Van has developed with client Ford getting involved as a sponsor and how the festival continues to grow.

Tell us about Cannes in a Van, the places you travel to and what it is exactly for those who aren’t familiar with it?

It's basically a four wheel film festival screening independent films from the back of a Ford Transit which works 'in reverse'. While normal film festivals screen an official selection then hold an awards ceremony, we start with a big awards bash, and then take the Official Selection 'on the road'. This means those films will be shown on the street, at pop-up events, in bars, at festivals and of course Cannes. This year we travelled to the Venice Film Festival and we hope to go to Berlin in 2014. The long-term goal is to give these films as much exposure as possible both in real life and online. We'd also like to spread our Screen Social events across the UK so that film societies can screen the Official Selection and the films gain more exposure.

When you started the festival, what were your hopes for it and did you think it’d grow to what it is today?

I was running short film nights at The 100 Club in Oxford Street and a flippant conversation turned into the challenge of taking these films to Cannes... in a van. At that point it was about gate crashing the world's biggest film festival with the smallest and seeing what would happen. All the feedback was so positive I wanted to try again the next year and see if we could build this into some sort of unconventional platform for indie film. I always had ideas about how it could develop, but couldn't see past a 10 year anniversary 'Cannes on a Catamaran' dream. Still got three years!

Tell us about how Ford got involved and did you ever consider getting a sponsor on board from the beginning?

Originally I sold virtual van parts online to get a bit of sponsorship. Generally people and companies would 'buy' a van door or the steering wheel and they would get a logo on the van and mentioned on the site. It worked but only on a small scale. Insurance and tax alone cost more than the sponsorship we had. Then in 2008 Daily Motion saw something in what we were doing and gave us enough sponsorship to pay for the trip. Other hair-brained sponsorship schemes followed but at the point I knew it was make or break time; (I’d quit my job to start up on my own, so no disposable income) I wrote 20 emails to Ford around the world. Someone in the States picked it up and nine months later we were on our way to Cannes!

What’s the calibre of entries been like this year and have you got a personal favourite?

The standard is really amazing. Through such an eclectic mix of genres and European countries, this really is the strongest year across the board. The shortlist is actually not that short and that's an indication of how high the bar is set now. I couldn't say a favourite but one film which had us and the judges really talking is Titanic Love, a ridiculously charming comedy which shouldn't be taken too seriously but has the DNA of independent filmmaking running through it. It doesn't have great post-production and effects, but instead it's carried by good performances, a good script and tremendous effort. It has been recognised overseas but not in the UK so the director (an ex-van driver) was made up when he discovered it had been shortlisted.

How important is it to continue championing the indie film scene?

The term 'independent' will certainly get hazier as time goes on. The days of big studios and production companies financing film are gone and funding can come from all kinds of places. The fact is that low-budget is more accepted in a web-friendly society. On one extreme there's HD 3D and on the other there are shows like Blackout and films made on phones (we have two shortlisted in our Grass Roots category this year). The lines are getting blurred with Hollywood stars running Kickstarter projects and first-time directors being hired for big-budget features, so in a way, there has been no better time to champion the indie as ideas and execution are ultimately King and Queen.

And tell us about the Student Transit Award that’s being introduced this year?

We ran a version of the Student Film in Transit award last year, but the brief and structure didn't work for me. We changed it from Summer to Winter term-time this year and the brief is simpler. Students and graduates (of less than two years) submit a showreel and a treatment for a six-minute short based on a theme. Three winning treatments will be given a budget to shoot the film and they will then be judged by the public online.

What can guests expect from Thursday night’s programme?

The Van d'Or Independent Film Awards is like a festival in one night. It's a bigger version of our own Screen Social 'music vs. film' events. Edith Bowman is hosting a night of film, live music, street food and chat. There's a bar (obviously) and everyone takes away a special awards edition of the independent film magazine Gorilla, who we've been collaborating with lately. It's the sort of event we'd like to go to, so why not hold it ourselves, with a little help from Ford, of course.

What are you particularly looking forward to this year?

The 2014 season starts with Student Film in Transit, which I'm really looking forward to getting off the ground. Expanding Screen Social and spreading the films to different parts of the country would be brilliant but for that to happen we probably need a sponsor. In 2013 we've been to Venice and we would like to take the Van to Berlin in 2014 and maybe one day, Sundance. For now though it's about saying ""look, here's a great film you won't have seen… it'll take 10 minutes of your time and maybe change something small in you… and it's not a cat falling in a bath"".

For more information about Cannes in a Van and the Van d'Or Awards visit Cannes in a Van.