Former AFI Fest team launch festival consultancy

The one-stop shop will seek to provide consultation and services for film festival operations, development, programming and communications.

The founding partners are AFI FEST artistic director Rose Kuo (pictured), festival producer David Rogers, and head of press and public relations John Wildman — all of whom announced their departure from the festival earlier this month — as well as the festival’s director of programming Robert Koehler.

Kuo said: “This collaboration allows each of us to have more creative freedom and is the best way for us to continue our commitment to artistic excellence and innovative film programming.”

Koehler added: “We believe that the multi-faceted mission behind Festworks reflects the current and ongoing changes in the film festival world, above all the need for exciting ways to devise, organise and execute festivals.”

“This partnership came together as a direct result of our experiences working together on this past edition of AFI FEST and as the culmination of what each of us has identified as a need in the film festival community,” Rogers said.

“The four of us share a great passion for the art of film, for film-makers and especially for the unique film viewing experience and interaction with those film-makers that film festivals offer the public,” Wildman added. “It’s our hope that through Festworks, we can help enhance the way things are done that will benefit both film maker and filmgoer and improve a way of seeing films that we truly love.”