Testimonials

“Bears Fonté is my go-to resource when I need professional input on pretty much anything related to film festival programming and best practices. His expertise in the field of film festivals when it comes to both festival management tactics and filmmaker submission strategies is unmatched. His industry network is vast and his reputation for objectivity is unassailable. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better industry consultant out there.”
- Brad Wilke, founder of Smarthouse Creative & programmer for Seattle International Film Festival/Portland Film Festival

“I can’t imagine our event succeeding the way it did without Bears as our Director of Programming. Bears has deep knowledge and experience with independent film, filmmakers and the overall festival circuit. His access to filmmakers and distributors was exactly what we needed for our inaugural event and his ongoing consulting has sustained us, too. Bears was able to negotiate with these parties top to bottom, allowing the best possible experience for them and for our audience during the event. Bears’s ability to craft an overall festival season could not have been a better fit for our unique needs. He clearly understood our audience, our sponsors, our major stakeholders and our filmmakers and built our programming around those factors over four days and across two countries.”
- Adam Paul, founder of St. Lawrence International Film Festival

"I first worked with Bears Fonte when we were accepted into the Austin Film Festival in 2013. He put on an excellent program filled with a variety of high quality films that satisfied every festival goer’s taste. He took his expertise to the festival he founded, Other Worlds Austin. While having never played the festival, I’ve attended as a fan specifically because I know that Bears is going to show high quality films that run the gamut of genres. As programmer of the Austin Revolution Film Festival, currently number two on Film Freeway, I look to Bears as a great example of how to program, organize and run a film festival."
-James Christopher, Organizer, Austin Revolution Film Festival

"Bears truly understands the challenges faced by smaller regional festivals like ours. He has been a great help in finding some of the hidden gems for us to screen from some of the larger festivals when we are unable to attend ourselves."
- T. Dominic Cochran, Co-Founder and Co-Director, Capital City Film Festival

"Bears has been a great addition to our programming team. He has great taste in films and strong connections to filmmakers through his various activities as programmer, journalist and filmmaker. He needs to reassess his opinion of Fury Road, however."
-Jeff Ross, Executive Director, SF IndieFest

"I reached out to Bears when I needed to discuss the submission process. I was a new festival ED and the festival hadn’t had a formal process in place. Bears spent some quality time with me discussing both withoutabox and filmfreeway.  He told me the pros and cons of each platform and detailed his experiences with them. His expertise in this area was more than helpful, and really jumpstarted my festival submissions. We’ve had three successful submission seasons and its all thanks to Bears’ advice!" 
-Rachelle Murphy, Executive Director - Green Mountain Film Festival

“Bears was a great resource as I polished my script for Blood Prose, both making the script better and helping to troubleshoot potential filming difficulties before I got into production. Because I knew I was shooting the film myself, and what my budget would be, we were able to fine-tune the script to highlight the strengths of my idea and make the best film possible. I was able to get into a premium film festival, onto iTunes as well -  and give a lot of credit to Bears for that.”
-Randall Krongard, writer/director/producer – Blood Prose

I won Bears’s mentorship as a prize at DePaul University’s Premiere film festival.  It has been the best prize I have ever won.  Bears’s knowledge and connections in the film festival world is so complete one would think he has been attending every film festival there is since film festivals began.  Learning the technique of how and when to apply to festivals is an art I did not even know existed until I met Bears.  My success in the film festival circuit has improved drastically in the years since I’ve had Bears’s mentorship.  I highly recommend him for any filmmaker hoping to get attention in the film festival world."
-Alaric Rocha, filmmaker, A Priceless Woman, Demonoid 1971

"It's clear that Bears' is mindful of both sides of the equation, both as a film festival director and as a filmmaker. He was quick to offer positive feedback along with constructive comments. Plus, he provided suggestions that we could implement right away. Bears understands the overall philosophy of the festival as well as the nitty gritty details. His insights have been valuable to reassessing our goals and building our brand."
-Samuel Z. P. Thomas & Louis Hunter, Festival Co-Directors, Deep in the Heart Film Festival

"When it comes to budgeting a short or a feature, Bears knows his stuff. He's worn all the hats and he's rolled with all the punches. With Bears crunching the numbers and keeping things on track, you can focus on what's most important, telling your story." 
-Scott Honea, writer/director

"Bears Fonte served as an integral part of the launch team for the Alexander Valley Film Festival. He shared resources, time, best practices, and insights on what might work best for our community. He tolerated many an emotional phone call as frustrations mounted during our most hard-won lessons of hiring/firing, programming, line management, vendor management, etc. This guy knows it all. He's done a million festivals, created a few of his own, and attends them regularly throughout the year as a patron, fest worker, and filmmaker. Bears' insights are invaluable, and you would be hard-pressed to find a better partner when you're starting out.
- Kathryn Hecht, Founder & Executive Director, Alexander Valley Film Society

"Bears has been a great resource for filmmakers over the years. His insight into the film festival industry is strengthed with the fact that he is also a filmmaker.  That experience of being an artist holds a lot of value in festival programming and operations."
-Chad Mathews, Executive Director, Hill Country Film Festival and Society

"Bears came to guest lecture in my Film Festivals class at TCU in 2016.  He was engaging, knowledgable, and really helped our student filmmakers understand how the festival circuit works and how to make the most out of the festival experience.
He showed examples of successful short films, brought sample promotional materials like EPKs and postcards to show students how to market their work, explained the festival calendar, and answered a stream of questions from our students.  Bears is very knowledgable about the film festival world from both an industry/organizer and filmmakers’ standpoint and is able to clearly articulate that knowledge to experts and non-experts alike."
-Tricia Jenkins, Ph.D.; Associate Professor at College of Communications, Texas Christian University

"Bears Fonte has worked as a programming consultant for the Greenwich International Film Festival since its formation.  His sound advice, enthusiasm, professionalism, skilled moderating, and incredible knowledge and eye for film have been a tremendous asset to the festival and have helped lead to its continued success."
-Ginger Stickel, Executive Director, Greenwich International Film Festival