Bergen's virtual film festival, with real-life rewards. Here's where to watch (and submit)

Dream of being a movie director? Want to be the next Spike Lee or Steven Spielberg? Get in line.

Or, with the assistance of the Fourth Annual Bergen County Film Festival, possibly cut in line.

This festival, launching March 1, is a little different from Cannes or Sundance.

Virtual only

For one thing, it's all — or almost all — virtual. A single cocktail and networking event, on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Bergen County Administration Building in Hackensack, is pretty much the only chance to press flesh.

There are no screenings in movie theaters, no live talkbacks with celebrities, none of the hoopla that surrounds a conventional festival. But that's why Bergen County's festival could be a unique opportunity for newbie filmmakers. It cuts to the chase. You want your film distributed? They will distribute it.

"This is online, it's ongoing, and everybody has access," said Marlon Greer, festival co-producer.

For filmmakers of color, in particular, and those otherwise outside the mainstream, this democratizes the process, he said.

In the ordinary festival gantlet, you submit your movie, screen it in a theater, walk away with a prize (or not), then repeat the process at the next festival, and the next, until hopefully a distributor picks it up. But the Bergen County Film Festival can get your masterpiece directly onto a major streaming service, right out of the box.

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Tubi, which has 64 million monthly active users, will be making all the juried submissions available on its platform. "This is the really the only film festival that offers distribution free to everyone that submits," said Greer, a Fair Lawn resident.

Blow your own trumpet

The catch is this: You are responsible for promoting your own movie, on social media and elsewhere. Depending on how many downloads you get, you can monetize your movie from the get-go.

"The more you drive people to the site to see the film, the more you will get paid," said Randy Glover, a Hackensack resident who founded the festival four years ago (it was a live event originally).

What it costs

The entry fees range from $20 to $35, depending on the length of the film; shorts and features, fiction and non-fiction, are welcome. Awards for top films are given in June.

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In previous years, audiences have seen love stories, LGBTQ-themed stories, movies about social issues (Jean-René Rinvil's "Twoub Mantal — Healing a Nation," about a mental health crisis in his native Haiti, had a big impact back home). One notable film "The Class of Covid-19," was about the response, or non-response, of young people to the pandemic. "It shows these young high school and college kids who are bored at home," Glover said. "They're partying at the height of COVID."

Focus on diversity

The festival, Greer said, is open to everyone. But coming as it does on the heels of Black History Month, the organizers are especially on the lookout for films by and about people of color.

"We want to make sure Black and brown people have a voice," said Greer, whose position as founder and CEO of Fli TV (its specialty is celebrities interviewing other celebrities) gave him access to Tubi. He wants to make sure their work has a platform.

"A lot of times filmmakers make a film, and they don't know how to move it," he said. "It just sits there. It's important for people to see the work."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: The 4th Bergen County Film Festival is streaming, but not mainstream