The Insomnia Film Festival returns for 2023
The Geneseo Insomnia Film Festival (GIFF) is returning for its ninth installation after a COVID-19-induced respite. The festival, which kickstarted in 2011, has been a staple campus event ever since its first run; its loyal participants, referred to as “Insomniacs,” are surely eager for its return.
For those unfamiliar with the tradition, it is just as sleepless as it sounds; students will have 24 hours to write, shoot, edit, and post a three-minute video for judgment by a panel of faculty and staff. The film must also incorporate three elements—chosen by the committee of, according to the Geneseo website, “GIFF overlords”—into their narrative. Those with the most witty, compelling, and thematically successful entries will compete for prizes: $400 Amazon gift cards, $300 Amazon gift cards, and $200 Geneseo bookstore gift cards for first, second, and third place winners, respectively.
GIFF registration opens on Jan. 1, 2023, and there are a few more rules worth noting for those interested in joining the festival. Prospective Insomniacs must assemble a team of up to four students, including a team captain. Teams can receive assistance from other people, but the majority of filmmaking credits must be ascribed to the registered members. The winning teams must also split their prizes—so choose your allies wisely.
Students are expected to use their own video-recording equipment, which can include anything from a professional camera to a smartphone. But apart from the recording equipment, students will have editing resources available to them throughout the night, including support from “appointed minions” in CIT, who can answer questions related to technology and festival rules.
The event is spearheaded by “lead minion” Joseph Dolce, the instructional support coordinator for Geneseo’s Computing and Information Technology department (CIT); Dolce is available for students’ technological needs year-round, but GIFF is no doubt his passionate project. This year, he’s looking to embolden the festival with more entries from women, people of color, and other underrepresented groups on campus. Students can contact dolce@geneseo.edu with questions, or just to discuss the event: again, according to the Geneseo website, “[Dolce] loves to talk video and loves to talk about the GIFF even more!”
The festival itself will begin on Mar. 24 at 5:00 p.m. and ends 24 hours later on Mar. 25 at 5:00 p.m. While an all-nighter may not sound very appealing, the event aims for a more comforting twist on the caffeine-fueled collegiate activity, one typically associated with last-minute, bleary-eyed studying; event runners such as Dolce have made past festivals as comfortable as possible, providing students not only with filmmaking resources, but also with break activities like board games and movies.
One of the most enticing elements of GIFF is that the winners are anything but predictable; past winners include those with extensive videography experience as well as those dabbling in filmmaking to spend a night with friends. Any entry stands a chance so long as it meets the criteria, which makes up four categories: impact (“Did the judges laugh? Did they cry? Did it make them think?”), cinematography (“Was the video visually compelling?”), story (“How well written, thought-out and portrayed is the story being told using the elements provided?”), and gestalt (“How did the totality of the video strike the individual judge?).
The return of GIFF is a joyous one, marking a reintroduction of widespread community engagement in a creative setting as the campus continues to recover from the massive changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. For those interested in participating in this creative endeavor, look no further than the Geneseo website at “geneseo.edu/insomnia” for a full rules list and timeline for the festival. After such a long wait for its return, the results will surely by impressive!