We recently connected with Rudi Womack and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Rudi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

When I was a young filmmaker growing up in Wyoming I had almost no resources. No one to mentor me, nowhere to show my work or build contacts, and very little opportunity to exercise my filmmaking abilities. Now that I’m established in my career, I want to give the filmmakers of Wyoming the opportunities and resources I didn’t have, which is why the mission of the Wyoming International Film Festival is three pronged.

First, we act as a champion for Wyoming film and filmmakers. The festival is a mecca for Wyoming filmmakers, as well as filmmakers in the Rocky Mountain region, to network and build lasting connections. It’s also a place for them to develop their skills and grow their audience.

Secondly, we are here to support the independent film community at large. With fewer avenues than ever for independent filmmakers to break out and get noticed, they need all the allies they can get.

Last, we are a community forward organization. Not only do we provide a public arts and cultural event for a state where so few of these events occur, we also provide a support system for young and emerging talent.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve been a professional editor for about 10 years now. Disney, Marvel, DreamWorks, Lionsgate, Fox… the list goes on – but I’ve worked with them all. I had the privilege of working on some of the biggest titles in the world, like “Avengers” or “Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2”. But honestly, my biggest achievements have all been in the independent work. Films most people have never heard of. I feel like the creative and ingenuity in the indie film scene are so much more rewarding than big studio projects. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot to love working for studios, but the scrappy, do-it-yourself, against-all-odds nature of independent film has always appealed to me.

It’s one of my primary motivators for working with the Wyoming International Film Festival. I have seen time and again how a driven person can create a masterpiece of cinema with exceedingly limited resources. Often times these folks move on to bigger and better things, and I have always wanted to be a helpful hand in that journey.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I don’t believe there is a one size fits all solution to anything, so there’s no easy answer for a question like that. It truly is multi-faceted.

First and foremost, we are a film festival. A film festival is nothing without filmmakers – and filmmakers have grown weary, and outright suspicious, of film festivals. Rightly so in my opinion. With so many scams and so much insider play going on, it can feel impossible to find a festival of value. So that’s immediately what I set out to do with the Wyoming International Film Festival. When I took over as Executive Director in 2021 I made several drastic changes – notably, transparency. Most film festivals play their cards close to their chest. Not us. We publish data on which films we are selecting, when they were submitted, in which categories they were submitted, and so on. We are also very open about which types of films we are interested in and which we are not. This means we get fewer submissions and therefore less submission money, but the advantage is we get more films that we are outright interested in, which should be the goal of any festival from the outset. Overall my team and I feel this is an effective way to build trust with the filmmaking community.

We have also built partnerships with professional organizations to help cover any blind spots we are missing. The Alliance of Women Directors and the International Documentary Association have both partnered with us for the last three years. These partnerships have helped us bolster submissions from a more diverse and inclusive group of filmmakers, which in turn has created a dynamic storytelling environment at the Wyoming International Film Festival. It has also shown us there is a large audience for non-fiction and women-center cinema that has been underserved in our state for some time.

The last major change we made was to create an event worth going to. I’ve been to so many film festivals around the nation that are just… screenings. I love screenings, I love movies! But a film festival should feel festive, right?! It’s why we have added multiple additional events to our screenings. We have an entire day dedicated to live dance, we host the Wyoming 48 Hour Film Festival, we have multiple arts and photography exhibitions, and we take our guest on field trips and tours. Best of all? All of those events are free! We feel by doing this, not only are we giving visiting filmmakers a unique experience with their time here at the festival, we are giving more of a reason for our community and audience to participate as well.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

The Wyoming International Film Festival is 100% volunteer. All the way from myself, to the stage directors, to the moderators, to the programmers, to the ushers. Everyone is there working because they believe in the mission, or because they want to support media arts in Wyoming.

Our volunteers come from all walks of life and all sorts of backgrounds, and oftentimes I meet them only a few minutes before we’re jumping into work! Managing a team like that comes with challenges, but the most rewarding part is seeing a large group of people who genuinely believe in what they are doing, working for the same goal. If there are any other festival directors reading this, or people who work with volunteers, my only advise is this; take care of your volunteers, make sure they feel valued and see how their contributions help, and most of all, lead by example.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wyoiff.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wyomingfilmfest/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WyomingFilmFest
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@wyominginternationalfilmfe6678?si=EZ6P-_b1bRc7OvZa
• Other: Film Freeway: https://filmfreeway.com/WyomingInternationalFilmFestival

Image Credits
Courtesy of Wyoming International Film Festival