Buffer Festival

Last updated

Buffer Festival
Buffer Festival Logo.svg
Location Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Founded2013
Founded by Corey Vidal
Type of play(s)Online Video
LanguageInternational
Website bufferfestival.com

Buffer Festival is an international digital video festival, held annually in Toronto, Ontario. The festival, founded in 2013 by Corey Vidal, Corrado Coia, and Samantha Fall of the ApprenticeA YouTube channel, [1] [2] [3] showcases the talent of online video creators who have debuted their work on YouTube. Buffer Festival has been called "The Digital version of the Toronto International Film Festival" [1] and "The World's first festival dedicated to YouTube content". [4]

Contents

History

Beginnings

The concept for the festival was conceived in 2011, and was inspired by the Toronto International Film Festival. [5] Vidal's vision for the event was sparked specifically by his visit to red carpets at TIFF in 2011. [6] [7] He describes leaving the festival and wanting a communal viewing experience focused on YouTube videos, saying that "traditional Hollywood and television have these experiences, and now it's time for YouTube to have these experiences too." [8] "YouTube is moving toward a direction of professionalism," said Coia, "Some of these YouTubers have feature-length films in episodic format, and they do actually rival Hollywood quality. So they need to get the proper treatment — get them in a nice theater." [9]

In 2012, the ApprenticeA Productions team (led by Vidal) applied to the Canadian Film Centre's media accelerator programme, ideaBOOST, in order to produce the festival, and the application was successful. [7] The team was one of seven teams participating in the ideaBOOST programme in its inaugural year from 2012 to 2013. [10] The ApprenticeA production team approached both YouTube and TIFF from the outset, to ask them to be partners for the event. [11] "If they're not on board, we shouldn't even bother doing it," said Vidal. [11]

The festival was launched via an official announcement video on YouTube on September 4, 2013. [8]

2013 festival

The first Buffer Festival was held from November 8 to 10 2013 in Toronto's Entertainment District. [5] The festival's screenings were spread across six different movie theatres, including TIFF Bell Lightbox, Scotiabank Theatre Toronto, Glenn Gould Studio, CN Tower Maple Leaf Theatre and Jane Mallett Theatre. [12] Theatrical-length shows (averaging 90 minutes of YouTube footage and host dialogue) [8] were shown over the course of three days. [5] The event also featured meetups at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre which gave fans the opportunity to meet their favourite YouTube creators. [13]

Partners for the initial festival included YouTube, TIFF Next Wave, Cineplex, Canon, and Tim Hortons. [1] [7] The festival hosted more than 70 well-known YouTube creators as part of the event's entertainment roster. [4] These included Andrew Gunadie, Charlie McDonnell, Chris Pirillo, Craig Benzine, Grace Helbig, Hannah Hart, Jack Douglass, Jenn McAllister, Lilly Singh, Mamrie Hart, Matthew Santoro, Meghan Tonjes, Michael Aranda, PrankvsPrank, Tay Zonday, The Fine Bros, and Tim Deegan, among others. [14] Over 5,000 tickets were sold internationally, [4] with around 2,000 people attending the event on its opening day. [12]

2014 festival

The second annual Buffer Festival was held from October 16 to 19, 2014. The festival followed a similar format to the first, with the addition of new features and events, including an "Industry Day", co-produced by the Canadian Film Centre. [15] Additionally, the festival began accepting video submissions from the general public. [16]

Events were held at the TIFF Bell Lightbox and the Scotiabank Theatre, as well as the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. [17]

Some of the featured guests included Andrew Gunadie, Charles Trippy, Charlie McDonnell, Chris Pirillo, Craig Benzine, EpicMealTime, Grace Helbig, Hannah Hart, Jack Douglass, Jenn McAllister, Lilly Singh, Mamrie Hart, Matthew Santoro, Meghan Tonjes, Michael Aranda, Olan Rogers, PrankvsPrank, Rhett and Link, Shay Carl, Tay Zonday, Toby Turner, The Fine Bros, and Tim Deegan.

Over 10,000 tickets were sold for the 2014 festival. [18] Partners included YouTube, HTC, the Canadian Broadcasting Company, Doritos, Canon, Blue Ant, Tim Hortons, and Just Eat. [19] Star Wars also had an official screening for their Fan Film Showcase, hosted in partnership with Lucasfilm. [17] [20]

2015 festival

The 2015 Buffer Festival was held from October 23 to 25, 2015. It featured the addition of a Creator Day to the programming—a day-long workshop featuring creators, industry members, and technical professionals focused on providing advice to up-and-coming YouTube creators. [21] Venues included the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, the John W.H. Bassett Theatre, the CBC Building and Roy Thomson Hall. Partners of the 2015 festival included YouTube, LG, CBC, and Canon.

2016 festival

The 2016 Buffer Festival was held October 20–23, 2016 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts. [22] Events included multiple film screenings, a Gala Award Show, red carpets, workshops, and panels. Over 100 Featured Creators premiered videos at one of the screenings, including one by astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield. Sponsors included Adobe, YouTube Red, and the Canadian Film Centre.

2017 festival

The 2017 Buffer Festival was held September 28-October 1, 2017 at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres in Toronto. A new feature at the 2017 event was an awards night. Ten awards were presented, for excellence in: [23]

Programme

Buffer Festival features several different types of programming:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toronto International Film Festival</span> Annual film festival held in Toronto, Canada

The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, founded in 1976 and taking place each September. It is also a permanent destination for film culture operating out of the TIFF Lightbox cultural centre, located in Downtown Toronto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival</span> Film festival in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival, also known as Cinéfest and Cinéfest Sudbury is an annual film festival in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, held over nine days each September. It is one of the largest film festivals in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicole Stamp</span> Canadian actress

Nicole Stamp is a Canadian TV director, actor, filmmaker, writer and television host.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corey Vidal</span> Canadian YouTuber and entrepreneur

Corey Vidal is a Canadian YouTube content creator and entrepreneur. His YouTube videos have been seen over 100 million times and he has over 200,000 subscribers. In December 2007, Corey was one of the first Canadians to join the YouTube Partnership Program. In February 2013 he was named Niagara's Entrepreneur of the Year in Innovative Small Business for his video production company ApprenticeA Productions. He is the founder of Buffer Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TIFF Lightbox</span> Cultural centre in Toronto

TIFF Lightbox is a cultural centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located in the first five floors of the Lightbox and Festival Tower on the north west corner of King Street and John Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010 Toronto International Film Festival</span> 2010 film festival edition

The 35th annual Toronto International Film Festival, (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 9 and September 19, 2010. The opening night gala presented Score: A Hockey Musical, a Canadian comedy-drama musical film. Last Night closed the festival on September 19.

The ICFF is a not-for-profit, publicly attended film festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, programming international films and taking place during the summer. Founded in 2012, ICFF has grown from a four-day, single-venue festival of 18 films, to a 10-day, nine-city festival of over 130 feature films, documentaries and short films.

Andrew Gunadie is a Canadian internet personality, musician, and video producer. He is best known for "Canadian, Please", a music video in which he co-starred and co-produced with Julia Bentley. Collectively, his YouTube videos have surpassed 10 million views. In 2013, he won the Digi Award for Online Personality of the Year.

PJ Liguori is a British-Italian YouTuber and filmmaker. He is best known for his YouTube channel KickThePj. Liguori specialises in different artistic areas, including screenplay, directing, songwriting, acting, producing, editing, sound, art, crafts, and animation. His work includes the web series Oscar's Hotel for Fantastical Creatures (2015), and the shorts The Forever Train (2013) and The Lost Buoy (2022).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jus Reign</span> Indian-Canadian comedian and actor

Jasmeet Singh Raina, professionally known as Jus Reign, is a Canadian comedian and music artist of Indian descent. He is most prominently known as a YouTube personality, and one of Much Digital Studios' original creators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LaToya Forever</span> Canadian YouTube personality

LaToya Howard, better known under the name LaToya Forever, is a Canadian YouTube personality and author, best known for her eponymous YouTube channel as well as her video blog channel "LaToya's Life". In 2012, she was the official Vibe TV host at the American Music Awards and in 2015 and 2017 she participated in the Buffer Festival. Her self-named main channel on YouTube has more than 1 million subscribers with more than 125 million views. Her debut book, an autobiography titled "LaToya's Life: Uncut Mishaps of a YouTube Star", was released on November 8, 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Candice Hutchings</span> Canadian YouTube personality, vegan chef, comedian, and author

Candice Hutchings is a Canadian YouTube personality, vegan chef, comedian, and author. She runs a YouTube cookery-related channel The Edgy Veg. Since beginning her channel in October 2012, her videos have received over 31 million views, and her channel has accumulated over 457 thousand subscribers. As of March 2017, she was one of the most popular vegan chefs on YouTube.

The Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award is an annual film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to the film rated as the year's most popular film with festival audiences. Past sponsors of the award have included Cadillac and Grolsch.

The Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award for Documentaries is an annual film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to the film rated as the year's most popular documentary film with festival audiences. The award was first introduced in 2009; prior to its introduction, documentary films were eligible for the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award.

The Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award for Midnight Madness is an annual film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to the film rated as the year's most popular film in the festival's "Midnight Madness" stream of underground and cult films. The award was first introduced in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Toronto International Film Festival</span> 44th edition of the festival

The 44th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 September 2019. The opening gala was the documentary film Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, directed by Daniel Roher, and the festival closed with a screening of the biographical film Radioactive, directed by Marjane Satrapi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 Toronto International Film Festival</span> 45th edition of the festival

The 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, the 45th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held from September 10 to 21, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto, the festival took place primarily on an online streaming platform, although limited in-person screenings still took place within the constraints of social distancing restrictions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Toronto International Film Festival</span> 46th edition of the festival

The 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, the 46th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held from September 9 to 18, 2021. Due to the continued COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto, the festival was staged as a "hybrid" of in-person and digital screenings. Most films were screened both in-person and on the digital platform, although a few titles were withheld by their distributors from the digital platform and instead were screened exclusively in-person.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Toronto International Film Festival</span> 47th edition of the festival

The 47th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 8 to 18, 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2023 Toronto International Film Festival</span> 48th edition of the festival

The 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 7 to 17, 2023.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Tangler, Todd (September 5, 2013). "YouTube Gets Its Own Film Festival". Variety. Retrieved September 16, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Press Releases - Canon Canada Inc". www.canon.ca. Archived from the original on 2016-12-22. Retrieved 2016-07-07.
  3. ↑ Elisio, Luke. "The 2015 Buffer Festival Gala brings YouTube to the big screen | CanCulture". Archived from the original on 2016-08-18. Retrieved 2016-07-07.
  4. 1 2 3 "CFC and Buffer Festival Launch First 'YouTube Industry Conference'". Now Digital Network. August 22, 2014. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 21, 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 Barnard, Linda (November 8, 2013). "Buffer Fest: YouTube in the spotlight at Toronto festival". TheStar.com. Retrieved September 16, 2015.
  6. ↑ Twiss, Jordan (September 5, 2013). "YouTube film festival to launch in November". Media in Canada. Retrieved September 16, 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 Ng See Quan, Danielle (November 8, 2013). "Buffer Festival starts the YouTube conversation". Playback. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
  8. 1 2 3 BUFFER FESTIVAL - Announcement Video - Corey Vidal and ApprenticeEh. Youtube. September 4, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Buffer Festival 2015: YouTube new media all grown up". November 2015. Retrieved 2016-07-07.
  10. ↑ "The Buffer Festival". ideaBOOST. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  11. 1 2 Nowak, Peter (November 8, 2013). "The 2013 Buffer Festival: YouTube filmmaking celebrated in Toronto". Macleans. Retrieved September 21, 2015.
  12. 1 2 Ton That, Corinne (November 9, 2013). "YouTube video creators in the spotlight at the Buffer Festival". CTV News. Retrieved September 16, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Second Annual Buffer Festival Celebrates YouTube Filmmakers in Toronto". Girlworks. September 21, 2014. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
  14. ↑ Dunn, Bryenn (November 4, 2013). "Buffer Festival spotlights YouTube creators in Toronto". Digital Journal. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
  15. 1 2 "Buffer Festival Industry Day". Canadian Film Centre. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  16. ↑ "UpList Short Film Selections in Partnership With Doritos Crash the Super Bowl". Buffer Festival. Archived from the original on 2015-07-03. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  17. 1 2 3 "Not just cat videos: Buffer Festival Celebrates the Talent of YouTube". Google Canada. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  18. ↑ Canada AM: YouTubers congregate for Buffer Fest. CTV News. Retrieved September 16, 2015.
  19. ↑ Brownell, Claire (October 18, 2014). "How YouTube is making some of these Canadians millionaires". Financial Post. Retrieved September 21, 2015.
  20. ↑ @@starwars (October 14, 2014). "Tickets are available for the Star Wars Fan Films Showcase at @BufferFestival! 10/17, 8-9:30pm http://strw.rs/1w16BcL" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  21. 1 2 "Buffer Academy One-Day Education Accelerator (Creator Day)". Buffer Festival. Archived from the original on 19 September 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  22. ↑ "Events - Buffer Festival - Oct 20–23, 2016". Buffer Festival. Retrieved 2017-01-20.
  23. ↑ Fitzgerald, Clare (October 2, 2017). "UK YouTubers Win At Buffer Festival Awards 2017". Ten Eighty magazine. London. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
  24. ↑ "Gala Premiere Screening". Buffer Festival. Archived from the original on 21 September 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2015.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.