Dear interfilm,
you probably don’t remember me but I had a film at your 2015 festival. I wanted to write this email to not only thank you for the festival (very belatedly) but also just to say how much of impact the whole event had on my life.

Before I was invited to your festival I was not in the best stage of life. I was working in an unrewarding retail job without really knowing what I wanted in life at all. My social life was minimal and I was barely leaving the house, instead choosing to play video games and keep to myself. – I was not in a good place at all.

The invite to your festival changed it all. Even though I was at first confused by these tweets and emails being sent to me in German, you persevered in trying to contact me and eventually convinced me this festival invite was not an elaborate scam at all.

The festival turned out to be one of the best weekends of my life. To be able to go from a shut-in to feeling like a proper filmmaker, talking amongst other fantastically creative people was incredible. To have people interested in my work and especially, the opportunity to deliver a talk about it, was perhaps the proudest moment of my life.

The knock on effects of the festival were huge; I ended up going to Sundance with two Americans I met at your festival and having another week of my life I’ll never forget. I met a girl in Utah who somehow lived almost right next to me back in London and who I then ended up dating for the next 18 months.

My whole life was reinvigorated and I’ve kept up that spirit to this day. Your festival changed my life and I could not thank you enough for inviting me to share my silly little film with you.

Thank you