Kevin Smith to launch his own New Jersey-based SModcastle Film Festival in August (exclusive)

From Sundance to SModcastle.

Twenty-eight years after his shoestring-budgeted breakout Clerks became the belle of the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, Kevin Smith is launching his own movie fest in his native New Jersey.

Making the announcement exclusively to Yahoo, Smith unveiled the inaugural SModcastle Film Festival (named after the 51-year-old filmmaker’s long-running podcast network and newly built studio), taking place Aug. 17-21 in Leonardo, N.J. The festival’s central venue, the SModcastle theater, is located just steps away from the still-functioning Quick Stop Groceries convenience store immortalized in Clerks.

“We’ve got a little podcast theater in New Jersey called SModcastle, and today we’re announcing our first ever, inaugural SModcastle Film Festival,” Smith told us. “That’s how I got my start, at the Sundance Film Festival. Obviously we don’t have the clout of that festival, this being our first year, but we have this theater and it just felt silly not to do something [like this].”

The first-edition SModcastle Film Festival will begin accepting submissions today via Film Freeway. Categories include features, shorts, documentaries and animation.

Smith will serve as festival host while his SModcastle partner, Ernie O’Donnell, whom the writer-director credits with the initial idea, will be the festival director.

“There’s this whole culture of folks that like live and die by showing their work at festivals,” says Smith, who has previously been involved with the Garden State Film Festival in nearby Asbury Park. “This is a way to curate our own event and lend it legitimacy by the fact that I did come from a film festival background as well. It’s also fun to get in touch with new work, see new emerging work and stuff like that. So it felt like an absolute no-brainer.”

Sundance, the festival that launched Smith’s career, was founded by another Hollywood veteran who was intent on promoting emerging filmmakers and independent cinema. So is Smith trying to be the next Robert Redford?

“If my mother heard you say that she’d be like, ‘Oh, tiger, Robert Redford was my hall pass with your dad,’” cracked Smith.

Smith says he has been inspired by Redford’s efforts, particularly after seeing him speak during his annual address to filmmakers when the director was in Park City, Utah, with his 2016 horror comedy Yoga Hosers.

“His story was so moving because he has to go on his entire journey before I ever get to go on mine,” Smith explains. “You know what I’m saying? He has to become a famous movie star who then uses his credibility to shine a light on Sundance and independent film in general, before I’ll ever get a chance to let my light shine. And I was profoundly moved by the fact that this guy, who my mother always loved in the movies, and I’ve loved in movies as well, plays such an important part in my story. It’s something I never thought about. I was moved to tears. It was pretty powerful.

“So to be that for somebody else, man, to be able to throw a lifeline. … It’s not like our film festival will be a direct conduit into the studio system, but one more place to show your work. That means something to a storyteller. We don’t make these things in a vacuum hoping nobody sees them. We hope to be in a dark room with others and hearing their reaction to our work. So being able to provide one more venue for that feels pretty good.”

It’s no wonder that Smith says one of his main goals at SModcastle will be speaking to the filmmakers involved.

Genre-wise, the SModcastle Film Festival will likely feature a lighter slate than other more serious-minded fests, says the typically self-effacing Smith, whose View Askewniverse credits also include Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), Clerks II (2006), Jay and Silent Bob’s Reboot (2019) and the upcoming Clerks III.

“I gotta imagine the type of folks who are interested in my nonsense enough to be like, ‘Hey, he’s having a film festival,’ probably lean toward the sillier side more so than the serious side. So I imagine by default, we’ll probably get a lot more comedy than we will get drama. Like, when you think Kevin Smith, you’re not like, ‘Well, there's a filmmaker.’ You go, ‘What a clown.’ And so I assume most people will be like, ‘Well, that clown is having a film festival. Let’s show our clown films there.’ But the door is open for whatever, or anything.

“I’m certainly not like, ‘We’ll be the top choice.’ You know, ‘It’ll be Cannes, and then us.’ Absolutely not. We're a first-year festival. But I think having been around film for 30 years gives us a little bit of an edge where people might treat it a bit more seriously.”

Check Film Freeway for submission instructions to the 1st SModcastle Film Festival, taking place Aug. 17-21, 2022.