LLOYD KOMESAR, FOUNDER and producer of the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, will pare back his involvement in the annual event following this August’s fest. The MNFF board is now recruiting a first-ever executive director.
Photo by Mike Conley

MIDDLEBURY — A decade after launching the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival in partnership with renowned movie director Jay Craven, Lloyd Komesar has announced plans to step back from his role as hands-on producer and turn over the reins of the growing, late-summer event to a new executive director.

“I think it’s a propitious time to step aside and let someone else take us into the next decade,” Komesar, a retired Disney executive, said in an interview. “I’m taking great satisfaction knowing what we’ve built over the past 10 years.”

Komesar stressed he’ll remain associated with MNFF, albeit in a less active capacity. He’ll stay on the festival board, and he and his wife Maureen will continue to divide their time between homes in Leicester and California.

“I will go nowhere,” he promised. “I will remain active in some key areas I have thrived in, such as the fundraising, community relations and sponsor relations. These are key things that require a presence in the community, and I will still be there.”

But as he nears age 72, Komesar acknowledged that managing MNFF details from year to year has become increasingly arduous. While to most observers Komesar’s enthusiasm and energy seem boundless, he noted that tending to festival business — before, during and after the five-day event — “gets to be a heavy lift.”

“The board and I have been engaged in a legitimate, ongoing, in-depth conversation about succession for some time,” he said. “The time is right… for some new leadership.”

So Komesar will make MNFF10 — slated for Aug. 21-25 — his final curtain call. A new executive director will officially take charge in September, whereupon Komesar will guide the new hire through their diverse set of responsibilities. 

“Our hope is the executive director will engage in all the things we’ve built here; I think that will be key in who gets hired,” he said.

A widely posted ad for the new $60K-$70K per-year position calls for a person who has, among other things, “extensive experience managing or holding a leadership position with a non-profit cultural organization,” with great communication skills and the ability to juggle multiple assignments at once.

It’s a year-round position with plenty to do. Yes, the festival itself is confined to five days, but there’s a huge amount of prep work and follow-up, according to Komesar. He noted the director will play a role in the film screening process, which begins in January and extends through May.

“Jay makes the final decisions, but the screening committee with the director should shape that process and deliver to him the finalists, from which our program is put together,” Komesar said.

The new top administrator will also be responsible for the popular “MNFF Selects” monthly film screening series hosted each year by Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater (THT). There’s also the Sunset Series in early August at Swift House Inn, and the “Vermont Tour,” through which the festival’s top films are screened at venues throughout the state during the fall.

In addition to fest-related duties, Komesar imagines the new director participating in educational programming that will be able to flourish in the THT’s new building addition at 68 South Pleasant St. For example, he hopes THT can resurrect its “Seeing in the Dark” partnership with THT, through which area high school students are shown some short films, which are then discussed with the idea of trying to expand their film vocabulary. “Seeing in the Dark” was a COVID casualty.

“If I add all these things up, it’s a full-time job,” Komesar said. “It doesn’t mean every week is a 50-hour week, but we envision this as a full-time job with the festival being the focal point, requiring an on-the-ground presence. The rest of the year, there’s still work to do.”

SETTING THE BAR 

Komesar will be a tough act to follow, in many ways.

During a lengthy career at Disney, he amassed hundreds of contacts in the film industry, which have paid dividends in MNFF’s ability to attract high-profile guests like Karen Allen, Maggie Gyllenhaal, David Wasco, Ken Loach, Beth Levison and Alexander Payne. 

“Imagine if we get an executive director who also has contacts?” Komesar said.

He’s also been a bargain. Komesar has collected zero salary throughout his MNFF tenure.

“I’ve looked at this as a true labor of love,” he said, adding, “when a festival is founded, big salaries can doom an organization. I had just finished a long career at Disney, I was looking for the next chapter and I was in a position where I didn’t really need to draw a salary. I just envisioned this as, ‘Let’s see if we can build something.’”

And build he did.

During its early years, MNFF under Komesar and Craven — who will remain as artistic director — drew a fairly pedestrian 250 film submissions.

“It was a modest number and we had not really ‘planted a flag’ amongst the filmmaking community,” Komesar recalled.

Fast forward to MNFF10, and one can see the exponential growth. As of late last week — and with the May 29 submission deadline still a few weeks off — organizers had received 530 films for this year’s festival.

“Last year we got a total of 508 films, and that seemed totally impossible,” he said.

Film submissions are perhaps the most important barometer of a film festival’s health.

“The MNFF is no longer an ‘unknown,’” Komesar said. “It’s now a significant choice for first- and second-time filmmakers from around the world.”

The MNFF now ranks as one of the largest film festivals in New England, based on filmmaker attendance and number of films screened, according to Komesar. It’s also among the top 100 best-reviewed film festivals by Film Freeway, an online service that filmmakers use to submit their films to hundreds of film festivals globally.

EMBRACED BY COMMUNITY

Komesar also touted the Middlebury community’s buy-in. Komesar continues to marvel at how local film buffs, merchants, lodgers and sponsors like IPJ Real Estate have embraced MNFF through the years.

“Being in Middlebury — the beating heart of the Champlain Valley — is a pleasurable experience,” he added of the late-August ambiance. “So many people in our community have bought into the ‘why?’ of this, and I think there’s a massive joy factor in that.”

Another sign that MNFF has “made it,” according to Komesar: The number of filmmakers who attend the festival. Around 15 filmmakers attended the first festival. Eighty-four attended last year’s.

“It was so powerful. We must acknowledge that being with all of us in Middlebury in late August is something that filmmakers enjoy beyond measure. They want to be here,” he said. 

One big community member who has appreciated Komesar’s mighty efforts to bring MNFF to its current level is Middlebury College. President Laurie Patton said Middlebury has been incredibly fortunate to have Komesar as founder of the Middlebury New Filmmaker Festival.

“His unwavering energy, visionary leadership, and boundless enthusiasm for the festival have greatly enriched our town and college,” Patton said. “Middlebury College has been privileged to collaborate with Lloyd and his team, and we look forward to many more years of partnership with the festival. We extend our best wishes to Lloyd and express our heartfelt gratitude for his remarkable 10 years of achievements.”

Knowing MNFF likely won’t hit the lottery again and land a financially independent, supremely credentialed person from the film industry to lead the organization, the plan is to have a salaried director, for the first time.

“It’s therefore incumbent on us to raise money, which we’re in the process of doing right now,” Komesar said.

He said the fund drive will reflect a “multi-year commitment” to the new position. Festival leaders have approached past supporters for contributions, and their response has been admirable, according to Komesar.

Though he chose not to share the fundraising goal, he voiced confidence it’ll be reached by the end of this year.

What will Komesar do unfettered by as many film fest responsibilities?

“I anticipate traveling more. I have a list of places I’m keen to visit, as does Maureen,” he said.

He also relishes the prospect of being able to attend MNFF screenings simply as a movie fan, rather than as an organizer and evaluator of the films.

“I look forward to meeting and greeting people in a slightly different way than I have, to not be carrying around a notepad all the time, not doing all the in-the-moment judgment calls or putting out fires,” Komesar said. “For me to be able to enjoy what we’ve created without being the point person all the time, I look forward to that.”

Liz Robinson, chair of the MNFF board, paid tribute to Komesar’s many contributions.

“Lloyd’s dedication, creativity and unfaltering energy have resulted in one of Addison County’s most exciting and successful annual events for our community, and beyond,” she said. “We will be forever grateful to him, and we are glad he is not going far.”

Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].