EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
Issue link: https://digital.eyeworld.org/i/115557
32 EW ASCRS PREVIEW March 2013 April 19-23, 2013 ASCRS Film Festival expected to draw submissions on cutting-edge technologies by Ellen Stodola EyeWorld Staff Writer J ust over three decades old, the ASCRS Film Festival is back again at this year's ASCRS•ASOA Symposium & Congress in San Francisco. William Fishkind, M.D., the event's committee chairman; clinical professor, University of Utah and University of Arizona; and director, Fishkind, Bakewell & Maltzman Eye Care and Surgery Center, Tucson, Ariz., believes the event is poised to draw a similar number of participants as in previous years, with an approach and categories that have been successful in the past. He also expects the videos to address new topics this year, mainly some of the emerging cutting-edge technologies. "The Film Festival is always interesting, always educational, and often surprising," Dr. Fishkind said. He said in the last few years, the event has looked back at people and videos that have previously made it a success. "This year we're going to do more of an entertaining opening and pick up where we've left off in the past with a number of incredible video submissions," he said. Dr. Fishkind said that between 160 and 180 submissions are expected from all over the world for this year's Film Festival, which he said is a similar number to previous years. "This year, I think we're going to see some more submissions on cutting-edge technology for femtosecond cataract surgery, femtosecond corneal surgery, corneal inlays, and probably a number of submissions on dealing with complicated cataracts and complicated pseudophakic problems," he said. The videos submitted are always educational and interesting, he said. "I expect there will be, as always, a group of videos that are so superb that you can't not watch them because you're going to learn something and enjoy the learning process." The categories this year will be the same as in past years, including Cataract Complications, Cataract/Implant Surgery, Glaucoma Surgery, In-house Productions, Instruments and Devices/ IOLs, New Producer, New Techniques, Quality Teaching, Refractive/Cornea Surgery, and Special Interest. Dr. Fishkind highlighted the importance of the New Producer category, which has been part of the Film Festival for the past four years and targets submissions from those who have never before submitted videos or who have submitted videos and not won. "The purpose of the New Producer category is to make equal the playing field so new producers get a chance to be recognized for their early efforts; I always encourage new producers to submit in that category," Dr. Fishkind said. Another aspect of the Film Festival that is back this year is the "People's Choice," which was introduced last year and allows attendees to deter- mine some of the most popular videos. Voters are allowed to choose their top video, and voting is linked to registrants' badge numbers to ensure one vote per person. "That was truly an experiment to see what would happen, and it turned out to be fascinating," Dr. Fishkind said. One thing that will be different about this year's Film Festival is the judging—more specifically, the panel that will be doing the judging. "We have a new judging panel, or at least some of our panel is new, and the judges are all excited to see the submissions and to review the various videos," Dr. Fishkind said. He explained that there is a constant moving around of the judges, and each one can only judge for a maximum of three years. "There's constant change in the judges because it keeps it fresh," Dr. Fishkind said. "It keeps the Film Festival fresh, it keeps the judging fresh, and I think it's fairer for all the participants." The panel includes an international guest judge, who is different every year, and a chief judge. This year's international guest judge is Ronald Yeoh, M.D., Singapore, and the chief judge is Thomas John, M.D., Chicago. Other judges for the 2013 Film Festival are Mark Blecher, M.D., Philadelphia, Nicole Fram, M.D., Los Angeles, David Hardten, M.D., Minneapolis, Ken Rosenthal, M.D., Great Neck, N.Y., Jonathan Rubenstein, M.D., Chicago, and Spencer Thornton, M.D., Nashville, Tenn. Judges choose films by taking into account several factors, including applicability and educational value, originality, scientific content and validity, clarity, cinematic quality, and artistic effects. Dr. Fishkind said attending and submitting to the Film Festival is a great experience for all, whether you win or just interact and watch colleagues' videos. "The Film Festival is by all standards the best in the world," Dr. Fishkind said. It offers the opportunity for people to submit a video about a topic they think might be interesting to others. In addition, it offers those with a creative interest in video a chance to share a topic in a unique way. "Even if it doesn't win, it's seen by a huge number of people," Dr. Fishkind said. "And almost every continued on page 34