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Every year in early August, an independent film called Cat Video Fest will enter theaters across the United States to meet cat lovers. This year marks the ninth year of this special "Carnival". Compared with previous years, the latest screening scale is larger. On August 3 and August 4, a total of $281,000 worth of tickets were sold on 106 screens across the United States, setting a nine-year high. If calculated by the average number of attendees per show, it even exceeds the theater movies such as the new film "Harold and the Purple Crayon" released at the same time.

Poster of "Cat Video Carnival" (2024)

In fact, Will Braden is responsible for all the work of directing, editing, composing music and producing the annual "Cat Video Carnival". He graduated from Seattle Film Academy in 2006. In order to complete his graduation project, he made a short film called "Henri, le Chat Noir", which tells the story of a "depressed French existentialist cat". It became popular unexpectedly after being released online. In 2012, the Walker Art Center in Minnesota held the "Internet Cat Video Carnival" event, and Will Braden won the Golden Cat Award with "Henri, le Chat Noir".

Henry the Black Cat by Will Blyden

Since 2015, Braden has taken over the event himself, collecting cat video submissions from all over the world, editing them into a compilation film, and showing it on the big screen in theaters around the world. He also uses the income to raise funds for animal shelters and cat welfare organizations.

In an interview with Variety recently, Braden said that he spends about one-third of his time each year independently operating the pre-events of "Cat Video Carnival", including collecting video clips and obtaining permission from content creators. Then, another one-third of the time is spent on editing and producing these collected videos. The last one-third of the time is spent coordinating screening matters with film distributors and doing media publicity work. "So, this is my full-time job. My business card says: I am a full-time cat video watcher."

Will Braden is in charge of all the work including directing, editing, composing and producing of Cat Video Carnival.

Braden also revealed that he watches about 15,000 cat videos every year and selects about 200 of them to make the final film. Take this year's 73-minute work as an example. It is completely 73 minutes of uninterrupted cat videos. There is no continuity between the clips, and even the picture format is not uniform - some are vertical screens, some are horizontal screens; some are in high-definition format, and some are at the level of home videotapes. Moreover, the cats are in different situations. Some are grumpy, some are docile and clingy, some are helpful, some can play the piano, and some like to annoy dogs...

"In more than an hour, the audience can see videos from different countries and even exclusive cat videos that cannot be seen anywhere else." Braden emphasized that only when the work is attractive enough, plus the fun of watching it with a large group of like-minded people, can we attract people to go to the cinema and willingly pay for tickets.

This year's "Cat Video Carnival" box office hit a nine-year high

This year's box office revenue of "Cat Video Carnival" has doubled compared to last year. Due to the film's unexpected success, more than 100 theaters, including the IFC Center Cinema in Manhattan, New York, have decided to extend the screening period. According to Braden, this may also be related to the remarks made by Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, who condemned the United States for being "ruled by a group of childless cat-loving women."

"That comment speaks to an outdated way of thinking that can be used against anyone who likes anything, not just women who like cats," Bryden said. "As a result, he very foolishly activated the Cat Girl Army. They are a huge group and they are not afraid to fight back against cat haters. I would be lying if I said Vance's comments didn't help our box office this year."