Submitting your film to film festivals? Already accepted and looking to improve your fest experience? Here’s some advice from Film Festival Directors!
In General
- Be findable! We frequently hear about films that sound interesting and we would love to invite them to the Festival, but are unable to track down the filmmaker. Make sure you have a website with a “Contact Us” option and make sure you monitor the email account. WordPress and other services are free, so there is no excuse to not have a website for your film. At the very least, build a Facebook page for your film and include a means to contact you. Ensure that if someone googles the name of your film, they get a result that allows them to contact you.
Your Film Submission
- Your film is too long. Of the films reviewed for the past few years’ Festivals, we thought that two films could have been longer and 25% were exactly the right length. The rest would have benefited from being cut by about 1/3.
- Don’t bother sending us a bunch of press info and such for your film. Really, we rarely read this and the programmers do not see it. The only way to impress Festival directors and juries is by giving us a film we think our audiences will enjoy, that we can market effectively and that will sell tickets.
- Some film Festivals waive fees or provide discounts, most don’t. It doesn’t hurt to ask, but don’t expect much. Sending us a three page letter begging for a fee waiver won’t help your case any. That said, if you or your film has something particular marketable, you have a better chance of getting a discount — for example, if the film team is from somewhere we don’t see often (Tanzania or Iraq or Kosovo), your film is local and will sell a ton of tickets, has a particularly interesting director, has won a bunch of awards, or is about a topic currently in the news. Keep in mind, though, that submission fees are usually the primary source of income for the Festival, and go towards things like theater rental, advertising, printing and other expenses.
- Keep the Festival juries in mind. Festival juries are watching your films on laptops or normal living room TVs at normal TV watching volume. Make sure your sound will be clear under those conditions and subtitles are readable in order to put your film in its best light
- Be local. Festivals want to ensure that they have an audience, and the easiest way to do that is to accept films from local filmmakers who presumably will attend and bring their friends and family. If your film was made near the Festival’s location or anyone on your team lives near the Festival, make sure that is mentioned in your cover letter and use a submission mailing address near the Festival. Given the choice between two films with more-or-less the same rating from the judges, we will likely select the local one.
- Submit a Completed Film. We get a surprising number of films with incomplete sound along with a note from the filmmaker to trust that the sound edit will be completed in time for the festival. Festivals are not likely to accept an in-progress film in hopes that an unseen final edit will be OK for screening.
- Production values and acting are very important if your film is a drama. They are less important if your film is truly funny. We’ll forgive a lot for funny.
- If your film is not accepted, it doesn’t mean your film sucks. Festivals have limited programming hours and are not able to accept all of the films submitted, much as we may like to. Accepted films need to work together to meet the overall theme of the festival and have to fit in the time we’ve got. It’s disappointing to be rejected and we truly hate doing it, but that’s the nature of the life of an artist and you can’t let it break your heart. And, no matter how disappointed you are, it’s not a good idea to send a nasty note to the Festival programmers, else you will guarantee that they will not contact you if they are able to open another time slot, will never consider one of your films again and won’t recommend you to other festivals that might be more appropriate for your film.Remember, Film Festival organizers talk to each other!
If Your Film is Accepted
- Your film short synopsis is your primary marketing tool. Most Festival programs will allow roughly 750 characters or so for a description of your film, and this is what audiences will use to decide if they want to see it. Use this to market your film! Run it by everyone you know until it is worded clearly and sounds fascinating. Don’t rely on the Festival Director to sell your film for you and don’t give away the whole plot.
- Your director bio is another good marketing tool. Festival programs that include biographies of the Director usually allow about 500 characters. Pick the two or three absolutely most fascinating things about yourself and skip telling where you were born or where you went to school unless it is very much different from the likely Festival attendees.
- Make your own publicity. Check out some of the many free Press Release sites (pr.com and openpr.com are good ones) and post a Press Release about your film’s acceptance to the Festival once you know your screening date/time/location. Include your screening info and links to your website and your entry on Festival’s website. Basic format is one paragraph announcing your film’s acceptance and screening info, one paragraph with the film synopsis, one paragraph with the filmmaker’s bio and mention of any local cast members, and one paragraph about the festival itself (you can copy this from the festival’s website). Post the release locally and to the festival’s city. If you want another set of eyes or some advice, feel free to send along to the Festival. Once published, send a link to the Festival or tag them on Social Media so they can share.
- Notify Everyone. If you live in a small town, notify your local newspaper. If you are a student or recent alum, notify your school. Notify any of your local professional or cultural associations. Post on your Facebook page and website, Twitter and Instagram and include tags to the Festival. If you have any contacts in media or film-related blogs, invite them to the screening and ask the Festival for press passes.
- The Festival likely won’t be able to pay for your transportation or hotel. Unless you are a celebrity or have been accepted to a very well-funded Festival, it’s unlikely the Festival is going to provide that, and if they do, they’ll tell you. However, you could try contacting your local Film School, Travel & Tourism Office, Chamber of Commerce, Artist League, professional or cultural association or any local businesses that support film and ask if they will provide a grant to cover your travel expenses. If you are from outside the US, try your country’s US-based embassy or a local university with a studies department about your country or an arts course about your country — they may be willing to put you up in guest housing in exchange for you talking to a class. If the Festival is a US 501(3)c non-profit, ask if they will accept the grant for you thereby making it tax deductible for the grantor. The Festival may have other suggestions to help you find funding for your travel as well and may be able to get you in touch with local arts groups.
- Communicate with the Festival! Did your screening block sell out, but you still have a ton of people who want to come? Let them know – they may be able to arrange another screening for you! Have questions about what happens when? Ask! Need to bring your 90 year old gramma who cannot climb stairs? Let them know as soon as possible so they can be sure they can accommodate her.
- Meet the Festival deadlines. If the Festival asks for information by a certain date, get them that information or you may miss their marketing or print deadlines and lose out.
- Absolutely, 100%, be sure to TEST YOUR FILM ALL THE WAY THROUGH before sending over a screening copy. The Festival doesn’t know your film as well as you do and may not realize that there’s something wrong. Be sure to test all the way through! We’ve had films that play great for the first 45 minutes and the last 20 minutes but the sound cut out in the middle that we didn’t spot in our own tests.
- Have someone attend the Awards ceremony. If your Festival includes a live awards presentation, try your absolute best to have a representative attend. Even if you do not live anywhere near the Festival, ask around and see if you have friends or family members nearby who will attend on your behalf and make sure the Festival knows if you will have someone there. Festivals want photos of happy winners holding awards, and if they must choose between two equally scored films, the Festival is far more likely to award the film that will have someone there to collect the award.
- If you are local and bringing a whole bunch of friends and family to see your screening, remind them of festival etiquette …. if your film is played as part of a block of films, it is incredibly disruptive for your friends to turn up just before your own film screens (ruining the film before yours) or book it on out of the theater once it ends (ruining the film after yours). Your friends are expected to arrive at the beginning of the screening and stay through the entire session, even if your film plays sometime in the middle. If you know you are bringing a bunch of people who only will stay for your own film, be sure to let the Festival know so they can schedule you to show at a time that won’t disrupt the entire theater. Also, don’t schedule your after-party until after the whole block is done!
- Don’t ask for a ton of free passes. Small Festivals get their funding from ticket sales and cannot afford to give you free passes for your whole family — most can only provide two free passes. However, if you are bringing a bunch of paying attendees with you, the Festival may be happy to give you a few more free ones or a discount.
- Tweet, Instagram and Facebook during the Festival! Be sure to tag the Festival in these. Again, re-postings will get exposure for your film.
- Post Photos! Lots of Photos!
- If you cannot attend the Awards but do win, take a photo of yourself holding the award and email it to the Festival or post on social media with a tag to the Festival. Photos of happy winners will get re-posted and everyone gets more exposure.
- If you do attend the Festival, get some good photos that show the Festival’s logo and post them to social media tagged to the Festival. The Festival may share them or use these in their press releases or website and such and you’ll get more exposure for your film.
- If you win a prize like software or equipment or something, get photos of you holding your prize and post that to social media, tagged to the Festival and the Festival Sponsor. The Festival Sponsors love these and will likely repost them, giving you a whole bunch more exposure.
- Network, network, network! Talk to the other filmmakers, talk to the sponsors, talk to the panelists, talk to the audience members. Hang out after your screening and chat with people as they come out of the theater. Meet up with some of the other filmmakers for cocktails. You never know who is a distributor or Netflix representative, who is looking for talent, and who may want to work with you.
- Be prepared for interviews. Festivals offer a great chance for you to get interviewed; no matter how shy you are, be sure to make the most of it! Be ready to talk about what inspired you to make your film, have a few good interesting anecdotes in mind about the process of making your film (we got arrested! The cast caught malaria! We shot the whole thing on a $10 budget and built our sets with the help of the local High School shop class! ) and be ready to talk about your next project. Had a particularly great experience with a certain piece of equipment or software or product? Mention that! These interviews are great ways to market yourself and your work, and you want to appear passionate, knowledgeable and cool to work with. Stay positive and never ever badmouth your cast or crew for any reason or whine about hardships. Be the person you’d want to work with, and you’ll be fine.
- Keep in touch with the Festival after it is over. If your film goes on to win awards or distribution, or there is a good interview or article about you, email your Festival and let them know. There’s a good chance they will post it on their website/Facebook page and give you some more exposure. They also will be interested in seeing your future work and may be able to help you network.
