Right now there are 2600 or so festivals accepting submissions via FilmFreeway. How do you choose which festival is right for your film? Everyone says you must do your research before submitting, but what exactly should you be looking for?
Hooray! You finished your film and it’s fantastic! Time to send it off to film festivals and get it seen!
In general, you want to apply to a collection of festivals including large and small, local and far away, genre and non-genre. Everyone wants to apply to SXSW, Sundance, Toronto and the other big boys, but be realistic — unless your film is high budget and includes celebrities, your chances of acceptance is virtually zero and you likely are wasting your submission fees. Small and medium festivals should not be ignored — they can give you an audience, recognition, fantastic networking and the chance to get your name out there for future projects.
Here’s what you should check out about each Festival:
- Make sure the festival screens every selected film. If the description on FilmFreeway doesn’t specifically say that, go to their website and look for schedules from previous years. If you cannot find anything, beware. Another hint that something isn’t right is if the Festival only lasts for one day yet gives out hundreds of awards. There’s no way they could screen all those films.
- Make sure the festival screens in a real theater. Don’t just accept it if the FilmFreeway entry says “Film Festival with Live Screenings” – some say that but only screen a tiny handful of films, or screens at a local bar. Again, go to their website and Facebook, maybe find their ticket purchasing site or event listing and see where they screen and then google it and see how many seats. A real movie theater should have at least 70 seats.
- Count the number of awards they give out — if the number is more than 20 or so a year, it is an awards mill and is not worth your time or money, particularly if they charge for each category (you should not have to pay to submit your film for “Best Actor”). Sure, it’s cool to get an award, but legit distributors know which fests are awards mills and if they see laurels from those, they’ll assume your film is junk.
- Read the reviews and Facebook comments. See what their social media presence is and how many followers they have on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If all you can find is generic info about the festival, few followers and limited commenting, they might not be worth it. If you see an insanely high number of stellar reviews for a festival you’ve never heard of, particularly if they all say more-or-less the same thing and don’t sound like the person actually went to the festival, they are likely buying reviews and should be avoided.
- See what kind of promotion they provide filmmakers — check their website, social media and youtube. Do they promote just the festival, or can you find promotion of specific films and interviews of filmmakers?
- How do they showcase their films? What information do they post about each film on their website? If they only list a film title and director name, you likely won’t get much out of the festival. Look for festivals that give each film its own page including synopsis, trailer, director/producer. Even better if they include the film’s social media links. This all helps promote your film and proves that the festival is committed to supporting their filmmakers.
- What do their events look like? Look on their social media for event photos. Do you only see tight images in front of a step & repeat banner with the same group of people, or do you see a variety of photos of various events, lots of different people, different venues?
- Whose films do they screen? Look on their website to see previous films screened. If you keep seeing the same director names over and over, likely this is a festival that screens mostly their friends’ films and isn’t much interested in quality.
- Who are their sponsors? Look for their website Sponsors page. Keep in mind that the majority of these sponsors are providing product or promotion. You want to see a good assortment of local and national sponsors. If the festival is a non-profit, you should see some public groups or grantors there too.
- How do they judge submissions? Look on their website to see if they post a FAQ or any information about how they judge submissions. Not all legit festivals have this, but it is a very good sign if they do. You want to avoid festivals that clearly have just one or two judges since it is unlikely they watch all submissions in their entirety. Another sign of a scam fest is one that has the announcement date less than two weeks after submissions close — it takes time to view all the submissions and make a final decision.
- What are their submission deadlines, final notice date and fest date? Look at their dates on their FilmFreeway entry. A legitimate film festival needs time to carefully view/judge submissions, notify acceptances, gather films/media, produce a program, schedule everything and promote. Generally, this takes at least six weeks to three months to do properly. If the time between submission deadline, notification and festival date is less than that, they likely aren’t going to be doing much promotion and preparation.
- What do they charge for? You should never have to pay extra to submit your film for multiple categories or awards (like “Best Actor” or “Best Director”). You should never have to pay for a certificate, award or statue. You should not have to pay to attend your own screening or the Awards Ceremony (though some Festivals will charge if you want their meal or drinks).
- What is included in the festival other than screenings? You want to look at their schedules and check out their educational/panel offerings, Q&A sessions, parties and events. These bring in an audience and sponsors and definitely enhance the festival experience.
OK, so you should now have a good list of legit festivals. Next …
- Where is the festival? It’s a good idea to apply to any legit festival you can easily travel to — the festival experience is amazing and you definitely want to try to attend your screenings. This is not to say your shouldn’t apply to festivals that are far away — festivals love to show films from as many countries as possible. You want to apply to a good mix of mostly near and some far.
- What genres does the festival screen? Take a look at previous selections and see if your film fits. Don’t submit your horror short to a festival that shows mostly documentaries! If your film has no celebrities and the festival mostly screens high budget celebrity films, your acceptance chances are very low and you’ll waste your money.
- What other rules does the festival have for submissions? Do they only accept films made after a certain date? Do they only accept films made by students? What are their length requirements? If you don’t meet their requirements, you will waste your money.
Now that you have your final list of festivals …
Make sure your submission has the best possible chance!
Your festival screener should be perfect — ending credits should be no more than 50 seconds, sound should be top notch, subtitles should be clearly readable. Do not submit incomplete work – festivals judge by what’s on the screen right now and not what may or may not be added at some point.
Be sure your FilmFreeway entry is complete — fill in every single field. Festivals use this information when making decisions and blanks could hurt you.
And finally, apply early — Early bird submission fees are significantly lower and your film will be screened by judges at their freshest.
Looking for more advice?
Check out this excellent series from the Wyoming Film Festival –> Film Festival Deep Dive in 7 Parts
