Maneuvering Film Festivals

With a film festival in just about every city, and 3,000 film festivals around the world, filmmakers might feel lost by the overwhelming task of promoting their film. They need to do research ahead of time so they can take advantage of what many festivals have to offer in order to help advance their film careers and get their films noticed. In all the years we’ve been attending film festivals, here and around the world, we have picked up a lot of dos and don’ts when it comes to how filmmakers should prepare for their festival experience.

First, it is important for filmmakers to determine what they hope to achieve at a film festival:

Winning awards to help their film get noticed

Networking with other filmmakers

Meeting distributors, agents, managers, producers

Meeting potential actors for future films

Furthering their education with seminars on topics like film distribution, screenwriting, finding agents and mangers, pitching ideas, etc.

One important thing filmmakers need to remember is to make sure they allocate a certain amount of money for film festival expenses in their production budget for lodging, food, advertising and, most importantly, film entry fees. Fees vary from festival to festival, but to get the film out there and be seen, entry fees will need to be paid. Festivals charge anywhere from $25 to $75 per film submitted.

When researching film festivals, start by targeting the Academy Award qualifying film festivals. Visit Oscars.org for a list and the requirements for those film festivals. In addition, submit to festivals with a film industry presence. The festivals you submit to don’t always have to be the major festivals. Enter festivals that draw industry pros as judges and jurors. This can play a big part in your career. For example, at the Big Bear Lake International Film Festival’s Screenwriting Competition, one of the jurors (who happened to be a lit agent at a major talent agency) handed the winning screenplay to Paul Haggis who then gave it to Clint Eastwood. Because of this she was then hired to write Letters From Iwo Jima (2006). Now, Iris Yamashita is an Academy Award nominated writer. So, it’s important to check to see who the jurors, panelists, programmers and staff are involved with each film festival. By doing this will help determine who might be seeing your film or reading your script that might be helpful to you in the future. It’s a way of getting noticed by film industry professionals.

Submitting to a film festival doesn’t necessary mean your film will be screened. A festival like Sundance Film Festival receives over 4,000 short films and 3,200 feature films. With that many films submitted, they end up screening around seventy shorts and 125 feature films. Most festivals have a team of “screeners” who watch every film. They then give each film a rating (usually with 1 = poor and 5 = excellent). This rating system helps the programming director make the final selection of films to be programmed for the festival.

Once accepted into the festival, it’s a good idea to send out a mass e-mail or press release to friends, film colleagues, agents and distributors alerting them to the film’s acceptance into the festival and the screening date and time. It’s also a good idea to send a press release and contact the local television, cable and radio stations in the area where the film will be screened. Some smaller TV stations will set aside time for festival filmmakers to be interviewed and help promote the film and the film festivals.

Making the festival circuit work for you requires networking, developing relationships and bringing the tools to help promote the film. It’s important to strategize and have a plan set for film festivals.

ESE Film Workshops Online offers a four-week course entitled “Maneuvering Film Festivals.” This intense online course will provide the strategy needed to get the most out of film festivals, marketing yourself and having the tools and resources necessary to have a productive and beneficial festival experience. Though we’ve touched on some of these items above, the course will delve deeper and help filmmakers develop their strategy, preparing them for their festival experience.