Hi, John Hess from Filmmaker IQ.com - Let’s say you just finished your short - it’s
brilliant, but now what?
Today I’m going to explain some of the tips and tricks that I wish I knew when preparing
to enter my short films into festival.
In the interest of full disclosure, my experience thus far in my career with festivals has been
with short films so I’m focusing only on shorts in this video.
I’ve had two 20 minute long shorts play at seven festivals.
I made these before I began creating Filmmaker IQ courses so they’re not my most recent
nor my most educated work.
Although it’s been a few years, I believe the advice I’m going to give in this course
is still relevant especially for the first time submitter.
Furthermore what I’m going to say is based on generalities - your film may be that one
in a hundred thousand short films that blows everyone away and totally negates any advice
I may have.
If that’s the case, congratulations!
But what’s more likely is you’ve made what you think is a “very good” film and
what I’m about to cover is designed to try to save you money while at the same time maximizing
your festival experience.
I’m going to begin by talking about the elements of the short itself.
The first question everyone asks about is the length.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short as less than 40 minutes whereas
Sundance sets it at 50 minutes.
If you poll an online forum you will get people chiming in at all sorts of hard fast rules
for time ranges from no more than 5 minutes to 5-7 minutes… that’s all nonsense.
The fact is there is no hard fast rule for precisely how long a short can be or needs
to be.
A short just needs to tell a story - however long that takes.
There are 7 minute shorts that feel longer than 20 minute shorts and there are 20 minute
shorts that feel like a feature length.
The primary determinant for how long a short should be is the story.
Now with that said, you will probably not find much luck trying to get a 40 minute short
into film festivals.
Festivals generally schedule short films into blocks of 80-90 minutes each.
In the festivals I was in, the blocks would contain a mix of very short shorts and longer
form shorts - so a short block might have three 2 minute shorts, three 10 minute shorts
and two 20 minute shorts.
So if you walk into a festival with a 10 minute short, programmers will have an easier time
scheduling that than a 20 or 30 minute short.
If you walk in with a 40 minute short - well that leaves a lot less time for other films
in that block.
If your film is straddling that line between short and feature length - honestly your best
bet is to rework the script and tell a smaller story to get it down or tell a bigger story
and make a legitimate feature.
Next is the content.
No one wants to be censored but you will have a lot harder time getting a short film that
has a lot of violence, nudity and language into festival because of the fact that you
are are sharing your time slot with other short films.
It would be less of a concern if you were submitting a feature.
I would say you can probably get by with what would be considered a PG-13 or light R rating
but really not much more than that.
And here I am primarily talking about mainstream film festivals, there are speciality film
festivals that will have their own standards which we’ll discuss in the next section.
In a perfect world you could enter your film in all festivals and then just see which of
them picks your film.
But every entry comes with a fee and at $50 to $75 a pop for some festivals, that’s
going to add up pretty fast.
Before you start entering film festivals, it’s actually a great idea to attend a few
different film festivals.
This is advice that’s not usually heeded, I mean I never attended festivals myself outside
a screening here and there.
But festivals can be a lot more than just film screenings - they’ll often have social
functions, workshops, parties and meet and greets.
Even if you don’t have a film in the program, a festival can be a great way to network with
other filmmakers.
Even consider volunteering to help at a festival - this is a great way get your foot in the
door and build personal relationships with festival directors and programmers.
Some of you are probably grumbling about how that’s unethical, I’m not saying it’s
flat out favoritism.
They probably won’t screen your film as a favor if it’s crap, but if you made a
great film and it’s a choice between you and an equally good film from a stranger from
the other side of the country, you might just get the edge in the final selection
So that brings me to the first bit advice when picking film festivals - favor local
festivals over far distant ones.
You have a better shot at a small local film festival that’s a 20 minute drive away than
you do at a small local film festival that requires you to hop on a commercial jet.
There are two reasons for this: first is some film festivals have relations with their local
film boards or film promotion agencies.
Because of this and a healthy dose of local pride, they tend to like to showcase local
talent.
Secondly by showcasing local talent, they have a better opportunity to sell tickets
to cast and crew who are going to be able to make the screening and their friends and
family which will help you stack your audience.
In case you’re wondering, most festivals do not share the proceeds of the ticket prices
with the filmmaker - that’s not because they’re greedy as ticket proceeds usually
only make up a small portion of a festival’s revenues.
Most festivals just break even with the remainder of the money coming from sponsorships and
grants.
Another reason why you should aim for local festivals is should you be selected, you should
make every effort to attend the festival in full.
So don’t enter festivals that you have no interest or financial means to travel to.
You may have heard that some festivals will pay filmmakers to fly out… well that doesn’t
happen unless you’re famous and certainly not with short films.
If you don’t attend a festival you got selected for then all you will get out of the whole
experience is the right to put a laurel leaf on your DVD cover and frankly no one really
cares.
The second consideration when picking which film festivals to submit to is the type of
content.
There are lots of specialty film festivals - festivals dedicated specifically to genres
like horror, or forms like shorts or documentary, or special interests like LGBT films or cultural
films like Asian American films.
If your film can fill that niche you have very good chance of getting in.
Lastly we come to prestige.
Film Festivals range from the top highly publicized fests like Sundance, Cannes, Venice, Toronto,
SxSW and AFI all the way down to, well honestly a small black box theater in a shopping mall
with a rented projector.
In regards to the former, I would recommend entering at least one of the big festivals
but don’t spend all your money there.
The odds are stacked heavily against you - Sundance gets 13,000 movie submissions a year, 8,000
of those are shorts.
Unless you have A-list talent, which many of these films will have, your chances are
very slim.
Not non-existent, just slim.
Take a shot, just don’t focus mainly on these super prestigious festivals.
On the flip side, I generally avoid the lowest tier festivals if some of them can really
be called that.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them turned out to be scams trying to collect submission
fees.
As a rule, when I was submitting to festivals, I would avoid any festival that was in its
first year - not that they aren’t well meaning but it may take a few years for a festival
to really get its legs.
That might be unfair but you should do your research into any festival to make sure it
seems like a legitimate event.
Submitting to film festivals is both a pain to the wrist in regards to filling out form
after form and a pain in the wallet as you dish out submission fee after fee.
To help with the former there are now several film festival submission platforms that help
aggregate a list of festivals and allow you to copy relevant entry information from one
festival to another.
When I was in the process of submitting there really was only one platform: Without A Box.
Now owned by Amazon, Without A Box had one really nice feature that I liked: if you submitted
to an IMDB eligible festival, your submission would be automatically added to your IMDB
page.
Since then other platforms have sprung up like FilmFreeway.com.
These services can also help you in determining which film festivals you should consider entering.
To help with the pain that your wallet is going to feel, try to apply to festivals as
early as you can.
Early bird festival entry fees are much lower than late deadline entry fees.
Avoid the late entries unless you have a very strong feeling that the festival and you are
a good match.
Another strategy to deal with submission fees is to reach out to the film festivals and
ask for a fee waiver.
This is usually granted based on a filmmaker’s previous work but sometimes festivals will
grant waivers based on hardship.
Now for the actual submission themselves - every festival will have a different requirement.
When I was submitting, most of my submissions were still in the form of a DVD but I imagine
online screeners have started to take off.
Now there have been some controversy where filmmakers will track the view statistics
on their screeners claiming that some festivals never even looked at the film or only watched
a portion of the film.
On one hand, if you did pay the submission fee, your film should be at least viewed.
But on the other hand viewing platforms could possibly misreport viewing statistics.
And in some cases a screener may not need to watch the entire film to realize that it’s
not a good fit for the festival.
Although I think screeners absolutely should have to at least give every movie a chance,
I don’t automatically assign nefarious motives if they don’t watch a film to completion.
Resist the urge to call out the festival if ultimately you don’t get accepted.
You don’t know the full story and the last thing you want to do is get a bad reputation
for yourself before you get started in the industry.
Fact of the matter is, most films really only make into a handful of festivals.
My best film got into 4 of the 14 festivals I submitted to and two of those I was already
an alumni having a short played the year before.
Rejection is difficult to take but it’s par for the course.
Some festivals will offer feedback - I personally have never entered one where that was an option
but it can be something worth getting.
Enough of this dour talk - what happens when you actually get accepted into a film festival?
Well the first thing to get in order is your screening copy - in your acceptance message
will be instructions for how to deliver the final cut of the film for your screening.
Follow these instructions to the T - this is after all why you submitted in the first
place.
Also make sure everything on your film is locked.
At a screening of mine I discovered that I had submitted a version of the film without
music.
Luckily it was a hometown festival so I was able to replace the screener for the second
screening of my film.
Once you have your screener figured out, take a look at any press materials they suggest
- this will include posters or other movie paper you want to include, I’ll talk more
on this in a bit.
After you’ve got your submissions squared away - you have to decide whether or not you
are going to attend the festival.
Now it should be pretty obvious - if you get accepted to a festival, you absolutely should
attend - that’s kind of a no brainer.
However there are costs involved - there’s travel and accomodations unless of course
you’re in your local hometown festival.
But if you’re traveling to a festival with a short film you probably won’t have your
travel arrangements comped; regardless be sure to inquire as far as group rates on hotels.
Generally it’s a good idea to stay at the official hotel of the festival as the hotel
is likely where many of the events will also be held.
The less traveling about the better.
As for your stay - make sure you are at the festival for the key events.
If you are going to a festival just to attend your screening - you are wasting a valuable
opportunity to network, learn, and yes even party.
So when it comes time to booking your trip, plan it so you can make the opening night,
panel sessions, networking events and closing ceremonies.
Trust me, it’s these things that make the film festival worth the trouble.
Now let’s talk about the actual screening itself.
The first hard fast rule about film festivals - festivals DO NOT market your film for you.
That is YOUR job.
I’ll regale you with the story of my first festival experience.
I didn’t know a thing - my screening was at 10:30PM.
Being the natural introvert I didn’t invite anyone from the film to the festival.
I had dinner by myself and then showed up to the festival about 90 minutes early.
The film playing in the theater before mine had a huge audience - standing room only - for
an Italian Mafia Comedy where one of the supporting actors from the Sopranos played a bit role.
What a great opening for my film I thought!
The film itself was really good… for the first act.
Then it went down hill and fast.
By the end I just wanted this film to be over with.
When their credits finally started to roll, I ran to the bathroom as the sake I had earlier
at dinner had finished its journey through my system.
I got back to the theater 10 minutes before my screening and… not a single person was
left in the room... completely empty.
Not one.
My film began and I was the only person there.
What did that crappy Italian Mafia Film do right that I didn’t?
They marketed their film heavily.
They went on local radio to talk about their film.
Half the cast was there, though not the guy from the Sopranos.
They had posters all over and an after party for the screening.
And me?
I was so nervous about my deeply personal film that I didn’t invite anyone.
And here I was sitting alone watching a copy of my own film about loneliness… alone.
I walked back to my hotel that night and vowed to never let that happen again.
If you don’t champion your own film at your festival, no one will.
It begins by hustling at every opportunity.
What most filmmakers do is create postcards for their movie.
Postcards are nice in that they’re inexpensive to get made up and act like a mini movie poster
you can put in your pocket.
Now since you won’t know your screening time most likely till the very last minute,
I like to leave a little blank space on the postcard that you can write in the screening
times with a sharpie.
Have plenty of these postcards on hand, give them to everybody you meet as well as the
festival organizers who can put them in the goodie bags that everyone gets.
Now you don’t have to just limit yourself to postcards.
The sky’s the limit in how you want to hustle to get people to your film.
But it’s not all about pure advertising dollars - go to the networking events and
make friends with other filmmakers - agree to see their films and invite them to yours.
It should go without saying but invite your cast and crew and their friends.
The more people you have that were with you on set the more evangelists you have on hand
to help get butts in seats.
And then ultimately the one bit of advice when attending a festival with your short
film - relax.
I’m going to break the real hard truth here, you’re not going to sell your short film
at a festival for a million bucks, you’re not going to meet a hot shot producer who’s
there scouting for talent and who’s instantly going to sign you for a studio contract.
You’re going to wake up the next morning, maybe a little hung over, but the same person
that went to bed the night before.
A festival is not a magic ticket.
It is however a celebration of the work that you and other filmmakers like you have accomplished
- being able to turn a million variables into a cohesive motion picture.
It’s a chance for you to connect with other filmmakers and perhaps even reconnect with
your cast and crew.
It is the celebration of what makes us most human - our love for story.
So go out there and make something great.
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I’m John Hess and I’ll see you at Filmmaker IQ.com