{"id":2910,"date":"2019-05-22T15:00:16","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T15:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/?p=2910"},"modified":"2019-05-22T06:39:55","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T06:39:55","slug":"rules-game-film-festival-submissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/rules-game-film-festival-submissions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rules of the Game: Film Festival Submissions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Previously for The End Run<\/strong>, I wrote about sales agents and film festival strategies<\/a>, but there\u2019s more to the festival submissions process \u2014 particularly if you\u2019re going it alone, without a sales agent \u2014 starting with knowing where to submit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Know your territory<\/h4>\n

The first \u2014 and maybe easiest \u2014 thing a novice filmmaker\/producer with a finished film can do is find and assess comparison titles for their project. A comparison title is exactly what it sounds like: a film that exists in a similar stylistic and narrative space to yours, to which you can compare festival performance. <\/span><\/p>\n

Be realistic here. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you aspired to make a coming-of-age, sexual awakening film, you could argue that you\u2019re in the same space as <\/span>Call Me By Your Name<\/i><\/strong> \u2014 but unless you have an A-list cast, a guaranteed massive festival launch, and sizable budget, you\u2019d be better off finding something closer to your scale. <\/span><\/p>\n

Once you do find your film, find out which festivals it premiered at or played. This is where you\u2019ll start your submission process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond this, there are a seemingly endless list of festivals cropping up, and some great resources (such as FilmFreeway<\/a><\/strong> or FilmFestivalLife<\/a><\/strong>) to help narrow down your searches. These sites can, however, be a minefield. <\/span><\/p>\n

Tread lightly<\/h4>\n

An abundance of new festivals are forming every year \u2014 especially in America \u2014 and while many do have the best intentions, if you keep your ears open you\u2019ll hear the horror stories. The good news is that it\u2019s pretty easy to spot a scam festival, even if you\u2019re new to the film festival circuit. <\/span><\/p>\n

Consider the festival\u2019s track record. Many regional festivals offer great spaces to program your work. These events often don\u2019t get the same media coverage as larger festivals, but they\u2019re still places where your film will be seen by an audience of industry and film professionals. <\/span><\/p>\n

So when you come across a festival that looks interesting \u2014 for instance, it takes place in the city where you shot your movie \u2014 see what kinds of films they\u2019ve played in the past. A festival\u2019s programming history is a good indicator of its promise, but there are pitfalls to look out for, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spend wisely<\/h4>\n

Festival submission fees are an unfortunate reality. <\/span><\/p>\n

There are ways of avoiding submission fees to certain festivals \u2014 including waivers (just ask, you\u2019d be surprised) or directly submitting to programmers you may already know (making contacts is a good reason to attend film festivals, even when you don\u2019t have a film there) \u2014 and internationally there are festivals that won\u2019t charge you anything to submit a film (just make sure they accept international submissions). But if you want your film to play throughout North America, where many festivals are not subsidized by the state, you\u2019re likely going to have to cough up a few bills.<\/span> A festival is a major operation, one that requires a great deal of people and resources to organize. Submission fees help keep a festival\u2019s staff paid.<\/span><\/p>\n

What should be a cause for concern are incredibly <\/span>high<\/span><\/i> submission fees. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to give an exact median number for submission fees (each festival\u2019s fee is likely dictated by their status within the industry), but if it\u2019s not Sundance, you shouldn\u2019t be paying more than $100 for a feature. Compare the fees of several different festivals and narrow down to the ones you think will offer your film the best chance for a fair price.<\/span><\/p>\n

Apart from submission fees, another red flag is the \u201cawards festival\u201d that preys on small films and na\u00efve filmmakers with the allure of winning something. These festivals are a waste of time for the most part. This is related to another major red flag: festivals that invite your film, and then immediately begin pitching you their own services (like running your PR campaign) for an additional cost.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is often a crushing process for filmmakers, so don\u2019t make it harder on yourself. Keep the interests of your film at heart, do your research, and get your film out there. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Avoid wasting time, effort, and a lot of money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[90,3],"tags":[96,97,26],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2910"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2926,"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910\/revisions\/2926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}