First of all I am excited to announce that the Interrogation screened for the first time on the Big Screen at the University of Calgary’s Show Us Your Shorts Film Festival a couple of weeks ago.  Show Us Your Shorts is a great local Calgary Festival that I would call “one of the good guys”.  By one of the good guys I mean that they don’t charge a submission fee and wait for it…yes…they actually pay artist honorariums.  As part of Show Us Your Shorts, I took part in a panel that was designed to share our experiences as filmmakers with the students.  One of the questions that came up was “What is the benefit of getting your work out to festivals?”.

Now that’s a big question!  I personally think that submitting and paying to submit to festivals is potentially a big waste of your time and energy as a filmmaker.  Let me explain, filmmaking is a tough gig.  It is tough because for most of us getting your movie made is a gut wrenching, time sucking, expensive endeavor.  My filmmaking habit has cost me  countless weekends, holidays, friends  and $1000’s of dollars.  I’ve pulled in favors from everyone and their dog in this city just to get my projects done.  And then once my projects are done and the main mountain has been climbed, I always forget that there is annoyingly large hill sitting right behind.   That annoying hill is festival submissions.

And here is where the situation gets particularly frustrating.  Thanks to Without a Box, applying to festivals is a much simpler process than it once was.  With this new convenience comes a drawback.  It seems all you need is a basement, a projector and a few friends willing to watch some flicks and whamo you’re an official festival.  None of this would be a big deal if these “official” festivals didn’t charge on average about $35  in non-refundable submission fees. In other words you are paying them $35 just to watch your film.

I was talking to a filmmaker who just spent about $2500 and over 60 hours submitting his latest film to festivals via Without a Box.  When asked what he got out of the whole process he listed the following:

FESTIVAL SUBMISSION OUTCOMES

1.  Out of the 80 some festivals he submitted to, his film played at about 60 of them.

2. Only 6 of the 60 festivals paid  an artist honorarium.  In total he recouped $200 of his orginal submission cost.

3. He was given 14 trophies .

4.  He was offered 6 trophies from festivals that actually wanted him to pay for his own award. He declined those generous offers!

4. His google presence increased from 3 pages to 30 pages

5.  He made a few Facebook friends

6.  He was spammed by several festivals offering increased exposure for increased pay.

7. Some festivals tried to sell him tickets to his own screening.  Those tickets cost over $100 each.

8.  Since his main email address went out with all his submissions  he is now spammed several times a day by festival marketers.

9.  Many festivals didn’t return his Beta tape masters until he prompted them to do so several times.

Overall he doesn’t regret all the time and money he put into the submission process but he claims that  he would never do a mass festival submission again.  In other words his payback didn’t make-up for the hassles, time and money he put into the endeavor.

BUT! If you do want to do a big round of festival submissions  here is some

FESTIVAL SUBMISSION ADVICE:

1.  Get a separate email address for your submissions.  This will prevent you from getting spammed by festival marketers.

2. Be selective and research your festivals.  Only submit to festivals that favor your film genre.  This will increase your acceptance rate.

3.  Be wary of younger festivals, festivals with crappy websites and festivals that don’t respond to emails.  A quick google search before shelling out $35 bucks may reveal a potential festival scam.  It is worth it to do a little background check on each festival before submitting.

3.  Look for festivals that have no submission fee.  Short film Depot.com is great place to find these.

4.  Make a spreadsheet or use this great spreadsheet from Gone Fishing to track your submissions and what materials you have sent out to what festivals.  It is really easy to lose track of who has what when you do a mass submission.

5.  Focus on local festivals.  Having your film screen locally is a great way to reward the crew and to see your work on the big screen. Also  often local festivals waive the entry fee for local filmmakers.

6.  If your short film isn’t doing well on the local circuit don’t waste your money submitting to Sundance.  Likely you won’t get in.

7.  Be realistic.   Getting your work into a festival will likely not launch your career.   Know your own motivation for submitting.  Set a limit and stick to it.

I think every filmmaker should at least go through one round of the festival submission process but I also think there are potentially other more interesting places to put your energy and money.  Since both energy and money are both limited, often we filmmakers have to choose wisely. In a future post I want to talk about viral marketing as an alternative to the festival route.  I am engaging in this alternative for the Baby Cliff series and it will be interesting to share my learning with you.