Film Festival Strategy Cheat Sheet
After a year of post-production, we are on the brink of submitting Green Grass to film festivals, which made me wonder, how much do people know about film festival strategy?
A few years ago, I had no idea how to approach a film festival run. When Green Grass was commissioned, though, I thought it was best to actually put some time and effort into understanding how to best maximise our chances of getting Green Grass into festivals. This is what I learned in 10 quick points.
1. It's often better to wait a year for early bird rather than rush to submit through late entry, especially longer films: One, it's cheaper, but more importantly, the curators at most festivals start to build screening programmes before the late entry, which means there is a better chance of being considered as a thematic root by submitting early, rather than programmers having to figure out 'how does this fit into what we have in theme or time?'. If your film is less than 3 minutes then it might have a good chance still as it can be used to complete programmes, but generally speaking, late entries are not the one.
2. Shorter film = better chance: <3 mins = strong chance. <7 mins = good chance. <15 mins = tough chance <17 mins = better be great! >17 mins, you are evidently awesome to get in with a >17 mins film at festivals.
3. Be really honest with the level of your film: Watch films at the BAFTA/Academy qualifying festivals. Does your film genuinely match those levels? If so, great, aim for them. If they don't, spend your money more wisely on festivals that prioritise networking and championing new filmmakers. Festivals are expensive, don't spend hundreds/thousands when your film
4. Counter to point 3 in some ways...don't let the rejections get you down: You will never get into every festival you submit to.
5. Go to the festivals: I used to be really bad for this because of social anxiety. Over the last few years I have worked hard on changing this and going to many festivals, regardless if I have a film screening or not.
6. Check premiere status: World, continent, country, region, city.
7. Where possible, avoid submitting Work-in-progress (WIPs): Many festivals let you submit WIPs but every filmmaker I know has had significantly higher success when they submitted the final version with colour/sound etc. Sometimes you might not have a choice if you are aiming for a premiere at a festival whose deadline is imminent and you can't hold off an entire year, but when you can, avoid it.
8. If a festival has about 100 categories and you have to pay each one to enter, it's usually a sign it is not as good a festival. There are ways to help pick good festivals (like the gold festivals on Filmfreeway) but be wary of films that clearly have money at the top of their mind.
9. Don't just look at review ratings, read the reviews. SO MANY reviews start with 'I didn't attend but...' - only trust the reviews where the people actually went to a festival. This is the entire point of a festival.
10. Have all the supporting materials ready: poster, EPK, director's bio, synopsis, cover letter, and DCP file (and the many other things often asked for). Store all of your responses and their character/word count so you can re-use or modify it for future submissions requiring the same answer but at different lengths.
Good luck!
