“As soon as you finish a film, people want you to talk about it,” the late, great David Lynch once said. “And it’s… The film is the talking.”
Even the most seasoned creatives and celebrities can find discussing their work to be an awkward and tedious experience. Anyone who has seen Harrison Ford on a late-night couch knows this is not a skill that gets easier over time. Some people can do it, others need to be coached, and mostly everyone will find it to be at least a little uncomfortable.
At festivals, filmmakers are expected to eloquently explain their work with very little time. If you made a short, you might be grouped with other short film directors in a panel and only get one question. Feature directors may get more of a spotlight, but that isn’t necessarily an easier setup. Understanding how to succinctly and engagingly explain your art is harder than it seems.
Why you should prepare for post-screening Q&As
For those not inclined toward front-facing positions, fielding questions from an audience might feel like an exercise in futility. Why would you want to answer questions that could dilute the complexity of your work? Maybe Lynch is right, that the film does the talking. But the truth is that there are advantages to this.
The opportunity to talk about your film is an opportunity to sell your film. This is, after all, supposed to be the purpose of a film festival. Ideally, your art works on multiple levels—as an aesthetic statement and as something a wider audience may want to see.
But even if it isn’t this film that gets distribution, it may be the next. Because, remember, you’re also selling yourself. You never know who is in the audience, whether it’s distributors, producers, directors, reps, or just future collaborators.
Post-screening Q&A questions
“Where did this idea come from?”
This is likely the most common query at a film festival Q&A. Challengingly open-ended, it’s a catch-all in situations where programmers don’t have enough time for more specific inquiries. But that doesn’t mean you can’t answer with aplomb.
Take this chance to tell the story behind the story. Prep for this the way you would any interview where the general “tell me a little about yourself” might come up—think succinct, specific, and unique. If your film is intensely personal, talk about the circumstances that led from real life to fiction. If it’s a more experimental foray, this is a chance to talk about your views on the medium itself. If you take a moment to really sit with this seemingly basic question—where did this idea come from?—you might even unlock something unexpected for yourself.
“How did you do [X]?”
Finishing a film is in itself an impressive achievement. If someone wants to know more about any aspect of that process, accept that it’s coming from a place of genuine curiosity. Don’t exaggerate because you don’t think your answer is interesting enough. Sure, you don’t have the same camera setup as Christopher Nolan, but you executed with the tools you had and now it’s up on the screen. Feel confident that the true story is the best story here.
However, do be aware of your audience and the context. A horror filmmaker whose work is premiering at a splatter-friendly convention should feel free to dole out inside-baseball answers that may not work at a more general festival. If your film was made using Kodak film that hasn’t been in circulation since the 1980s, that’s a really interesting tidbit! But it may not matter in the context of a panel discussing casting decisions.
“This is more of a comment than a question…”
If the programmer opens the floor to the audience, be prepared to hear just about anything you can imagine. At a 2014 TIFF screening of “The Imitation Game,” an audience member opened her comments to Benedict Cumberbatch with “I actually think you’re quite yummy.” (It got worse from there.) People often use this opportunity to discuss themselves or their work, as was the case with a “Westworld” Q&A that ended after a fan asked to show a script to co-creator Jonathan Nolan.
The best a filmmaker can do in these instances is to handle whatever comes with grace, calm, and (in the right circumstance) good humor—even if that means shutting it down. In less-extreme iterations, try to find the question underneath the comment, or the compliment underneath the implied criticism. Take it as a compliment that anyone wants to say something, at all, about your film among the myriad of options at said festival.
Negativity and positivity
In his book “Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life,” psychologist Marshall Rosenberg explains that even positivity can feel…negative. “Compliments are often judgments—however positive—of others,” he writes. Essentially, compliments without specifics can make you question things like intent, authenticity, or even your own connection to the praise.
Don’t let imposter syndrome win. Regardless of the type of feedback you hear (or don’t hear) at a festival Q&A, it’s best to go into the whole process equipped with a grain of salt. Getting there is the best victory there is.
