You captured all your footage. You solved every last-minute on-set problem. You finally locked picture, and now your composer is putting on the finishing touches. So, what’s next? Whether you have a documentary, narrative feature, or animated short, without guaranteed distribution, festivals are usually a filmmaker’s best bet—both to get a movie noticed by critics and the public, and to get in front of studios and sales agents. However, picking the right festivals can be tricky, and you probably have some questions about the process. Luckily, we have some insights on what to consider.
1. How should your budget factor in?
Unless you’re invited by a festival (which is to say, you’re an established name or have a good relationship with the programmers), you’ll likely need to navigate submission fees. Keep some goals in mind—dream fests, fallbacks, and everything in between—and put aside money from the beginning. Depending on how much each entry costs (this information is normally on festival websites, along with early, regular, and late deadlines), this could range from a gratis entry to three figures. For instance, a feature entry to Cannes costs 300 euros. So, if you’re working with a shoestring budget, try to save up from the jump!
Oh, and if a fest you’ve never heard of does invite you but doesn’t waive their fee, don’t bother. It’s rarely a good sign, and legitimate festivals—like the so-called “big five”—will never do this.
2. What are the “big five” and should you apply?
Let’s say the stars have aligned: You’ve assembled the perfect story, budget, cast, and crew, and your early cuts seem like they could turn into something special; you might just be ready for the major leagues. The world’s most prestigious festivals—Sundance in January, Berlin in February, Cannes in May, Venice in August, and Toronto in September—can certainly serve as platforms for novice filmmakers, but don’t put all your eggs in the big-five basket. While the cream of the festival crop generally demand you world-premiere your movie on their stage, you can still hedge your bets and submit either a finished film or work-in-progress to more than one of them, rather than waiting for a rejection before moving on to the next. (If it gets chosen by multiple fests that demand exclusivity, you should have the option to pull out later).
However, it doesn’t hurt to be realistic. Maybe you know your current limitations—you haven’t quite honed your skills, or sound or picture aren’t entirely up to par, despite your best efforts. Or maybe you and your producers just don’t have the name and stature to get programmed alongside the Scorseses of the world—not yet, anyway—in which case, don’t be afraid to look beyond the big ones.
3. Should you think beyond the “big five”?
There’s a good chance there’s a local film festival around you that you’ve never heard of. Even cities that play host to major festivals tend to host smaller, more specialized ones as well. While the Big Apple has the Tribeca Film Festival and the prestigious New York Film Festival, it also has the New York International Children’s Film Festival, the New York Asian Film Festival, the New York Jewish Film Festival, the New York African Film Festival, Brooklyn Horror, and so on. A quick “film festivals near me” search will help.
Some fests are genre-oriented, some lean in the direction of immigration or social justice, and some are even dedicated exclusively to shorts, documentaries, or animation. Fitting into the niche for a specialized fest increases your chances of being accepted, and attending will likely connect you to a tight-knit community.
Academy Award® / BAFTA Award Qualifying Festivals
4. How can your film’s runtime factor in?
Depending on the festival, the dividing line between shorts and features is typically around 40 minutes, and the length of your movie might just determine where you send it. Anything an hour or longer can comfortably be placed in a feature block, while shorts of 10 or 15 minutes are generally programmed either as part of short film lineups at larger fests, or alongside a specific feature at the festival’s discretion.
However, you may have a little trouble if your short is, well, long—that is, in the 30–40 minute range. Programmers at larger feature fests sometimes have trouble fitting those bulkier shorts alongside the quick-hit ones, since they usually have to sell tickets to each lineup. In which case, you may actually have more luck sending your work to a festival that specializes in shorts of all runtimes—or in certain kinds of shorts, for that matter.
5. What about getting awards attention?
The more visible the festival, the more likely your feature is to be picked up by a distributor for theatrical release in New York or Los Angeles, which usually qualifies it for major awards. This process may not be as obvious or intuitive for shorts; however, there’s often a path to the Academy Awards’ stage, where several feature filmmakers got their start as short-form Oscar winners and nominees, including Taika Waititi (“Two Cars, One Night”), Andrea Arnold (“Wasp”), and Martin McDonagh (“Six Shooter”).The Oscars have three categories for shorts—live action short film, animated short film, and documentary short film—and the nominees routinely find their way to the Academy Awards by playing at one of several hundred “qualifying” festivals. The list of these festivals changes every year, so keep an eye out; but it ranges from the major fests to smaller local ones around the world. Submit your film to one of these if you fancy a chance at Oscar glory. Even if that doesn’t pan out, you’ll still have been a part of a festival deemed worthy of qualifying recognition.
