{"id":1046,"date":"2024-12-09T21:46:26","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T21:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/?p=1046"},"modified":"2024-12-09T21:51:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T21:51:06","slug":"how-to-maximize-exposure-during-your-festival-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/how-to-maximize-exposure-during-your-festival-run\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Maximize Exposure During Your Festival Run"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Film festivals can be intimidating places for directors. After all the time, money, and creative energy spent during the production process, their hard work is finally being exposed to the world. Given that kind of pressure, how can filmmakers ensure that they get the best possible experience when attending the likes of Sundance, Telluride, Tribeca, or any fest, really? Is there a method to making yourself known amid the madness of festival season?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Get the right people in the room.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe films that are the most successful are always the ones with the hardest-working film teams, who are out promoting their work and mobilizing a grassroots audience,\u201d says Cara Cusumano, the festival director and senior vice president of programming for New York\u2019s Tribeca Film Festival. \u201cYou are your own best advocate.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As much as packing out screenings with friends, family, and interested viewers can help, Cusumano has noticed that audiences particularly love when the filmmakers, stars, and subjects attend, too. \u201c[Do] anything you can do to make that premiere a memorable one that people will walk out talking about,\u201d she advises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Director India Donaldson\u2019s debut feature, \u201cGood One,\u201d premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and she remembers its first screening as a \u201cdeeply meaningful time\u201d with her collaborators, who attended the event alongside her. After earning rave reviews, Metrograph Pictures acquired the film and released it in limited theaters in August. But while Donaldson attended Sundance with the intention of promoting and selling the project, she cut her teeth at smaller, more regional festivals with her short films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time, Donaldson admits to being disappointed that her earlier projects \u201cMedusa\u201d (2018), \u201cHannahs\u201d (2019), and \u201cIf Found\u201d (2021) didn\u2019t get selected by more renowned programmers. Now, she says, \u201cI wish I hadn\u2019t been so hard on myself early on. Rejection is not a reflection of the quality of your work. Over the years, my skin has grown thicker. I take rejection more as a statement of it not being fit for that place. You get welcomed into the right festival at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally for Donaldson, who didn\u2019t attend film school, festivals became havens where she could meet fellow filmmakers. \u201cMy film community was built around going to the festivals,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Figure out what \u201cnetworking\u201d means for you.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, many eager writers and directors see festivals as ideal places to network. They also, however, misinterpret networking to just mean cornering high-profile agents, managers, and executives and pitching them their next project. Cusumano has seen much more success over the years when filmmakers network with each other and vow to help with their respective projects. \u201cPeople [should] take advantage of the incredible pool of talent that you are a part of to build relationships and meet future collaborators,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John Patton Ford, whose debut feature \u201cEmily the Criminal\u201d premiered at Sundance in 2022, didn\u2019t take this approach when he attended the 2010 festival with his American Film Institute thesis short film, \u201cPatrol.\u201d \u201cI just wanted a job of some kind. I was determined to meet someone who could get me one,\u201d he recalls. Having already been emailed by several agents before attending the festival because of his links to AFI, Ford compares his experience to speed dating. \u201cI thought that would be the best use of my time because getting an agent seemed like an elusive, aspirational thing to do,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ford ultimately realized that an agent could only help him so much. If he could go back, he would have prioritized finding like-minded creatives. \u201cMy mistake was that I was looking for Hollywood to give me a chance,\u201d he says. \u201cDon\u2019t do that. You\u2019ll go crazy. Go there already working on something that you can make yourself. If there [are] some other people there who can help you do that, great. But don\u2019t look at it as your connection to a bigger world [where] someone is going to come along and save you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nVISIONARIES Tyler Perry, Industry Conference, TIFF 2022
Be strategic with how you present yourself and to who.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Making sure that you have your next project\u2019s pitch perfected for when you do<\/em> get into conversations with potential collaborators will still help you. Ford suggests \u201cspeaking as if you\u2019re already in the process of making it,\u201d as projecting such confidence usually proves to be contagious. \u201cYou\u2019d be surprised at how quickly people want to get involved if they sense you\u2019re already in motion,\u201d he says. \u201cEven if it is a little bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Andrew Zuchero screened his short film \u201cThe Apocalypse\u201d at Sundance in 2013, he ended up meeting many of the collaborators that would help him with his feature \u201cLove Me\u201d over a decade later. \u201cWith a short, when people are watching it, laughing, and liking it, that\u2019s when you can really put the pieces together to make something bigger.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLove Me,\u201d the post-apocalyptic romance starring Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun, which he wrote and directed with his wife, Sam Zuchero, premiered at Sundance in January, was purchased by ShivHans Pictures in May, and will be released in limited theaters on Jan. 24, 2025.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pulling together a list of who you want to speak to can prove an advantageous approach. Ford advises looking through the festival programs, figuring out which producers you\u2019d like to talk to, then tracking them down by finding their email addresses on IMDb or by asking the event organizers. From there, you can try to arrange a meeting, with \u201cthe objective being, you can meet people who can actually get movies made,\u201d Ford says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even after a festival, you can easily follow up to praise someone\u2019s work. \u201cI don\u2019t usually go up to people at film festivals,\u201d admits Sam Zuchero. \u201cBut if I like somebody\u2019s work, I\u2019ll sometimes email them and say, \u2018Hey, I think you\u2019re awesome,\u2019 just to start a dialogue.\u201d The filmmaking couple has even connected with people from festivals they didn\u2019t attend. When the Zucheros were looking to get a movie set in Afghanistan and Yemen off the ground, they were so impressed by the 2023 film \u201cNorah\u201d that they perused through the Red Sea Film Festival program to reach out to its writer and director, Tawfik Alzaidi. \u201cWe went this circuitous way. But what we did was open up the doors to someone who would never know that we were aware of their work,\u201d says Sam Zuchero. \u201cNow we\u2019re collaborating on the script together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ultimately, whether you\u2019re in Toronto, New York, Austin, or Cannes, what\u2019s most important is to make sure you have a \u201cgood time\u201d at the festival, insists Ford. And key to that is doing the thing that makes people want to write and direct in the first place. \u201cSee as many movies as you can,\u201d says Sam Zuchero. \u201cWhen you show up at a film festival and there are all these people who are into movies, it\u2019s not just inspiring\u2014it gives you a boost to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Veteran indie directors and festival insiders give their best tips on networking, building buzz around your film, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":1047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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