{"id":1183,"date":"2024-12-20T14:32:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T14:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/?p=1183"},"modified":"2024-12-26T15:13:33","modified_gmt":"2024-12-26T15:13:33","slug":"how-to-budget-for-film-festivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/how-to-budget-for-film-festivals\/","title":{"rendered":"How Directors Can Smartly Budget for Film Festivals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>You\u2019re set to shoot your film. Your script is tight and you\u2019re on schedule. But after budgeting for a sterling camera package, a team of top-notch designers and actors, and a deposit on that essential yet expensive location for your key scene, you forgot to set aside money for a festival run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Getting a film off the ground is difficult even in the best circumstances and with the largest budget, so it\u2019s natural for a filmmaker of any stage to focus their mental energy on pre- and postproduction and principal photography. Yet for most filmmakers, the process doesn\u2019t end when their film is wrapped. Budgeting for the festival submission system is difficult to do and varies based on your goals and expectations, but with these tips, you\u2019ll be off to a strong start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Be honest about your film<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Are you a first-time filmmaker who shot a seven-minute short on an iPhone with a skeleton crew? Perhaps you\u2019d be content with a selection at a local shorts festival and only need to budget a couple hundred dollars to submit to a few committees. But suppose you\u2019re a mid-career filmmaker who put a lot of time and money into your first feature, hoping it will catapult you to the next level. Where you submit \u201cdepends on many factors, but one must consider the budget and scope of the film,\u201d says Daniel Sol, owner of HollyShorts Film Festival in Los Angeles. It\u2019s important to be \u201chonest about what your film is and who it\u2019s for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Determining what percentage of your budget is devoted to a festival run requires being self-aware about your resources, in terms of both money and connections. And unless you already have an earnest chance of being seen\u2014either because your film boasts significant star power or because you have a relationship with the selection committee\u2014it\u2019s best not to waste your money at events that are heavily pre-curated.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think a lot of filmmakers get too seduced by the fame of glitzy festivals when a festival more tailored to a film\u2019s needs may do,\u201d says Nanor Vosgueritchian, a programmer for the Brooklyn Film Festival and the Arab and Film Media Institute. \u201cAt AFMI, there are films which we screen that can spark conversation, where they may get lost at a so-called \u2018bigger festival.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Come up with a master list<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Think of your festival selection like a high school senior\u2019s college search. College deans will usually recommend creating a list of about 10 schools that includes one to two \u201creaches,\u201d five to seven reasonable goals, and two to three \u201csafeties,\u201d or schools at which you\u2019d be a top candidate and can reasonably assume you\u2019d get in. While not a one-to-one comparison, this exercise can help to mentally situate your project within the hierarchy of the festival world.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI usually tell people to hope for one or two [acceptances] in 10 submissions,\u201d advises Ben Thompson, vice president of shorts programming for the Tribeca Film Festival. \u201cIt sounds like a small number. But if you get into ShortShorts in Japan, a real bucket-list festival, and get rejected by the other nine\u2026 that\u2019s still a big win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Say, for instance, you\u2019re a first-time feature filmmaker with a politically prescient horror genre film. You may name Sundance and the New York Film Festival as reaches, since they\u2019re counted among the world\u2019s finest showcases. But they\u2019re not totally out of reach\u2014while both of those festivals\u2019 submission levels hover around 10,000 films each year, they also have a track record of showing genre projects from similarly unseasoned filmmakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next batch of film festivals you may want to approach could include mid-tier ones like Seattle, Atlanta, Austin, or Miami. With a genre-specific film, you\u2019d also want to consider more niche events like Austin\u2019s Fantastic Fest, NYC\u2019s Brooklyn Horror, or L.A.\u2019s Screamfest. Ultimately, research and timing are crucial; it can be easy to slip into a financial pit by naively submitting to any and all festivals without strategizing your approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Budget early and accurately<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>You may want to think about your festival costs as a percentage of your total budget, rather than as a separate chunk of change. Generally speaking, you will want to consider budgeting around 3\u20135% of your money for festival submissions, keeping in mind that most film festival submission fees <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfcn.co\/blog\/how-much-does-it-cost-to-submit-films-to-film-festivals\">range from $50\u2013$150<\/a>. If you\u2019re on a strict budget, it\u2019ll be especially important to keep track of things like tiered submission deadlines, as most festivals increase their submission fees as the window closes. Budgeting smartly also means planning for travel costs. If your film gets into festivals in the U.K., Australia, and Los Angeles, you may end up having to budget more for travel purposes\u2014or make the hard decision to miss your premiere.<br>The more meticulously you plan for this stage of your film\u2019s life, the more well-prepared you\u2019ll be for success, the more festivals you can get into, and the more money you\u2019ll save. Beth Barrett, the artistic director for the Seattle International Film Festival, urges filmmakers to start this process early on. \u201cAs part of preproduction, filmmakers should honestly assess the project and what they want to accomplish with it,\u201d she says. Just as a filmmaker budgets for the right crew, they should also \u201cbudget for those submission fees,\u201d Barrett adds. \u201cPrioritize the festival you most want to premiere at, and then work through the calendar. This should not be an afterthought, but rather a part of the overall plan.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From submission fees to travel costs, here\u2019s what you need to know about the financial side of the festival market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":1185,"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-1183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How Directors Can Smartly Budget for Film Festivals - FilmFreeway<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From submission fees to travel costs, here\u2019s what you need to know about the financial side of the festival market.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/how-to-budget-for-film-festivals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Directors Can Smartly Budget for Film Festivals - 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