Dos and Don’ts of Submitting to Film Festivals

Don’t:

• Immediately send your film to Sundance.

• Pay more that $45 for a festival.

• E-mail the festival to see if they got your entry. A delivery confirmation from the post office should suffice.

• Submit your film without looking at the festival’s website.

• Send your master copy to the festival.

• Submit to only one festival.

• Submit to 30 festivals at one time. Submit to 5 – 10 and wait to hear back to see how your film will play.

• Use fiber envelopes to send VHS or DVD prescreeners.

• Not preview your DVD or VHS copy. You may accidentally not have recorded sound, your DVD may skip, etc.

• Wait until a week before the deadline to submit your film unless you absolutely can’t help it. Too many other filmmakers wait till the deadline approaches and so the festivals get bottlenecked with entries. This, in turn, may translate to less time watching your film or a stressed and burnt out pre-screener watching your film.

• Submit your film too early. It’s good to have your film arrive a month/month-and-a-half before the final deadline. If it arrives shortly after the call for entries goes out, (which can be 4 months before the deadline) it can easily get forgotten.

Do:

• Check out a festival’s website to see what kinds of films they have programmed in the past to see if these films would fit with the aesthetic of your film.

• Look for student film festivals or student categories. Sometimes student film festivals are free or the student categories are cheaper. And, there is less competition because the niche is tighter.

• Look for local and state festivals.

• E-mail a contact at the festival before submitting to see if you can get the submission fee waived (this is especially effective if your film has already played at a few festivals and you can mention your film’s track record).

• Use a bubble mailer to send your DVD or VHS tape.

• Learn a DVD authoring software – DVD Studio Pro is my preference but i-DVD should be fine. Though it may take some time to author a DVD, it is much easier and less time-consuming in the long run than batch producing VHS tapes with your VCR. And the shipping is slightly cheaper.

• Test your DVDs in at least a couple of DVD players. Some DVDs may not play in (particularly older) DVD players. I prefer Sony brand DVDs as they don’t produce playback glitches like some other brands I’ve used.

• Create a cover for your DVD/VHS or at least put the title and director name on the spine and front cover of the DVD/VHS.

• Attend a festival, if you have the opportunity – again, to see what kinds of films are programmed.