This article is sponsored by the New York Film Academy.
You’ve finished your short film, and you’re excited to submit it to festivals. You hop on a submissions platform like FilmFreeway, Festhome, or Shortfilmdepot and search for the best matches for you and your film. The good news: You don’t come up empty-handed. The bad news: The site presents you with hundreds of choices from the 9,000-plus film festivals around the world. Suddenly, your research and decision-making process looks very daunting.
How do you determine if a festival that isn’t a big name like Sundance or Tribeca is worth the price of submitting? By doing a deep dive into the festival’s website. Here are nine tips that will help you figure out if a festival is both reputable and appropriate for your film.
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Get your first impression of the festival’s website.
While some festivals have snazzy, design-forward websites, most in the U.S. are nonprofits, so they may not have the funding to employ up-to-the-minute design. That’s OK. The main criteria to check for is an active, updated website—one that clearly displays screenings and events, whether live or online.
Take a look at the festival’s mission statement or “about” page.
How does the festival describe itself and its goals? What themes, genres, and subjects are the programmers interested in? How do they describe their audience? Do you feel that your short film would play well there?
Look at the history and team pages.
The websites of well-known festivals tend to be transparent about who created them, who the directors and programmers are, and whether the fest brings in outside judges or has a board of directors. The involvement of these folks is a good indication of whether or not the festival is thoughtfully planned-out, well-organized, and serious.
4 Simple Steps for Finding Film Festivals Study program guides and catalogs from previous editions of the festival.
Previous program guides are a fount of information. In them, you can read letters from the festival directors; see what kinds of master classes, panels, and Q&As they’ve offered; and research who their special guests and honorees have been. All of this information will help you understand the vibe of the festival, and how attending could help you level up your skills and put you in contact with people you want to do business with. If you can’t easily locate program guides or catalogs on the website, go to your search engine and input the festival name, year, and “program guide,” “catalog,” or “PDF.” This should do the trick.
Watch films the festival has shown in the past to get a sense of the programmers’ taste.
You can likely find trailers for a fest’s previous two programs on YouTube or individual websites. Films that screened two or more years ago have probably completed their festival runs, so it’s possible that you can view an entire short online. See how you feel after you’ve watched a few selections. Would your project fit alongside them?
How to Submit to Film Festivals, According to Programmers Check out the awards page.
What could you win for submitting your work? Cash money? A beautiful trophy (that you should never be asked to pay for)? Goods and services that could help you make your next project? Qualification for the Oscars, BAFTAs, or other prestigious honors? If the festival doesn’t present awards, no worries. For some, being named an official selection is an honor in and of itself.
See who the festival’s sponsors are.
Established events are expensive to run, and it takes a village of sponsors to pull them off, such as corporations, airlines, hotels, government agencies, film industry companies, and local businesses. Does the festival have a healthy range of well-known, legitimate sponsors supporting its work?
Study the media page.
Because festivals need to publicize themselves and the films they program, they don’t only have social media accounts; they also seek plenty of press coverage. That means high-value online magazines; trade publications like this one, as well as Variety, the Hollywood Reporter, and Deadline; and local newspaper, radio, and television outlets. Links to articles and photos from past events indicate that a festival is established and give you a sense of potential networking opportunities.
Carefully study the festival’s regulations.
Does your film meet the festival’s rules for submission? Does it have premiere requirements? If your film is selected, what will you need to submit for exhibition? Do you need a Digital Cinema Package (which can be costly), subtitled version of the film, a press kit, and/or a trailer?
It takes time to do this level of research, but it’s worth it. You’ll be able to reject festivals that aren’t reputable or a good match for your film. You’ll build confidence about the festivals that you are interested in—that they screen films similar to yours, reach the audiences you want to reach, and provide activities and media coverage that will help get you and your work noticed by the industry. That is what makes them worth the submission fee.
Crickett Rumley received her MFA in Film at Columbia University and is the founder and director of the Film Festival Department at the New York Film Academy, where she coaches hundreds of filmmakers on festival strategy each year. You can find her doling out festival tips on Twitter at @Crickett_NYFA or reach her at crickett.filmfestivals@gmail.com.
