I have been working in advertising for over ten years but my goal has always been to direct narrative work. I haven’t got the opportunity to do so until in 2020 when I wrote a short script that I wanted to make. Since that being my first film, I didn’t have a producer or a production company with me. I decided to produce the film by myself.
I decided my budget for the festival round and started submitting for the festivals.
After shooting and finishing post production of the film, I was excited about the opportunity to be able to submit the film to different film festivals. I thought that would be the only way to get audience for my film. I joined FilmFreeway and was overwhelmed with the vast number of festivals that competed for my film. I decided my budget for the festival round and started submitting for the festivals.
How festivals make money?
After joining FilmFreeway, I started to get weekly emails promoting different film festivals. FilmFreeway and Short Film Depot are platforms for both filmmakers and film festivals. Film festivals make money from the submission fees and from selling tickets to their screenings. As the festivals are trying to get as many submissions as possible, these platforms make it easier to reach filmmakers. Today there are 11,929 festivals listed on FilmFreeway, so the competition between festivals is real. With that amount of festivals it is evident that there must be also filmmakers that are willing to pay for the submissions. Some of the festivals are not founded to celebrate cinema but to make money from filmmakers.
For which festival to submit?
My advice is to plan what you are trying to achieve with your film. Since short films don’t have as broad distribution as feature films, it’s not so easy to actually make money with your film. For many the main reasons to make short films are to tell stories, learn and showcase your talent as a filmmaker. Career-wise getting your film in front of the right people is the most important thing. How many laurels or selections your film has, is not important or doesn’t make the film any better.
Before submitting your film to a festival, you should do some research. First of all, take a look at the program and see is your film suitable for their it. To avoid submitting to a scam festival, you should find out what kind of films there have screened on the festival? Who are the judges? Is the venue real or do they have a credible online platform? If the festival is giving out monthly awards, that is a sign of a possible scam festival. Useful resources for checking credible festivals are FIAPF’s (International Federation of Films Producer Associations) and Nordisk Panorama’s lists.
My experience with festivals
When I started to apply for festivals, I didn’t have a strategy. I went through the list of festivals on FilmFreeway and applied to what seemed to be the best bang for the buck. Slowly I started to realise that not every festival wasn’t worth the money. My first “nomination” was for a festival that claimed they couldn’t arrange a screening due the pandemic and tried to sell a trophy after the nomination. Afterwards I see all the signs that it wasn’t credible.
What I would do differently?
I submitted to 21 festivals on FilmFreeway, and got one “nomination” and two selections. My film was screened on two online festival. I addition to the submissions on FilmFreeway, I submitted to a small film festival Huhtamo International Film Festival and got selected, so that means my film was actually screened on a film festival!
The lesson I learned with my first short film, is to really plan out what you want to do with your film and research the festivals. I think it’s better to submit for a quality festival with maybe smaller chance to get selected but better chance to get noticed once selected, than spend money to a festival that doesn’t provide anything else than a set of laurels.