Especially for short films it's always nice to see your movie with a
paying audience. That's pretty good for a feature, too. I don't think
people are getting job from festival screening, but it's nice to say
you are an award winning filmmaker, it's fun to travel to different
cities with your movie, it's great to meet fellow filmmakers from
around the world and it is an outlet.
Not the best choice for a professional making a living with their
movies, but there are a lot of filmmakers who haven't reached that
point yet, so making a film for the festivals can provide deadlines
and motivation.
And an audience.
But that happens only if we filmmakers actually go.