What festivals should I look at?

C

Claude

Hi guys, I'll go about it this way. I'll highlight the characteristics of my short film hoping you can guide me, so I can make my list of the festivals I should consider submitting to.

THE STRONG POINTS
1. Concept and approach. It also happens to turn into a puzzle for the audience.

2. Sound: It is made with sound design in mind. Sound is only used to advance plot. The story is driven forward by what you hear but don't see, or at instances by what you see but don't hear, making it very immediate (action reaction). Oh, it also teases the audience a lot. The ending doesn't make compromises in this regard either.

3. Ending: you either expect resolution A or resolution B, but it ends in an uncomfortable resolution C. (more memorable imo)

AND THE somewhat WEAK POINTS (depending how you look at it)

4. Cinematography: one static shot, -- yet relevant to the story.
5. Editing: Finally, because of the cinematography, there's no apparent cuts either.
_______________________________

Please help me figure out which festivals seem the most promising for this kind of film.
For example, say it was hypothetically "good enough" for Cannes, even in that case, it simply wouldn't make a good fit.

I was thinking Austin Film Festival since they prize efficient writing highly, yet it requires "premiere status" and it's in French with English subtitles, -- got a feeling that's not such a good thing for some reason. Raindance and SXSW again feel like a good choices, but again, the film is in French?

What about other big film festivals? What do you speculate?
What about smaller festivals, any good recommendations? - think I should only stick to regional?
And finally, what about ones that grant prizes, possibly getting back my investition?

Thanks for the time to read this. I can't wait to hear your input!
 
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Thanks for the reply. I am, I'm also looking at tops 100, at local festivals, etc. But with 12 000 festivals in the world, it's hard to find the niche ones, the ones that prize the writing and narrative, sound design too. I appreciate all sources, espcially forums where you guys might know something specific. I started making my own lists with festivals, but I want to target prestigious and OK niche film festivals most of all.
 
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I'll never be one to tell somebody not to submit their film to one of the bigger film festivals. I do it, myself. If you wanna take that gamble, do it. But know that your odds of getting into one of the more prestigious festivals is slim. Then again, I haven't seen your film.

I think it's best that you recognize what real benefits can come from getting into a film festival. The list of festivals that will make a career for you is VERY short, and you're very unlikely to get into any of them. The vast majority of film festivals are something that are mostly done for fun. And then there's also networking.

For both purposes of networking and just simply enjoying having your film screened in front of a live audience, it's a good idea to submit your film to festivals that you would actually attend. So yeah, regional selection does make sense.

Best of luck, and have fun! :D

P.S. Don't wait on pins and needles for your acceptance/rejection letter. Cuz they often don't even send it. o_O
 
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Cracker Funk said:
I think it's best that you recognize what real benefits can come from getting into a film festival. The list of festivals that will make a career for you is VERY short, and you're very unlikely to get into any of them. o_O
Click to expand...

Plan is somewhat different, plan is building up rep so that I can independently go for bigger and bigger projects. With prizes and/or official selections comes credibility into hiring more talented crew and talent, still indie. Then, repeat.

You made some good points on networking too, and that again is one of the great benefits of the bigger film festivals I feel. I am at the very beginning in terms of networking unfortunately (it's just one year ago that I graduated my somewhat useless film degree). Everything will come together I am sure as long as we start doing our thing and be focused at it, just like I feel happened with this project, where I was the writer/director and producer, yet still being surprised at how big the crew got at some point and how much fun we had, as well as the frustration I went through when I couldn't figure out if we can actually make it. Can't wait to see what happens down the road though, and I wish it's good, both for me, and for all dedicated people out there.
 
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