Is it worth submitting shorts to festivals?

I know this thread has been done a million times before, buttt:

I finished my best short film to date late last year, with the intention of getting into tropfest. I was quietly confident, having seen the quality of the previous years finalists. In brief, things didn't transpire as I'd hoped and the quality of entries this year was much higher - we got shortlisted but didn't make the finals.

A little disillusioned and suffering post-film syndrome (where you can only see your thousands of mistakes), I've not really done much with the film. I haven't released it online, because there were a couple more national festivals I wanted to submit to.

I've come to terms with my work, and I am quite proud of it. I'm currently entering for those festivals, but is it really worth submitting to other international film festivals (besides the small chance of winning some prize money - living in NZ it's hard to travel to many fests, and we only have 1-2 ones with any real weight)? Is it just a self gratifying, pocket emptying move? Would it just be better to try and share it online to as many places as possible?

And as someone who doesn't know many fests besides the big name ones (which i know I'm not ready for), how do you figure out which are worth actually entering - what you're good enough for, and what would actually be better than a generic no-name-festival badge at the start of my film? Is there somewhere I can go to get an assessment of my film and see where it's worth submitting to (I realise the answer here is probably not)?
 
Last edited:
I make films to be seen. That's why I submit to festivals. I don't expect any prize money or a distributor to pull me aside or anyone from Hollywood saying "you're hired!" I do it because it's in me and wants to get out.

Think of it as though you were a painter. You can paint the days away in your basement creating dozens or hundreds of pieces of art. You can store them in your garage (like not letting anyone see your film), hang them around your house (the equivalent of putting your film on YouTube), submit them to local arts and crafts shows (akin to smaller/regional film fests), or get them in an established gallery (which would be like getting into "real" film festivals).

It's up to you.

Here's an anecdote for you. I have a Facebook-friend who's an actor. We've never worked together, but he wants to work with me. He was chatting with me online and said one of the things that really makes him want to work with me is the fact that I promote my work. Actors want to be seen, too. Thus, actors don't want to work with you if it means no one will ever see their performance.

And one last thing. By me submitting to festivals and attending the ones I get into (money allowing), I'm establishing a relationship with those festivals and the people who run them. Which will help when submitting future projects. Something to consider.
 
Last edited:
Go to the fests - I was at the local short-film get-together last night, and people are showing them, hoping to get noticed and funding. I'm going to start with shorts, to build up my experience, and, when the time is right, do features.
 
Great reply by IndyJones1023.

I would get the film out there, anywhere and everywhere. I know it sometimes seems "wrong" giving away free something you're worked hard for but in the end protecting you want as many people to see it as possible.
 
Has anyone ever heard of people submitting like 4 films at 3.75 mins apiece for a 15 minute segment? I want to submit four micro shorts but am not sure on the submission rules for most fests.
 
Oh I do want my stuff to be seen, of course. But with the disconnect of living several hundred kilometers over-sea away from other major countries, and there being literally thousands of film festivals out there (most of which will charge for entry), I guess I'm mostly struggling with determining what sort of stuff to enter.

How does one figure out what fests are at their 'level' and worthwhile being screened at (e.g. not a screening that 11 people go to)? It becomes really easy to piss money away for minimal benefit. I suppose my title is misleading - perhaps it should be "How do you know what festivals to submit to?" Though I would be happy to release it online and promote it to the world.






I would get the film out there, anywhere and everywhere. I know it sometimes seems "wrong" giving away free something you're worked hard for but in the end protecting you want as many people to see it as possible.
I don't expect to make any money - prizes are a nice bonus, but as you, Indy (and others) have said I mostly want to have my film seen by a decent audience.

Go to the fests - I was at the local short-film get-together last night, and people are showing them, hoping to get noticed and funding. I'm going to start with shorts, to build up my experience, and, when the time is right, do features.
Well this is the problem - one of the key benefits I see from festivals is that you get to see your film with an audience, see how they respond to it, meet other filmmakers, etc. There are only a handful of film festivals in NZ alone (and only two of them have any sort of quality - the rest of community group 'festivals' where a kid shooting his dog on his iPhone gets in). So to attend stuff, I'd need to fly overseas (not happening at this point in time!) - so I have a fair bit of disconnect from the overseas festival circuit - hence my struggle in figuring out what stuff is worth being screened at if I can't attend.
 
I have a question out of curiousity in response to this subject. Is it worth submitting to a festival you cannot go to? Cause it seems from this thread and others, people want to submit to the ones they can afford to go to more. I was thinking of sending a short to festivals L.A. and France, once I am finished, but is it worth it, if I do not travel to them? If the short does well, and another person wants to get in contact with me about, can I just leave my information or does that not do any good compared to an in person impression?
 
Has anyone ever heard of people submitting like 4 films at 3.75 mins apiece for a 15 minute segment? I want to submit four micro shorts but am not sure on the submission rules for most fests.
Most festivals allow you to submit as many films as you want. It's
rare that the filmmaker is then allowed to do the festival's programming.
The very best way to find out the submission rules for festivals is to
go to their website and read them.
 
I'm aware of this. I was asking about multiple films for better recognition, variety and to fill a longer space that fits into fractions of an hour (for scheduling the festival)

You're looking at this the wrong way. I've heard time and again from festival organizers that shorter films are better. That way they can squeeze in more content. Don't make 4 shorts into a 15 minute film. It has less of a chance of getting into festivals. Submit shorter films. Either just your strongest one, or favorite few. Or hell, all four if you have the cash.
 
I have a question out of curiousity in response to this subject. Is it worth submitting to a festival you cannot go to? Cause it seems from this thread and others, people want to submit to the ones they can afford to go to more. I was thinking of sending a short to festivals L.A. and France, once I am finished, but is it worth it, if I do not travel to them? If the short does well, and another person wants to get in contact with me about, can I just leave my information or does that not do any good compared to an in person impression?

Submit even if you can't attend. My latest film has been in 37 festivals so far and I've only traveled to a handful of them.
 
This is only a question you personally can answer.

There are, as I know you're already aware, a number of reasons why filmmakers submit to festivals: To see/hear their film on a big screen or in an actual cinema, to see the audience reaction/feedback, to see what other filmmakers are doing, to network with other filmmakers, to win prizes, to get exposure to/noticed by those who can; fund future projects, further your development and/or collaborate with.

If you can't actually attend the fest, then obviously some of these potential reasons/goals cannot be fulfilled, so the question is; are the goals which can still be achieved of a high enough priority (to you personally) to warrant the cost/effort of submitting to them?

I suppose my title is misleading - perhaps it should be "How do you know what festivals to submit to?"

Again, only a question you can answer as it again depends on your priority of the reasons/goals above as well as on your objective opinion of: 1. How good you/your film actually is and 2. How well your film fits with the style/genre/theme/ethos of a particular fest. "Research" is the simple answer, watching the films of past winners/exhibitors, noting any comments by the panel, finding out who attended the fest and what happened to/how the filmmakers progressed afterwards, etc. There is no right answer to your question, only a right answer for you personally, at this particular point in your filmmaking development.

G
 
Are you kidding me!

When people make comments like "You can store them in your garage (like not letting anyone see your film), hang them around your house (the equivalent of putting your film on YouTube)".

They don't know what they're talking about. This isn't the days when film festival were the only game in town dude. We're living the digital age.

I make films to be seen and that's why when people like me and other Videographers who embraced Youtube early on, now have millions of views and hundreds of thousands of subscribers on their channel. Why do I care wether or not my film gets accepted to some festival, when I can upload it to my Youtube channel and get 250,000 views, thousands of likes, thousands of shares, hundreds of comments, while generating profits at the same time. Or email the thousands of people I have on my email list from my blog about my next project, (something that took me years to create).

None of my films were ever accepted at a film festival, but guess what? The millions of people who watch them online or via their TV screens love my videos.

Creating and building an online audience for your film is a lot more important than worrying about a film festival. I'm not against festivals, but what I am against is misinformed people who don't know anything about Youtube who say things like "it's like hanging them around in your house"... What a horrible thing to say. That sounds very elitist.

I don't care, because those same individuals who look down at people like me on Youtube are the same ones watching my channel every day and putting money in my bank account.

The gatekeepers of tomorrow will be those guys you look down on... Those very same Youtubers, who didn't care about the status quo and did their own thing.
 
Last edited:
Are you kidding me!

When people make comments like "You can store them in your garage (like not letting anyone see your film), hang them around your house (the equivalent of putting your film on YouTube)".

They don't know what they're talking about. This isn't the days when film festival were the only game in town dude. We're living the digital age.

I make films to be seen and that's why when people like me and other Videographers who embraced Youtube early on, now have millions of views and hundreds of thousands of subscribers on their channel. Why do I care wether or not my film gets accepted to some festival, when I can upload it to my Youtube channel and get 250,000 views, thousands of likes, thousands of shares, hundreds of comments, while generating profits at the same time. Or email the thousands of people I have on my email list from my blog about my next project, (something that took me years to create).

None of my films were ever accepted at a film festival, but guess what? The millions of people who watch them online or via their TV screens love my videos.

Creating and building an online audience for your film is a lot more important than worrying about a film festival. I'm not against festivals, but what I am against is misinformed people who don't know anything about Youtube who say things like "it's like hanging them around in your house"... What a horrible thing to say. That sounds very elitist.

I don't care, because those same individuals who look down at people like me on Youtube are the same ones watching my channel every day and putting money in my bank account.

The gatekeepers of tomorrow will be those guys you look down on... Those very same Youtubers, who didn't care about the status quo and did their own thing.

Wow, talk about jumping to conclusions. You should ask some questions before assuming and making yourself look an ass.

It's great that you have a monstrous YouTube following and can buy and sell each one of us due to all the dollars flowing into your offshore accounts. As for the original poster, it doesn't sound like they have that same following, nor do they want to go in that direction based on them asking about festivals.

Thus, it would probably take them quite a while to catch up to you. As you said, it took you years to create this empire. I wasn't being elitist. I don't look down my nose at YouTube or the digital age. My son makes money off streaming his video games. I don't look down on you for being a successful YouTuber. I applaud you! I can't do that, I have a very meager following.

I do look down on you for assuming facts not in evidence and generally coming off as a jerk.
 
I'm pro youtube. I don't think anyone is really against it in this thread? If you read my OP I said I had considered that youtube/vimeo might be the most appropriate release platform. But I'm also aware that the kinds of films I make aren't really the kinds of films people use youtube for - but that doesn't mean I won't be putting my content there.
 
Back
Top