Film Festival question

[DVX100Shooter]

I am thinking about submitting a project or two to some festivals. What are festivals for? Do filmmakers use these to get their work out as in noticed? Used to get distribution deals? For me, I was just thinking about using it to put my name out there as well as my work.

[mediamogul]

Film festivals can be great. I submitted a feature to the Toronto Film Festival a few years back called "Love and Action in Chicago" (was shot on 35mm, budget was north of 3 million.) We were lucky enough to get accepted. The lead actress, Regina King, won an award for Best New Actress. We landed a distribution deal and video sale that almost made bade the budget (deal was for domestic only). So needless to say we made out well.

Another time I had a film get picked to be in a smaller festival, The Big Bear Film Festival. We had alot of claps but that was it hehe.

So its really a hit or miss type of thing. But in my opinion exposure is exposure.

[Barry_S]

It greatly depends on the festival--so you need to investigate. Some festivals (like Toronto or Sundance) focus on getting deals made, many are mostly for exhibition and some exist just to collect entry fees :-/. It doesn't hurt to have some festival awards when you're trying to line up some distribution. I used to be a coordinator for the Washington D.C. International Film Festival and we were mostly focused on exhibition, but some films always got picked up for distribution. A lot of networking goes on in the large festivals and even if your film doesn't get picked up (likely), you can make some great contacts.

[Barry_Green]

Yep. Toronto is one of the top 10 film festivals in the world (along with Sundance, Telluride, SXSW, a few others...)

Festivals come in all flavors. The top festivals can do wonders for you. The lesser festivals may feed your ego and let you say you were in a festival, but that's about it. Maybe win a trophy, which never hurts. But for deals, sales, exposure, etc., you really need to get into one of the top festivals.

[kyle_doris]

i'd say tribeca is gaining a lot of strength as well..

[David Jimerson]

Yep. *Toronto is one of the top 10 film festivals in the world (along with Sundance, Telluride, SXSW, a few others...)



You know, Cannes . . . ::)

[Barry_Green]

Yeah, that one's pretty famous too... ;D