Are film festival becoming a complete waste of time? [Slamdance 2011 = 1.35% chance]

Slamdance is aiming too low.

TIFF, Sundance, Berlinale, Cannes and a few others... aim higher.

If you're in this business for the odds - you're in the wrong business.
 
Nektonic said:
I think that maybe a smart move would be to think about what kind of movie you are making, or have already made, and seeing which festivals it has a good chance of getting into and which ones it may not be suited for.

Example: one of my favorite ideas that I want to film in the coming years is a low budget horror/action flick that is sort of an homage to the great John Carpenter flicks from the 80's like The Thing, Escape From New York, and The Fog. It has a tough talking lesbian as the main character, who is traveling across the Midwest when an outbreak of an experimental mutagen gets loose and starts turning the populace into zombies and mutants.

Would I try and enter something like that in a major festival like Sundance, Slamdance, or Cannes? Hell no. I'd look for horror or sci-fi or other genre specific festival(s) to enter. But in the end, I'd be looking for a distributor or self releasing it, because it is a genre flick with an extra helping of genre heaped on top. I would just be wasting my money submitting to a big film festival, because no matter how good or profound a film about a tough talking lesbian hitchhiker killing zombies and mutants might end up being, they'd probably just scoff at it as schlock.



Thanks for the info Andrew. I am going through Wiki-withdrawal over here.

I feel like Johnny Five from Short Circuit. "Need more input..."
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A movie like that would have a great chance at getting into the Fantastic Festivals all over the world, like Fantasia, Sitges, Fantastic Fest (Austin) and a ton of others as well.

If it's good, that is.
 
Jawa Ex Machina said:
There are other festivals than Slamdance. My film MARIANNE got into 13 festivals last year and at least one this year. Thanks to that it's gotten over 20 glowing reviews on sites like Ain't It Cool News, Twitchfilm, Fangoria, Badass Digest, FEARnet and a whole heap of others and got into (I think) five or six Top Ten 2011 film lists (including two on Twitch and an honorable mention on Nordling's list at Ain't It Cool). I wouldn't have gotten there if it hadn't been for festivals, and I certainly wouldn't have gotten wide distribution (which I now got at least domestically).

And this is all without me getting into Slamdance.
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Did you ever announce details of your distribution deal? Don't remember seeing it in your thread but would like to hear the story. Congrats either way.
 
Kholi said:
Did you ever announce details of your distribution deal? Don't remember seeing it in your thread but would like to hear the story. Congrats either way.
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Thanks! No I haven't. Sorry bout that, it's just that things have been crazy lately these past months. We haven't announced it on our facebook either, just got the release date Monday actually. So it's all new.
 
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