How do film festivals work?

roxics

roxics

Veteran
I've never been to a larger film festival like Sundance, Slamdance, Cannes, etc. Just to a couple smaller local festivals. But I'm curious how they work.
How much award is based on the merit of the film itself and how much is political? Who you know, who the person is that made the film, etc?

In other words, how well does your typical 35-55 year old nobody from the midwest do in these kind of festivals if they have a decent little no-name actor film?
 
The answer varies by festival.

We were the opening film (short) for Slamdance one year. They said it was because it fit so well with the opening feature. Would we have even been in otherwise? Who knows?

I've sat on the screening committees of smaller festivals. I always made my judgments purely by filmmaking merit. But that's just me.
 
i was at slamdance 2010 for a short i made.

ive read (maybe here) the creator of that fest has straight up admitted to taking bribes to get films in. cant say personally if thats true, but i felt very out of place there when i went...seemed like everyone was 22 years old and somehow had put together million dollar+ features. i almost felt like everyone else was part of some secret club wasnt in. some had been in the fest multilple times for different projects. my project was definitely one of those lowest-budget looking ones i saw while there. the kind of thing you see posted here all the time but looks like amateur hour compared to 90% of the other slamdance material.

all that said, how well you do in terms of ATTENDANCE has to do with your own marketing of your film. many people came with a whole team/group, several of the filmmakers or key people, and would ride buses and market to the other riders and do stupid publicity stunts to get attention for their films. i went alone and am not particlarly outgoing so i did none of that. i had poster and flyers which probably (no way to tell!) did zero good, and did occasionally talk to people about the screenings. our first one (you would be in a block of films with a short or opening for a feature) sold out, second one less well attended but was near the ass end of the festival (its an 8-9 day event!). you can also hit up local media and try to get on tv/radio to promote...just keep in mind every other filmmaker from that fest AND sundance will probably be trying to do the same (i got on a local morning show for an interview).

as for how well you do re: awards? who knows. i am simultaneously convinced it has way more to do and way less to do with political behind the scenes secret handshake bullshit than merit, but im not a gameplayer so i will never know. i didnt win anything but then again, only one comedy (my genre) won ANYTHING and it was some sort of joke award and the filmmaker seemed very familiar and chummy with the fest personnel (not like myself meeting them for the first time that year).

also, who knows what fest atmosphere is like these days? its gotta be different than 6 years ago, with all the streaming services and everything blowing up the way they have.

thats all i got. feel free to ask anything else and ill help if i can.
 
I think it would be very hard to speak objectively about whether selection and jury of festivals are political or not. I lean on the side of it not being overly political and generally engaged with the quality of the product. But because they get so many good entries with not enough room to screen all of them, they often have to turn down good films for ephemeral/momentary decisions/reasons, which may seem like politics to some. Again, I cannot comment on this on any definitive way, but also larger festivals it often feels like a crapshoot...which leaves a sour taste in people who make really good films and get rejected by slim margins without explanations.

Similarly, every film that gets into a major festival is really good in one category or aesthetic world and such. Yet, juries are limited by how many awards they can give out. This year at Sundance the Grand Prize went to The Birth of a Nation. I haven't seen it, but I know that it had a lot of known actors cast. It is hard to say anything definitive about name cast or crew helping a film to win something other than their legitimate skills helping the project.

I think where it really makes a difference is more on the market and distribution end of things. You may show at a festival and get good reviews, but films with no name cast will have a harder time getting picked up for distribution. Name actors really help, specially in foreign markets outside the U.S. Also comedies don't often get picked up because of theirs limited global appeal...again, comedy doesn't translate as well. Except for Mr. Bean. Please yall, this is not a rule, just a generalization.

In short, you can be known only by your mother and no matter how old you are, if you create something moving, I believe you will have a good chance at making it into festivals. You may even win some awards. But unless you take care of business first (one or two name cast and other practical things), you still may not get picked up for distribution.

But that doesn't mean you can't still make your money from your film. If you get into festivals, you can promote your film and use that window where you have some attention to sell your film on a monetized VOD platform for a limited time. You may also market it to special niche communities surrounding the subjects/themes of your film. Ancillary merchandise can also really help upsell margins. Repeat this for every festival you get into, try to get it reviewed by local film critics, rinse and repeat. Then, once you reach the end of your festival run you can reach out to the special interests communities and potentially book some screenings at several cities. Add an Q&A and have merch available, and it could be a good night. Then, once you have exhausted these sources of income, you can then try to sell it to VOD places where you might just get a one time fee. This is just one (reductive) strategy of self distribution where you can leverage a good festival run to make some money and build a following, even if you film lacks the chances of getting distribution.

In addition, a good festival run might help you to get with an aggregator who can help get your film in places like iTunes and such, but for a fee.

Sorry for for the long diatribe. I'm not even sure if it touches on the crux of your question, but I'd say, yes, unknown 30-50 something's can leverage a festival run to their advantage.
 
My doc is finishing its festival run at some major fests: Hot Docs (top 3 for docs), Krakow FF and DOK Leipzig (both A list), CamerImage (top for cinematography), a few other medium and smaller ones.
Some awards, including a prestigious FIPRESCI (International Federation of Films Critics) award.

1. When you go to a major festival know what you want: press (good quotes), awards (good PR), distribution (money), meet other producers or contacts for your next project (money for future), meet programmers of other festivals (more publicity). Based on that you will know where to spend your energy (and money).

2. I'm convinced that no film gets into a festival without you knowing somebody on the inside - this doesn't have to be some important or your relationship with the person doesn't have to be super complex but it does need to exist. This relationship will guarantee that your film will at least be seen. Festivals try their best to be objective but in reality human factor is HUGE. Festival progarmer of one top festival told me how once he rejected a film (he was in bad mood that day) and when being a judge at another festival he gave the film the top prize. If this doesn't tell you how subjective it all is i don't know what will.

3. The bigger the festival the more political it is. Films gets shown because there were made by a know director rather then because they are good. Majors are about maintaining certain status quo rather then discovering new paths. I mean, Sundance can be a perfect example: this years winner "The Birth of a Nation" - mediocre film about current racial issues; 2014 winner "Rich Hill" - mediocre doc about poor in American at the time when "we are the 99%" slogan was popular. Those films do not reflect what WILL be the issue next year but talk about the issues in our psyche now. Which really reflects how the programmers of those major fests perceived themselves - not to blaze new trails but to add yet another voice to a conversation that is ALREADY going on.

4. Majority of festivals look for crowd-pleasers - meaning work that is unique enough but not super original as the masses don't really care about originality or uniqueness. So slightly original film well told will do better at the festivals (and commercially) then work that pushes the boundaries. [to push the boundaries means to upset someone, so the programmer really really needs to love the film to risk sticking out his neck for it] The festivals that have nothing to loos usually end up with more boundaries pushing material, which produces catch-22: you want majors because of their prestige but also know that majority of films in are not because of their quality.

5. ALWAYS ask for a screening fee or travel stipend - half the time you will get it. Major fests will fly you and put you up.

6. As for awards, they do matter but it's all relative. You look at the portfolio of the judges and will know what kind of films they will champion - people are not too keen on challenging their "likes."

7. Just like with music industry where the music is not the product that makes you money, but rather is the element that gives you cred, likewise films at major films should be seen as such. How you use the fact that you have a film at a major fest is more important then what the film actually does for you [for us, we got commissioned to produce a semi-major doc].
 
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Great input guys. Thank you. :)
You all went above and beyond answering my question. This is good information to have.
 
I was told NO US festivals do stipends/travel fees etc. . . you will always have to pay your own way for US festivals. Even top tier ones.
 
Josh Bass said:
I was told NO US festivals do stipends/travel fees etc. . . you will always have to pay your own way for US festivals. Even top tier ones.
Click to expand...

Salem Film Fest (where we got Best Cinematography award) - a small 50+ Doc film fest OFFERS stipend from the get go (food, lodging and screening fee). Another one just contact us and is doing the same (lodging and airfare). Yet another - Hot Springs Doc FF (where we got Best US Doc award) offers lodging and airfare (and free beer).
 
My bad then. I should say I was specifically told Sundance didn't offer that. . .guess I assumed if the big bad boy of them all didn't, now could smaller ones?
 
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