Sundance Rejection Letter

HerzogisGod

HerzogisGod

Well-known member
[FONT=Arial,sans-serif]No Sundance for Mnemonica :( Hey, at least I tried :)

Dear Chris,

On behalf of our Programming staff, I would like to thank you for submitting your film to the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Unfortunately, we are not able to include it in our program this year. We received a record 9,800 submissions this year, and many tough decisions had to be made in order to narrow the field down to under 200 films. Please know that your work was carefully considered by our team, and we viewed far more worthy films than we had room for in the program. I sincerely hope that this decision does not discourage you in any way. We wish you the best of luck with your film, and we look forward to having the opportunity to view your work in the future.

Sincerely,


John Cooper
Director, Sundance Film Festival
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I'd still frame that letter...you know....so when you win an academy award in the future you can read that to the crowd during your acceptance speech.


...you never know..
 
Geez...did that mean 9800 *features*? Or features + shorts? Or features + shorts + docs?

9800 feature submissions in one year would be just staggering. I know the numbers have gotten out of hand lately, but...
 
9800 submissions were for all categories.

Don;t feel bad Chris, I know a lot of people who got the same letter today.
 
One of the films we submitted was in serious consideration apparently. we received this email from the head of programming a few days ago and our official rejection last night. It went to my partner at Sabi, Kevin Shah.

Kevin,

I have the unfortunate task of letting you know that we will not be able to include White Knuckles at the Sundance Film Festival this year. You will be receiving the official notification soon but I wanted to personally let you know in advance since I truly admired your film and sincerely thank you for allowing us to consider it for our program. This is always a difficult time because we see so many strong films but have so few slots to fill. I wish you all the success for the future of White Knuckles, and do hope you will come back to us with any future projects.

Best,
Trevor Groth
Director of Programming
Sundance Film Festival
 
Zak Forsman said:
One of the films we submitted was in serious consideration apparently. we received this email from the head of programming a few days ago and our official rejection last night. It went to my partner at Sabi, Kevin Shah.
Click to expand...

That's actually really nice. I got a personalized rejection letter like that once and an urging to submit another film next year. Very nice touch. Took a little of the sting out of the rejection.

So, for me, it was confirmation that I'm close and on the right track.
 
what do you do with films that get rejected to festivals? submit them to other festivals? I mean, 9800 submissions? why even bother? I think someone on here made that point before.
 
I just got an email from a program director over at Seattle International FF. She informed me that the DVD I sent her was cracked due to mail service. I sent her out another one this morning as per her request.

This made me feel good knowing the films we submit actually get watched.
 
Chip,

I submitted a few months ago and paid the early bird entry fee. I think it was $35 or $40


I'll save the rejection letter, for sure. Sundance is a major long shot, so no disappointment on my end
 
EARLY SUBMISSION DEADLINE:

U.S. & INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILMS
Monday, August 17th, 2009 - $35 ENTRY FEE

U.S. & INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILMS & DOCUMENTARIES
Monday, August 17th, 2009 - $45 ENTRY FEE

OFFICIAL SUBMISSION DEADLINE:

U.S. & INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILMS
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 - $50 ENTRY FEE

U.S. & INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILMS & DOCUMENTARIES
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 - $75 ENTRY FEE

LATE SUBMISSION DEADLINE:

U.S. & INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILMS
Monday, September 21st, 2009 - $75 ENTRY FEE

U.S. & INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILMS & DOCUMENTARIES
Friday, September 25th, 2009 - $100 ENTRY FEE
 
HerzogisGod said:
I just got an email from a program director over at Seattle International FF. She informed me that the DVD I sent her was cracked due to mail service. I sent her out another one this morning as per her request.

This made me feel good knowing the films we submit actually get watched.
Click to expand...
memo to self... if submitting to sundance and you really, really need another week, consider sending a pre-cracked DVD...
:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
Still waiting for my Sundance and Slamdance rejection letters for a short I made...should be any day now.
 
Ted Spencer said:
Geez...did that mean 9800 *features*? Or features + shorts? Or features + shorts + docs?

9800 feature submissions in one year would be just staggering. I know the numbers have gotten out of hand lately, but...
Click to expand...
I would guess that is 6-7K features and 2-3K shorts.
EDIT. Looks like it's actually 4K features and 6K shorts!

Efexone said:
what do you do with films that get rejected to festivals? submit them to other festivals? I mean, 9800 submissions? why even bother? I think someone on here made that point before.
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Because you can't not bother. Sundance is the only one that is this crazy + has all of this Hollywood and insider pressure. Then there are 10 or so more that are still pretty crazy but you have more or less only the numbers issue to contend with. Last year Slamdance got around 7 thousand entries for half as many slots as Sundance and I got in that with no connections.

Similarly, the letter from Trevor Groth at Sundance proves people are watching the un-connected, non-insider movies.

So you at least have to blow $30 or $40 dollars and buy your lottery ticket to Sundance. Then a few other against the odds festivals like SXSW, Tribeca, Slamdance, Toronto etc. Getting in is well worth the gamble and we've seen that nobodies do get selected.

As for what you do if you don't get in - yes you play smaller festivals.

Here's a list of festivals "worth their price of admission" meaning you'll get something out of getting in and the odds, while they may be very high, are not imppossible.

http://www.moviemaker.com/festivals/article/25_film_festivals_worth_the_entry_fee_2009_20090414/
HerzogisGod said:
I just got an email from a program director over at Seattle International FF. She informed me that the DVD I sent her was cracked due to mail service. I sent her out another one this morning as per her request.

This made me feel good knowing the films we submit actually get watched.
Click to expand...

Barry_Green said:
memo to self... if submitting to sundance and you really, really need another week, consider sending a pre-cracked DVD...
:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
Click to expand...

EMAIL I got from Sundance:
(further proof that someone out there is actually watching and considering us nobodies)
"Jack,

Although we have received your submission to the Sundance Film Festival, the version we currently have is broken or damaged in some way. We must receive a new version in order to keep your film in consideration for the festival.

Please send a corrected copy of the film ASAP directly to my attention at the address below. Include your original Tracking Number on the DVD itself as well as a copy of this email. Thank you very much and we look forward to viewing your submission.


Best,

Landon Zakheim
Coordinator, Programming Department"

I sent them another one. I'll let you know when I get my rejection letter. :)
 
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