Film Festival or Not?

You have your film done and your thinking about doing the film festival route, here a few things to think about.

The good thing about film festivals is that you get a change to have your film juried.  Meaning a group of people will decide if your film is the quality that they would want at their festival.
You and your friends may think that your film is the best, but when it's out there being judged with other films you will get a better idea on how well it communicates.  This is great to get a independent objective view of your film.

Film festivals are a good place to meet other film makers. Its a tough business and its good to make connections for future endeavors.

Film festival cost money to submit your film.  It cost money to put these things on so there is a reason  for the cost.  You can spend a lot of money submitting your film with no results, so be prepared.

There are a couple basic things your can do to increase your change of being accepted.
Submit to film festivals that are the right fit for your film.  This seems like a no brainer but submitting to Sundance with your first film might be a waist of time and money.  Start with the smaller festivals first to get some feedback.

Programming a film festival means getting as many films in as possible.  If your film is 1 hour and 8 min's it might be hard to fit it into the program.  The length of your film makes a difference in the festival programmers job of putting a festival together.

Put your film online, Vimeo, YouTube, and a host of others, that are free to see what type of feedback you get with your film.

Put on your own local film festival in house, get some other film makers in the area and do a house party.  We have done these in the past, its a great starting point.

Make more films!