10 Tips for Increasing Your Chances of Getting Into Film Festivals
While many festivals are open to anyone who submits an entry fee, many other festivals are selective and only select a percentage of their entries. A first consideration is that your film meets the criteria for being in the festival. Then, the festival organizers consider other criteria, including the quality of the film and any promotion giving the film a higher profile.
Following are a series of tips for increasing your chances for getting into these festivals.
1) To up your chances of getting into a festival, follow the guidelines in determining if there is a good fit. Some festivals have restrictions on who can enter, so check that you qualify or need to do something in order to do so. For instance, while some festivals reach out to the larger community, including attracting worldwide submissions, other festivals restrict entrants to filmmakers from a certain country, state, or city. In some cases, you have to be a member of a group, which you can join; or if not, you will be disqualified, even after you pay the entry fee.
2) Avoid entering festivals which seek student entrants or are for new or amateur filmmakers, since even if you are accepted or win, the festival will be too limited for much promotional value.
3) You can up your chances for getting into the festival and winning an award, if your film is well aligned with the festival’s main goal or mission. If the alignment of your film and the festival may not be clear, show that it is in your cover letter and promotional copy. For instance, if the festival is seeking films of social relevance which deal with issues of the times, point out how your film does so, even if on the surface it appears to be a dark comedy or suspense thriller.
4) To position your film to better fit in with the mission of the festival, highlight what’s most important to the festival director and staff in your cover letter and press release. For example, if your film is a dark comedy that deals with a social justice theme, your copy for a festival featuring films on social issues would point up how this film shows an everyday person confronting these issues in his or her life. By contrast, a letter or press release to a festival seeking edgy comedies would point out how the film provides a dark humor approach to a story in which the protagonist confronts a social justice problem.
5) Another way to up your chances for getting accepted is to apply early. Not only is applying early less expensive, but the judges tend to be more receptive, since they have fewer videos and more time to review them. As a result, they can pay more attention to your video and will be more likely to watch it through and respond favorably due to seeing the whole film rather than just viewing it for a few minutes. By contrast, a judge who reviews the screener later may be tired from seeing so many screeners and make a judgment based on the first few minutes. But if the judge finds it hard to get interested in your film in these first minutes, he or she might put it in the “no” pile early on, rather than giving it more of a chance by seeing more or all of the film at a later time. Then, too, when you submit early, you have a greater chance of impressing the judges that you have a unique or fresh voice, whereas if you submit later, the judge may have seen other similar films, so your film no longer seems so fresh, which is another reason for saying “no.”
6) You can also increase your chances of getting accepted by your cover letter and other materials which you send by mail or email or which you include in your online press kit. In both cases, you should have a strong cover letter in which you provide a brief log line to indicate the film’s genre, tagline, and highlights — as you might write copy for a movie calendar or short TV listing. In addition, include other information that shows why this is a worthy film to include in the festival.
7) In your cover letter or press release, point up previous festival awards and acceptances your film has received to show that others have valued your film. Include any quotes from well-known people or industry pros. If there are any recognized names of cast members in the film, mention those. Note any publicity you have gotten and any plans you have to attend and publicize the film while at the festival.
By mentioning these previous awards and name cast members, you help to influence the mind-set of the judge viewing your film. When you start off with previous indicators of the film’s value and positive reception, the judge is more likely to view the film with a positive attitude and therefore will be more likely to judge it favorably. As they say in politics, “perception is reality,” and that’s very much the case for the judges assessing your film.
8) If you do mail in the film, put it in a DVD box with the picture of your film poster on the cover. You might also use a laminated cover sheet with quotes over the disc, so the judge has to pick this up and may see a few comments praising the film highly, which contributes to the judge a having a positive mind-set about your film before seeing it.
If you have gotten any previous awards, feature those, such as putting gold stickers on the box for 1st place awards and silver stickers for 2nd place awards. These stickers, designed to impress the judge, indicate the name of the festival, the year, and the award given with a silhouette of a laurel leaf on either side of the award title and the festival giving the award. In addition, include the box with your film in the folder for your press kit, so the judge has to take it out of the box to play it. Then, on removing your film, the judge will see the page of quotes and awards, again positively influencing the judge’s mind-set in seeing your film.
9) Should you use an online screener, besides your cover letter, create an online press kit which includes the poster, press release, page of quotes, lists of awards, and other materials. Ideally, place these items in the order you want the judge to view them, just as you might organize them in a press kit portfolio. The advantage on this online press kit is that you don’t have to copy and mail all of these materials again and again.
10) You will normally get a confirmation via email when your materials are received by mail or online, and sometimes you will see this confirmation indicated by a check-mark next to the listing of your film submission. Then, after getting this confirmation, you have to wait and hope for the best for a month or several months until the date that the acceptances are officially announced.
Once you do get an acceptance, you can add that to your film festival portfolio, and proactively do what you can to get your film seen and win awards.
GINI GRAHAM SCOTT, Ph.D., J.D., is a nationally known writer, consultant, speaker, and seminar leader, specializing in business and work relationships, professional and personal development, social trends, and popular culture. She has published 50 books with major publishers. She has worked with dozens of clients on memoirs, self-help, popular business books, and film scripts. Writing samples are at www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com.
She is the founder of Changemakers Publishing, featuring books on work, business, psychology, social trends, and self-help. The company has published over 150 print, e-books, and audiobooks. She has licensed several dozen books for foreign sales, including the UK, Russia, Korea, Spain, and Japan.
She has received national media exposure for her books, including appearances on Good Morning America, Oprah, and CNN. She has been the producer and host of a talk show series, Changemakers, featuring interviews on social trends.
Scott is active in a number of community and business groups, including the Lafayette, Pleasant Hill, and Walnut Creek Chambers of Commerce. She is a graduate of the prestigious Leadership Contra Costa program. She does workshops and seminars on the topics of her books.
She is also the writer and executive producer of 10 films in distribution, release, or production. Her most recent films that have been released include Driver, The New Age of Aging, and Infidelity.
She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and her J.D. from the University of San Francisco Law School. She has received five MAs at Cal State University, East Bay, most recently in Communication.