The problem with film festivals

As an experiment over the course of this year we submitted a short film to various festivals, some more generalised than others, and some that were more niche for the mobile film-making scene. The results were very disappointing.

Film festivals are big business, but we're not talking about the larger international film festivals, we're talking about the lower or middle entry festivals that take place all over the world, through a variety of platforms like FilmFreeway for example. Entry fees range from £5 upwards to £100 per category that you submit to, and dependent on how close to deadline you submit your film. Many festivals have short lists in the tens or twenties, but receive hundreds of submissions; so do the math. When a number of these events don't run a physical event, made more likely by the Covid pandemic that has gripped the world, many festivals are making a lot of money; but do film makers actually benefit?

Out of the many festivals we submitted our short film to, we had the misfortune of entering a fraudulent festival, that neither had a physical festival nor virtual one running. Despite being selected, we received no marketing, press, or any media showcasing our entry, nor did we have any idea who or what our competition was. Apart from receiving an official selection laurel, the festival meant absolutely nothing; we might as well have photoshopped a laurel and made up a fake festival ourselves. We noticed others had complained but to no avail, no apology and no action by FilmFreeway either. Even today that fraudulent festival is still running and still taking peoples money.

Now it could be said that this is the worst aspect of our experience with entering festivals through FilmFreeway, and that would be true, however, the steady stream of rejection emails, further sullied the film festival experience. Rejection is a big part of the film festival scene, but there comes a point where paying for rejection starts to leave a bitter taste in the mouth. It begs the question of how much should you have to pay in rejections before you get selected for a festival that hopefully showcases your work, because it must be pointed out that of the festivals we researched and/or entered, some did not appear to show case anyones work, whether officially selected or a category winner. So how much is too much for little or no reward, which brings about another issue.

Some festivals have obviously identified this problem, with the solution of having categories that require them to at least submit some critique of your production whether you get selected or not. Now this might take the sting out of how much money you lose when not getting selected, but what if the critique seems to have fundamentally failed to analyse your film correctly. This doesn't mean not accepting criticism because you don't like it, but it does mean not just taking what they say, and looking at the opinion served, evaluating if they genuinely had looked at your production at all. Unsurprisingly we received few critiques back that evidently appeared to be copy and paste responses, when pushed with one festival they responded with a non copy and paste reply that had totally misunderstood the narrative of our short, and thus their entire critique was out of context. There were technical criticisms as well that had overlooked how much had been crammed into our micro short, the production design had been missed, the sound design, props, visual effects, in short we wondered if they had watched it, or just moved the slider on youtube to look at mere seconds at different points in the film. In short the criticism simply made no sense.

At times like that we saw little point to continue correspond, as it was clear we wouldn't get very far; yes it was money wasted but thank god we didn't submit to further categories and lose even more money, perhaps we dodged a bullet. The thing is these festivals don't appear to have an understanding as to just how much film-makers are spending on entering festivals that they don't make selection for.

When so many film-makers don't have a lot of money to begin with, that's a precious commodity that would be better spent on a film production, rather than seeking the approval of peers through a process that amounts to nothing more than an expensive lottery.

The cost, is something that needs to be addressed for entry, let's take an average submission fee which appears be around £30 for many festivals, even if you only submit to one category per festival; submitting to 10 events is £300. If you decide to try and hit several festivals a month through the year, to improve your chances of being selected, that could be costly. Lets go for a ball park figure, you submit a project to 5 festivals a month at £30 each; in a year you would have spent £1,800, so what if you don't get selected through an entire year, is that acceptable?

For film-makers starting out, those that operate on micro budgets that's too much money to lose, it's like a blowing a months rent in the year on nothing. Even if we scale it down, say 5 festival submissions a month at £10 each over the course of a year, that's £600; that's the equivalent of ordering and paying for a brand new ipad, and not receiving it. Would you be happy with that?

What can you do to protect yourself? Well if you're still convinced small film festivals are the way to go, then ask yourself the following questions?

1. How long has the festival been running? Try to find festivals that have been running at least a few years, which leads us to question 2.

2. If they have been running a year or two, have they got photos of previous events? Despite Covid they should still at least have a video of a virtual event, so try and see how many people that video drew in.

3. Have they got a website? This is a big one, because you need to know how you will be showcased if they don't have a physical venue that you or your production will attend/be screened at. Look at the details, is there social media that markets the event, do they attract a big enough audience that you could make new contacts through. A festival without a website is an absolute no no. Even if they have website, make sure it is up to date; if they ran a festival last year, where is the evidence, who won it last, can you see how they were showcased, what kind of films did they attract, would your film fit in, on that basis how likely might you get selected.

4. Another big one to look out for, is how will your production be showcased; if there is no physical event, no virtual event (Youtube Live), or even an online festival, do not enter that festival you will be wasting your money.

5. Does the laurel carry enough cachet? It's one thing to be official selected or win a category at a festival, but what will it mean for you and your production. Think about the venue, who it attracts, can you make any gains from it; doesn't have to be financial, can be contacts, glowing reviews, or constructive 'professional' criticism.

6. Try to find out who the judges are, what's their background, have they made any films; were they any good?

7. What do you have to lose? This one is very important, because festivals are not exactly cheap, if you are entering several a month, especially if in more than one category. Then there is the cost of getting to an event, should you attend etc. There is nothing worse than shelling out and getting nothing in return, it hurts not only the bank balance, but it can hurt your pride or confidence.

These questions will save you a lot of money in the long run, and your pride, but all of the above is not enough, there needs to be some legislation laid down by online platforms that offer film festivals a place to run their bookings. More must be done to protect film makers, it's incredible frustrating that there is no report button on some sites like Film freeway, only to contact them by email about an event on their platform. As mentioned earlier it was disappointing that our complaint about one festival was not followed up, and the festival is still running from Film Freeways platform, still taking peoples money, and not producing any kind of venue in any form. This simply needs to stop.

As digital film-making has exploded in the last 10 years, so has the sheer volume of film makers submitting to film festivals, with events receiving hundreds of submissions a year or monthly depending on how they are conducted, and with so many not holding a physical venue, festivals are making a lot of money though not to the benefit of 99% of film makers.

Should festivals have a limit on submissions? One could argue yes. Should there be a minimum entry fee until short listed? Yes. Let's face it with festivals not running physical events, a minimum entry fee isn't going to hurt if they are receiving several hundred submissions if not more; and then perhaps charge an initial category fee if selected. The same could be said for venues that charge table or seat fees for events that actually take place, they are easily making more money there than on entry fees, so why sting the film makers with them, if entering the festival becomes nothing more than an over priced lottery because there are too many submissions, then what's the point. Losing out to someone else genuinely because of better production values is far better than receiving a copy and paste notification telling you that you weren't selected because 'we had hundreds of submissions'. Responses like this simply take away the value of your submission.

One final piece of advice; if you have a produced a dynamite short film, feature film, documentary that looks and sounds like it could hold its own against its larger budgeted, studio compatriots; then do not waste your money or time on smaller venues, that simply don't make the time to look at the hundreds of submissions they receive because it's easy for them to make money. You will resent the process if you receive a long list of rejections from venues only to see someones Tik Tok make the grade. Save your golden nuggets for larger international festivals, because even if you don't get selected there's more pride that can be taken by submitting a film to Berlin, or Venice. Less is more, I'd rather see a film with laurels from a handful of the biggest international film festivals than a film that has twenty or more laurels from venues I've never heard of.

So think about it, put the ball back in your court, and ask this one final question, does that festival deserve your film?