Tips to Know Before Submitting To Film Festivals

You’ve finished your film and you’re excited to start submitting to film festivals, but slow down there speed racer because there’s some important steps you should do first. So, let’s go over some tips to know before submitting to film festivals.
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First up, before submitting to any film festival ask trusted friends, family, or peers to watch your film and give you feedback. While receiving feedback might not always be fun, it’s a key part of the filmmaker process. Getting some fresh perspective from people who have not been involved in the film will help you fix issues before submitting to film festivals.
Also while you’re still potentially in the editing room consider the 5 and dime festival rule. You see, most festival programmers will only watch the first 5 minutes and last 10 minutes of feature films as well as the first and last 2 minutes of short films. This is because they have so many films to go through. So make sure the beginning and end of your film is the best it can possibly be.
And before we move out of the editing room, make sure you have a stellar sound mix. Your film might sound great on your computer’s built-in speakers, but in an actual theater every bad scrap of sound will be exposed.
One more final step before we exit the editing room, make sure you cut a trailer for your film. Trailers are your film’s first impression to festival directors, so make sure it’s eye-catching and attention grabbing. Plus, having a trailer helps promote your film and oftentimes film festivals will use it on their website or in their social media posts.
And pro tip, make a trailer even for short films. Trailers are important because they are a key piece of marketing both for you and film festivals. Even if your film is a micro short, make at least a short teaser trailer that film festival attendees can see and get excited about.
Ok, you’re probably thinking you’re ready to submit, but hold your horses there partner, because first you have to make an Electronic Press Kit. An Electronic Press Kit, or EPK for short is a pamphlet or PDF that has all the information about your film. It should include your film’s poster, a synopsis and logline for your film, key cast and crew bios, contact details, a full list of credits, technical specs, and finally promotional stills from the film. This is also an opportunity to be eye catching and match the overall vibe of your film, so make sure the graphic design is good.
Ok your film is finished, your EPK looks fabulous, and you’ve got a sizzling trailer. You’re finally ready to submit to film festivals. But hold the phone there, because first you’ve gotta make a FilmFreeway account.
FilmFreeway.com has become the main way to submit to film festivals ever since without a box out went out of business in 2019. RIP little buddy! Once you’ve set up a FilmFreeway account, make sure you make a new project for your film. This will be the main source of information for festivals you submit too, so you want to fill out as much information as you can.
And pro tip, make sure all your film’s spec, like it’s total run time, are accurate as film festivals will depend on this information when making a decision. Trust me, if your film ends up actually being even a few minutes longer, they are not going to be happy about it.
And speaking of total run time, as an artist you might not like to hear this but there’s actually optimal programmable run times. As a storyteller myself I totally get that you might want to make your film whatever length best fits the story, but this can really hurt you when submitting to film festivals.
Next, keep your ending credits as short as possible. If you need to, create a Film Festival only version of your credits that are short and sweet. Then use the longer version for the final release of your film. And remember, only credit yourself for the main roles you fulfilled. After all, no one cares if you did the crafty.
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#FilmItYourself #FilmFestivals #Filmmaking

[@siddhantgoenka9384]

I'm in my third year in my film school and this is something we are not taught yet. this will be helpful if someday I make a good film. thank you!

[@Film_It_Yourself]

Ah yeah, unfortunately I don’t think they teach much about film festivals in film school. I wish they did! Good luck with the rest of your schooling!

[@jamesburton1050]

Just getting ready to work on submitting a short, so thank you!!

[@Film_It_Yourself]

No prob! Happy to help!

[@mariainojosa9950]

This was wonderful! Thank you very much!

[@Film_It_Yourself]

No prob! Glad you enjoyed it. :)

[@rafilmstudioramenbarman2295]

thanks

[@johnocallaghan118]

i was a screener for the Austin film festival and we were tasked to watch the films in their entirety.

[@Film_It_Yourself]

Oh that’s great! I’m glad to hear that!

[@johnocallaghan118]

@@Film_It_Yourself i'm just saying when you submit to bigger festivals they will watch the films

[@hollyyoung856]

She looks and sounds like Kristin Wiig ❤

[@Film_It_Yourself]

Thank you!

[@chrissystewart6268]

Count me in I want to learn . I never been to film festivals before. I want to tell my stories turn to films

[@Film_It_Yourself]

You can do it!

[@chrissystewart6268]

@@Film_It_Yourself I want my stories turn into films I never been in film school nor acting auditions . I want to give it a try

[@bardiakenway]

Tnx, still have a big question, can I make my movie public like here in youtube and then submit it to festivals???

[@Film_It_Yourself]

Great question! Most film festivals will require the film not to be publicly viewable online. However, there are still ones that will allow the film to be online no problem. Just know that you will be limiting yourself if you do post it online before submitting to festivals.

[@gabrielribeiro597]

Hi Ash..how do you do that voice effect of the director talking to you? I've seen it on your Lynda course. Thanks :)

[@Film_It_Yourself]

Hi Gabriel! So to do that I usually apply a little bit of reverb to the audio and then sometimes I’ll also do a low pass filter to make the voice sounds more bassy and deeper. When I record it I also try to deepen my voice a bit as well. Hope that helps!

[@bengthebrazilianengineerinAus]

@@Film_It_Yourself Thanks Ash..Will give a go. Love your channel

[@filmerdude24]

I have a screenplay I'd like to submit this year; I am in the final draft process! However, it's currently around 28 pages long, granted, much of it is direction/stuff I need to clean. Considering a page is roughly a minute of runtime, would it be beneficial to keep the screenplay less than 20 pages?

[@Film_It_Yourself]

Hi there! Congratulations on writing a script! I had to do a little bit of research on this since I haven’t done many screenplay competitions, so sorry for the delay. With actual short films the shorter the better but I wasn’t sure about screenplays. I looked up some well know screen play competitions and they categorized short screen screenplays anywhere from 25 to 40 pages. In average I saw 30 pages being the marker. However I do think the tighter you can get your script the better. I’d aim for 15 pages but if you feel you can’t get it shorter than 20 you’re probably ok there. Maybe do some research yourself and see what the competitions you want to submit to are requiring for length. You can check that easily on filmfreeway.com. I’d also recommend submitting to the Short Film Fund if you’re hoping to win money to shoot it yourself. Hope that helps!

[@filmerdude24]

@@Film_It_Yourself this is PHENOMENAL!! Thank you much! This is a great jumping off point for sure!! 😊

[@Film_It_Yourself]

Awesome! Happy to help!

[@17samalex]

a thousand percent

[@Met9171]

Is it advisable to submit a half a maximum duration set for a film submission?eg if required to submit a minimum of 2min to a maximum of 5min can you win if you submit a 2min duration movie?2.If using smartphone do I also have to get rid of background sound?-3.What if it align with the scene?4.My last:do tiktok special effects regarded as AI generated or not?

[@Film_It_Yourself]

Great questions and thanks for watching! Totally fine to submit the minimum. The general rule of thumb is the shorter the better as it’s easier for festival programmers to fit your film in. For background sound, if it fits your scene keep it in. If it’s distracting take it out. For AI use, most film festivals will probably ask you to just disclose that you used AI and specify where it is in the film. Hope that helps!

[@Met9171]

@@Film_It_Yourself alright, I'm just not sure if tiktok special effects are regarded as AI generated.

[@Film_It_Yourself]

I’m not really sure either but you’d also want to look into if you can even use those effects off platform on your film. Their terms of use might restrict the licensing to the platform only.

[@Film_It_Yourself]

@@Met9171 yeah sorry I’m not either!

[@afsheqaq3423]

🎬😇

[@Film_It_Yourself]

😎

[@knuttlaarsen7218]

Can't know how I bumped onto this. Anyway Awesome clip ❤️😄. I also watched those rather similar from mStarTutorials and kinda wonder how you guys make these clips. MSTAR TUTORIALS also had cool info about similiar things on his channel.

[@Film_It_Yourself]

Well welcome! Happy to have you here! Thanks for the recommendations. I’ll check those out. 😊