6 Things You Should Know Before Submitting Your Film to Festivals

by Greta Hagen-Richardson, New Orleans Film Festival Programmer

Submitting your film to a festival can be a scary, stressful, and opaque process. Despite years as a programmer, I did not fully appreciate the lack of clarity most filmmakers have around what happens after you click submit on FilmFreeway. It took producing a few films to understand that often, filmmakers feel as if they are taking their hard-earned final product and pushing into a void with no sense of who or what it might encounter.

I can only speak to my personal experiences. Festivals vary widely and taste can change frequently depending on who is in the room. For what it is worth, here are some recommendations and insights into the programming process.

1. Ask for a waiver. One thing that surprised me the most about being on the other end of the submission process was the willingness to pay for submission fees, no questions asked. It did not seem to matter whether the film budget was miniscule or massive, the approach to submitting was the same.
   
   Festivals are generally non-profits and the submission fees are an integral part of how they secure and pay for good programmers. They do not take your money just because they can. Without those fees, the process of putting on a festival would be near impossible. That being said, if you are on your last few dollars and it is going to mean paying your electric bill or submitting to a festival, ask for a waiver. Do it nicely and try to emphasize why your film would be a good fit for that particular festival. The worst they can say is no.
2. Have a strategy. The next big surprise I had on the other side was the overall lack of a strategy. You might have the next Best Picture winner or indie darling. That does not mean it is a good fit for every festival. Before you let a rejection break your heart, take a minute to see what kind of films have played at a given festival. Do not send your doc about school segregation to a genre festival. While it is definitely a horrifying subject, it is probably not the tone they are looking for.
   
   As much as you can, read articles about a festival. What is the audience like? Do the films from previous years feel similar to your film in budget, tone, or notoriety? Is this a festival that relies heavily on curation or discovery (more on this later)? Take the time to research and you’ll save yourself some tears down the line.
3. Do not rely on analytics. I hear filmmakers complain a lot about festivals not watching their movies or wanting their submission fee refunded after a rejection. This reliance on data is a great way for companies to get you to upgrade, but they do not tell the whole story.
   
   Programmers live all over, not just in the town where the festival exists. If you see your film was watched in Seattle, that might be the programmer for a festival based somewhere in Maine.
   
   If your film is embedded in the FilmFreeway player, all those analytics people like to cite are not worth much. Trying to track who is watching your film and how much they watch is often a futile endeavor. Programmers download movies to watch offline. Sometimes we start a film and have to stop and restart again later (this can read as someone doing a partial watch). As a programmer for several festivals, odds are I have seen your film already (especially if it is good) and do not need to watch it again to provide an accurate review and be in discussion about it during our programming meeting. Plus a million other reasons why the data might be misleading (sometimes the player is just glitchy). Do not get mad just because you see numbers that do not perfectly align.
   
   However, there are a lot of questionable festivals out there. Just because they have a page on FilmFreeway does not mean they are legitimate. You are responsible for doing the research. Check to see what films they have played in the past. Do you see in-person screenings (from before the pandemic)? What does the social media presence look like? Do you know anyone that has played the festival before? Do not send $100 to a festival just because it says it exists. Unfortunately, it is on you to do the additional work of verifying that the festival you are submitting to is worth your money. I highly recommend utilizing the lists put out by MovieMaker Magazine (NOFF has been on this list for the past nine consecutive years). If they say a festival is worth the entry fee, there is a great chance it is.
4. Screeners vs. Programmers. For the most part, a medium to large size festival will have a team of volunteer (or small stipend pay) screeners. Where I work, there is a minimum number of watches your film gets from screeners and programmers. That is not the case for all festivals (gotta read the fine print when laying out that festival strategy).
   
   A screener is a person who enjoys watching movies and being in the first line of the decision-making process. In some cases, the screeners get to speak directly to the programmers about their favorite films. In other cases, they send reviews into the void and say thank you for the festival pass.
   
   A programmer (again, I can only speak for myself) is a person with a formal background or experience reviewing movies for a given audience. Typically they have worked as a critic or in film studies, and sometimes they are filmmakers themselves. Programmers often rely on the screeners to help vet the submissions. Many programmers still also watch some films before a screener has seen them, but I at least have access to the reviews/opinions of the screening team.
5. Discovery vs Curated. It is helpful to know what percentage of films in the final program came to a festival via submissions or via a curation process. A discovery festival, like NOFF, comprises about 90% of the final program exclusively from films received through the submissions process. It is one way to eliminate gatekeeping (though not perfect by any means). A festival that leans more on curation might end up with a small percentage of films plucked from the submissions pile, but mostly, the final program will be films found via other festivals, personal connections, or tracking (this is a big one).
   
   I’ve done it both ways at different festivals. I won’t say one is better than the other, but from a filmmaker's perspective, I think it makes more sense to submit to discovery festivals. It isn’t always obvious, but read the mission statement and see what they push. A discovery festival is usually pretty proud of that fact, so you will likely see it noted somewhere or find statistics. While it may be a more helpful approach, even discovery festivals are not always totally honest about the process. One might find a film they like at another festival and ask the filmmaker to submit with a waiver. They still get to curate but claim discovery. There is no way to know 100%, but it is worth researching.
6. Are you being tracked? This is a pretty big one in terms of getting your film into a festival, big or small. Does the festival know who you are? How do they know who you are?
   
   My top advice to filmmakers trying to get into a big-name festival is to participate in artist development programs. If you are in a lab or retreat hosted by a festival, they are already buying what you are selling. Again, it is not a guarantee, but most festivals want to reinvest in someone they have already spent time and money on. Artist development programs give them a sense of who you are and what you are about. They track your work from development to completion. They flag your submission. It is, in my opinion, the best way to get noticed.
   
   Getting into a competitive lab is a whole other beast, but if you are going to spend all your energy trying to get into a specific festival, it is likely a better use of your resources to try and get into their lab first.

I hope this sheds some light on the programming process. It is by no means comprehensive, but maybe provides some info you did not have before. These thoughts are my own and I do not claim to represent all programming experiences. Good luck to all the filmmakers out there.

p.s. Film submissions for the 32nd New Orleans Film Festival (November 5–21, 2021) are open until June 18 via FilmFreeway!

ABOUT GRETA HAGEN-RICHARDSON

Greta Hagen-Richardson is a programmer and producer with a decade of experience in the industry. As a programmer, she works to elevate the contributions of storytellers working outside the traditional industry. Currently, Hagen-Richardson is the Director of Programming at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and the Lead Features Programmer at the New Orleans Film Festival. In 2020, she participated in Project Involve as a Creative Executive Fellow resulting in the completion of three shorts. She is currently producing the short Pearl & Henry and the feature Long Eye with director Gibrey Allen.