Film Festivals: Positive Reviews & Deserved Boos: Pt. 6 - Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival, CinePlay Film Awards & more

AN ONGOING SERIES ABOUT ONE SILLY LITTLE MAN’S FILM FESTIVAL SUBMISSION EXPERIENCE

Film Festivals: Positive Reviews & Deserved Boos: Pt. 6 – Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival, CinePlay Film Awards & more

Article by Justin Bowler

Hello filmmakers,

This is an ongoing review series about my film festival submission experience. These festival reviews are not based on whether or not I was accepted to their festival, it is based merely on my interaction with them as a filmmaker inquiring about their festival and if my genre film is the right fit. As you will see, some fests are extremely filmmaker friendly, whereas others can’t/won’t/don’t respond to simple eligibility questions. Seriously, there are only three questions, and they are “Yes or No”. It’s pretty easy. But, you would be surprised by the myriad of answers/NONanswers I get.

Filmmakers submit their films online to festivals. They can pay upwards of $100 just to be considered. Yet, they never get confirmation that their film was actually watched. They never speak with anyone from the fest. They don’t know who is judging the film. They just have to “trust the system”. It can be very sketchy. Some festivals take the time to make sure it isn’t sketchy, whereas others just don’t want and/or care to make it otherwise.

Check out my friend Paul Osborne’s documentary Official Rejection. It will give you some real insight into how unfriendly some fests are to filmmakers. Sadly, it will blow your mind.

Let me set the scene. I have a short film called OH, THE EFFING HORROR. (That’s right, the title is meant to be shouted.)

(Check out the teaser at HERE)

Clearly, it is a genre picture. It’s a horror/comedy or “Horr-omedy”. In addition to the gore and general subject matter, it contains nudity. Finally, with a run time of almost seventeen minutes, it may be too long for some festivals to program. All three of these points give rise to questions I have for festivals.

First, do they program horror films? (The majority of the fests out there are NOT horror fests, so I would like to know if they even consider the genre in their short film competition.)
Second, do they accept films with nudity? (Plenty of festivals have to keep it family friendly. I don’t have a problem with that, but, I would like to know that before I shell out my $45.)
Third, is a seventeen minute run time too long? (Many fests have time limits for their shorts, but don’t always post that info on WithoutaBox.com or FilmFreeway.com.) (For you newcomers, these are the two websites used for the majority of festival submissions.)

My journey began by contacting festivals through the informational email they listed on WithoutaBox.com or FilmFreeway.com. In my email, I stated who I was, the answers I was seeking and inquired who could answer. Typically, I was referred to the Artistic Director or Programming Director.

Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival
Submission Price – Up to $40

As always, I emailed the informational email listed on WithoutABox. My first email was sent on September 12th. I immediately got a response back from the programming director, R. Presley Stephens. His response was specific and awesome.

This year we will have more than 300 submissions and we usually screen about 100 (15 or so of them features — those will be very competitive this year as we already have close to 100 feature submissions for those 15 slots). We have had at least 2 horror comedy features and an entire horror comedy short block every year, some of them with nudity but nothing pornographic (what you described is fine).
R. Presley StephensTBUFF
Programming Director

Short, sweet and to the point. I would also like to add that Mr. Stephens got back to me during his busiest time. There was less than a few weeks before the final deadline, and I’m sure he was smothered with submissions. I submitted immediately.

REVIEW:
TAMPA BAY UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL gets a POSITIVE REVIEW for their filmmaker friendliness. They were immediate, enthusiastic, and helpful. They are certainly worth the price.

CinePlay Film Awards
Submission Price – $00.00 (Yes, that is correct. It is FREE to submit.)

I sent an email off to the informational address they provided on WithoutABox. I received an immediate response from their general email address. No name was attached.

We accept all Genres of films and series as long as they are by Indie creators so you would definitely qualify.

We are currently producing an original series for CINEPLAY TV called Yellow Fever. The main character is a lesbian with multiple loves so nudity and simulated sex is fine with us.

We are definitely filmmaker friendly and think we are the most unique festival there is. For starts, we don’t charge any submission fees. We had one creator that said he submitted to 20 festivals and spent over $1,000 on submission fees and wasn’t accepted. It’s a great film that’s getting great feedback thus, lots of festivals just do it for the $$. In addition, films selected are initially added to our streaming site and viewed by our subscribers not a panel of judges. Films that get the most views are chosen as finalist and screen live in NYC. Winners share in over $5,000 in cash and prizes. Filmmakers who have their films streamed also share in revenue from our subscribers on a pay per view basis like Indieflix.com. We pay per view though, they pay per minute viewed. We’ve also added a new award called the Social Media Award that anyone who submits to the festival can win, even if they are not selected. In other words, any filmmaker that becomes a part of our festival has nothing to loose and the potential to win a lot and even make some $$.

We are also contacting other small festivals to offer Cineplay TV as a sponsor since we can offer non-exclusive distribution on our streaming site to winners of their festivals at no cost to the filmmaker.

We hope this helps and please feel free to ask any addition questions. We have received over 3,500 submissions by WAB from all over the world and needless to say we have become overwhelmed since this is our first festival. But we are doing our best to connect with each filmmaker and certainly welcome those like yourself who take the initiative to correspond directly.

This was the first time that I received such in-depth info from a generic email address. Normally, no name means no responsibility. I still don’t know who I was conversing with, but I definitely submitted, especially since THIS FESTIVAL IS FREE!!!!

REVIEW:
CinePlay Film Awards gets a POSITIVE REVIEW for their filmmaker friendliness. They were specific and thorough with their answers. Not to mention, they have an incredibly unique product. And, just in case you missed it, IT IS FREE!

These Festivals NEVER returned a single email.

Challengers International Film Festival
Submission Price – Up to $20
The email address listed on WithoutABox is challengersfilmfestival@gmail.com
I contacted them at on 9/1, Again on 9/9, Again on 10/1, Again on 10/22.
They NEVER responded.

Oregon Short Film Festival
Submission Price – Up to $60
The email address listed on WithoutABox is oregonshortfilmfestival@gmail.com
I contacted them at on 9/5, Again on 10/1, Again on 10/24.
They NEVER responded.

Dreamers International Film Festival
Submission Price – Up to $60
The email address listed on WithoutABox is infodiff2017@gmail.com
I contacted them at on 9/6, Again on 10/2, Again on 10/24.
They NEVER responded.

Malta Film Festival
Submission Price – Up to $35
The email address listed on WithoutABox is maltainternationalfilmfestival@gmail.com
I contacted them at on 9/6, Again on 10/2, Again on 10/24.
They NEVER responded.

London Classic Film Festival
Submission Price – Up to $30
The email address listed on WithoutABox is londonclassicfilmfestival@gmail.com
I contacted them at on 9/6, Again on 10/2, Again on 10/24.
They NEVER responded.

I find all of these so interesting. First, they all have Gmail addresses (probably dummie addresses they don’t check) (What am I saying? It’s not PROBABLY, they DEFINITELY don’t check those email addresses) So, I wonder if Withoutabox requires an email address and tells fests “at least create a gmail account.” Hmmm. Second, with submission fees up to $60, it is OUTRAGEOUS that they don’t bother to look at email. “Please SUBMIT your film, PAY your fee, and DON’T ASK any questions.” Totally bogus.

Challengers International Film Festival, Oregon Short Film Festival, Dreamers International Film Festival, Malta Film Festival, and London Classic Film Festival get a DESERVED BOOO for their filmmaker friendliness. If they can’t return an email or 5, then they clearly don’t care about filmmakers. I don’t think for a minute if there is a problem with my submission they will call. This looks like a straight up money grab. STAY AWAY!

This was a particularly interesting week. One fest was free. One fest was awesome. Five fests were completely unresponsive. I know which two of the seven fests I would submit to (and I did).

Tell me you own stories about festival submitting. If you think there is more to be said about any of the festivals I have reviewed, then I would love to hear it.

Thanks for joining me, check back next Friday to find which fests are fab and which fests are effed. (See what I did there?)

Justin Bowler
IG @IndyFilmTwittic and @OhTheEffingHorror
Twitter @JustinTBowler

ADDENDUM:
Shortly after this article was published, www.TheMovieGuys.net were contacted again by Debra Cruz from CinePlay with this update:

There has been an abundance of great news since our last email and if possible a couple of upgrades to the article might be needed.

1. We have now received over 4,500 submissions and since the deadline was extended to Nov. 30th we will more than likely cross the 5,000 mark.

2. Any detailed correspondence has been approved by the CEO of Cineplay TV, Lorenzo Anderson.

3. The original series, we are producing has been changed to The Fever from Yellow Fever
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4580432/

4. Finally, my apologies for leaving out my name, its Debra Cruz and I am one of managers of the festival and personal assistants to the CEO so feel free to quote me or use my name. We are still very much in the start-up phase so some things change from time to time. We had no idea we would get such a great response to the festival and trying to keep up is almost impossible but we will do all we can to make it a great experience for those that submit.