Film Festivals: Positive Reviews & Deserved Boos: Pt. 9 - The ALL CRAP Edition

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

Film Festivals: Positive Reviews & Deserved Boos: Pt. 9 – The ALL CRAP Edition

Article by Justin Bowler

This year, I’m thankful that I didn’t submit to any of the following festivals.

For those of you who don’t know, 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. I send them three questions, and they are “Yes or No”. It’s pretty easy. Yet, for some reason, some fests can’t/don’t/won’t respond.

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. It could be someone well versed in cinematic theory, who has studied film for years, dissected scenes for hidden nuances, and has a few degrees in writing, film studies and art. OR it could be some random guy who “really likes” going to movies, sees a lot of Hollywood blockbusters, and has opinions on which Transformers movie is the best of Michael Bay’s work. Sadly, filmmakers are forced to “trust the system”. It can be very sketchy. Some festivals take the time to make sure it isn’t, 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).

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.

41st Annual ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL
Submission Price – Up to $60

As always, I emailed the informational email listed on WithoutABox, submit@atlantafilmfestival.com Since they have been around for 41 years, surely they know how to treat filmmakers, right?

My first email was on 10/8. They did not respond.
My second email was on 10/23. They did not respond.
My third email was on 11/13. Four days later they responded.

Hi Justin,
Our apologies, we did not see your previous email. Please refer to our contact page for more information.

Best,
Atlanta Film Festival

I have so many questions. First, why do they only refer to one email? Did they actually receive the other one and refuse to respond? Second, if you aren’t going to answer any of my questions, then, why are you apologizing? You don’t sound sorry. Third, isn’t it easier to answer my questions, than type out “Please refer to our contact page”? Fourth, what is the point of listing an email address on Withoutabox if you aren’t going to ever use it? (I told you I had a lot of questions.) Fifth, why can’t the person responding list his or her name? Sixth, what exactly did they mean with the salutation of “Best”?

To add to the insult, submissions had closed completely by the time they responded.

ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL gets a NEGATIVE REVIEW for its filmmaker friendliness. This sometimes happens with the biggest fests and Atlanta is one of the biggest. They have been around for so long that they don’t need to respond to new filmmakers. They are an Academy Qualifying fest and they probably seek out the films they screen, and invite them to “submit” so they don’t care if Joe Filmmaker submits or not. Or, perhaps, the person in charge of the email smokes A LOT of weed. I’m not sure of the answer myself, however, I am sure I am not going to submit to this festival (partly because submissions have closed, and partly because I never found out if I am even eligible). If only the festival would have listed some sort of “electronic mail address” that I could have used to correspond with them. HOW SILLY would that be? There I go again with my imaginative fantasy life. Anyway, save your cash and submit somewhere else. If they can’t find time to return an email, then how will they find time to watch your unknown film submission?

California International Shorts Festival (CISF) (Winter)
Submission Price- Up to $60 (Yes, the same price as the ACADEMY FEEDER FESTIVAL listed above) (Seriously, these guys have balls)

I originally contacted them at the email address listed on WithoutABox: info@calshorts.com

My first email was on 9/23. Long before the Earlybird Deadline.
They did not respond.
My second email was on 10/8. Before the Earlybird Deadline.
They did not respond.
The Earlybird Deadline passed and the submission price increased.
My third email was on 10/24.
They did not respond.
The Regular Deadline passed and the submission price increased.
My fourth email was on 11/12.
They first responded on 11/14, the same day as the Extended Deadline.

Good Morning Justin,
Yes, I will be happy to answer any questions you have. Please direct them to this email address.
Warm Regards,
Troy

I don’t know who Troy is, or his affiliation with the festival (he didn’t list it), but if he is in charge of the day-to-day email operation, then he is not exactly doing what I would call a “great job”. I emailed him back and over the course of three more exchanges, I had all the info I wanted. That was on 11/21, three days before the FilmFreeway Deadline. By that time, the submission price had increased by 30% from the original earlybird fee which I would have paid for, IF anyone had gotten back to me in a remotely timely fashion.

California International Shorts Festival (CISF) gets a NEGATIVE REVIEW for it’s filmmaker friendliness. First, they have a pretty steep fee for a local festival. Second, how many hoops does a filmmaker have to jump through in order to get three yes/no questions answered? The answer is FOUR email attempts. Save your cash. If you are going to spend $60 on a submission so people can treat you poorly, then you should submit to a higher end festival like the Atlanta Film Festival.

Liverpool Independent Film Festival
Submission Price – Up to $80 (about $105 for U.S.)

The email address listed on WithoutABox is hello@liviff.com
I contacted them on – 9/23. They responded.

Hi,
No worries, it’s Al Bailey and you can contact him at alan@thefilmmill.com
Best,
Neil
Director of Operations

So, I contacted Al Bailey on 9/23, and again on 10/8, and again on 10/24.
Al Bailey NEVER responded.

Cinemagic London
Submission Price – Up to 35 (GB) (That’s almost $45 for US.)

The email address listed on WithoutABox is info@cinemagiclondon.com
I contacted them on 9/5, Again on 10/1, Again on 10/24.
They NEVER responded.

Liverpool Independent Film Festival and Cinemagic London get a NEGATIVE REVIEW for their filmmaker friendliness. How could you possibly be a legitimate festival if you can’t return THREE email attempts?

Nothing but negative reviews this week. So sad. But, look on the bright side, I just saved you $270! So, now you have some extra spending cash in your pocket. You are welcome. Feel free to send me some of it.

Once again, I’d like to hear your stories about festival submitting. If you think there is more to be said (good or bad) about any of the festivals I have reviewed, then I would love to hear it.

Thanks for joining me again, check back Friday to find which fests are fabulous and which fests are fodder (see what I did there?).

Justin Bowler
IG @IndyFilmTwittic and @OhTheEffingHorror
Twitter @JustinTBowler