Film Festivals: Positive Reviews & Deserved Boos: Pt. 10 - Dawson City & San Louis Obispo Int'l Film Festivals + Zed & Short. Sweet. Film Fests

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

Film Festivals: Positive Reviews & Deserved Boos: Pt. 10 – Dawson City & San Louis Obispo Int’l Film Festivals + Zed & Short. Sweet. Film Fests

Article by Justin Bowler

How about some positivity!

It’s December and the feeling of hope and good cheer is in the air! So, this week, I feature all positive 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.

Dawson City International Short Film Festival
Submission Price – Up to $25

As always, I emailed the informational email listed on WithoutABox. I got back a response from Dan Sokolowski, who identified himself as “producer”.

Hi Justin,
we accept all genres, yours would be the general Canadian or International category

we screen 30 minutes or less

Our festival is small and intimate. The venues and social gatherings are all in walking distance and we have no simultaneous programming so the ability to mingle with other filmmakers and members of the community is high. We are situated in a unique town close to the arctic circle which retains its turn of the century charm surrounded by the vastness of nature.

hope this helps

This was simple and to the point. I submitted.

Dawson City International Short Film Festival gets a POSITIVE REVIEW for its filmmaker friendliness. The “producer” was direct and to the point.

Zed Fest Film Festival & Screenplay Competition 2016
Submission Price – Up to $70

As always, I emailed the informational email listed on WithoutABox. I got back a response from both Festival Directors (Wendy Medrano and Ed Stephens) at the SAME TIME. (I wonder if they took turns writing every other word.)

Hi Justin,

We receive film and screenplay entries of all Genres. We have an R rating for most films. Your film 16 minutes is considered a Featurette Film (15 to 39 Minutes)

Best of luck with your film, Thank you for contacting us.

Wendy Medrano and Ed Stephens
ZED FEST FILM FESTIVAL 2016
FESTIVAL DIRECTORS

I submitted.

Zed Fest Film Festival & Screenplay Competition 2016 gets a POSITIVE REVIEW for its filmmaker friendliness.

Short. Sweet. Film Fest
Submission Price – Up to $60

As always, I emailed the informational email listed on WithoutABox. I got back a response from “Mike” who identified himself as “Director”. I asked a few different questions because they have a horror category.

How many horror films do you typically program?
Not too many actually, usually 5-6, so your chances are pretty high. You can submit to the horror category through Withoutabox or Film Freeway

Is your festival against nudity? (I have two versions of my film, one with a topless shot and one without.)
I’d prefer no nudity but I would say officially submit the one without nudity.

How filmmaker friendly is your festival? Can you give me a quick example?
Very filmmaker friendly! We offer organized social/networking events for filmmakers throughout the festival. We are also in a hotel so it makes it incredibly easy for traveling filmmakers to stay overnight and then simply walk down from their room to the theater. Also, there are scattered break periods throughout the festival to get food and drinks (which are allowed in the theater) and allow time for filmmakers to quickly network as well.

As you can see, I have two versions of my film: one with nudity and one without. Mike was quite helpful in letting me know that I should submit the one without nudity. So, I did. Had I not contacted him to ask, then I would have probably been disqualified. Hence, you can see my justification for asking festivals this question. I’m very happy they were filmmaker friendly.

Short. Sweet. Film Fest gets a POSITIVE REVIEW for its filmmaker friendliness. Had they not responded I could have been disqualified. I am thankful they did.

San Luis Obispo International Film Festival
Submission Price – Up to $75

As always, I emailed the informational email listed on WithoutABox. At first, they did not respond. So, I resent my email. Then, Nancy Joynt, the Assistant to the Festival Director, sent me this email.

Justin-
Our sincere apologies. I went through our account and you did contact us on October 7th and for some reason you were not properly answered.

In apology for the mistake on our part I will waive the entry fee for you. Please let me know if you prefer FilmFreeway or Withoutabox.

Shorts are less than 45 minutes. We do not have specific categories – except Shorts, Features and either documentary or narrative in each of those lengths.
Our audience is generally 50 years old and above – so I will leave it up to you about nudity.

We screen over 60 films at Festival – many of them twice.
We have had a record number of submissions this year so competition is very steep.

Look forward to hearing back from you about submission platform.

Thank you Justin for your patience.

I cannot tell you how much I was impressed by this. The San Luis Obispo International Film Festival is an Academy Feeder Festival. They are pretty important. Clearly, they are very professionally run. Nancy didn’t make excuses. Instead, she owned up to how the lack of communication occurred, took responsibility for it, and made it right. It sounds like my little film isn’t exactly right for this festival, but, I cannot express how impressed I was that they were so forthright. Earlier in this series, I did not receive as nice of a reception with the Seattle International Film Festival or the Atlanta Film Festival (both of which are Academy Feeder Fests as well). I happily submitted to SLOIFF.

San Luis Obispo International Film Festival gets a POSITIVE REVIEW for filmmaker friendliness. Along with CINEQUEST and the CLEVELAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (also Academy Feeders), they are exceptionally helpful, filmmaker friendly, and absolutely worth the submission fee.

(In full disclosure, I submitted to Cinequest and the Cleveland International Film Festival as well, but I have an ongoing relationship with them, so I haven’t given them their own sections in these articles.)

Happy Holidays Folks. This week had all positive reviews. All of these fests could give classes to others on how to be filmmaker friendly. It’s so nice.

Once again, I’d like to hear your 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