How to Craft a Winning Film Festival Strategy

1. Introduction: I'm a Stop Motion animation film director and maker based in London, UK. In this Skillshare class, I'm going to be going through with you everything you could ever want to know about film festivals and how to craft a winning film festival strategy. That's not to say that you win awards, but during this class, we're going to figure out what your goal is and you're going to win at that goal. So I've been animating for quite a long time, but I'm pretty new to filmmaking in the sense of making a full and complete narrative based film that I'm happy and proud of. Last year, I made my what I would consider first proper film at Aardman make Wallace and grommet Chicken Run, things like that in their academy in Bristol. It's a three minute short, and it's called Hot Mess, and it's inspired by my experience learning that I have ADHD, and I found that out a bit later in life. And so I go into the grief that comes with that. It's really been connecting with people at festivals, and I've been fortunate enough to have some awards. This is just some of them here. It's been selected at 46 festivals, so far has won nine awards and has had 24 nominations. So for a fairly new filmmaker, I think that's pretty decent. So hopefully, what I have got to share on this is going to be a value to you. So if you've just finished making a film, if you're just about to start making a film, wherever you are now is the right time to be thinking about your film festival strategy, if that's something that you want to do. In the next lesson, I'm going to be talking about the class project and what it is that I want you to share with me in the project window. 2. Class Project: So for your class project, this is going to be a really simple one. We're going to come up with a plan, a complete festival strategy for you and your specific film. I'm going to be going through all the different elements that you need to consider and think about to craft the best plan, the most cost effective and efficient plan to get the results that you want and to reach the goals that you want with film. You don't need to share your entire strategy with me unless you want to because that's personal to you. The project for this class is simply to figure out what your goal is with submitting to festivals. That could be a number of things. It could be winning awards, it could be expanding your network or it could be trying to get funding for your next short film. So many different things that you might want to get out of festivals that we're going to talk about in this class. So for your project, all I want is a goal. It would be nice to have some context. So if you do have a short film that you've made or one that you're planning, feel free to share the title, synopsis, any concept art. Let's build some hype and buzz around all of our films. I think that'd be really good. You can even share a link if you've got a bespoke website or an Instagram page where you are promoting and sharing behind the scenes for that film, too. It would be really good to use this almost like a film festival in itself and a way to network and connect with if you want more bespoke help with your film and your personal festival strategy, you can always book one on one sessions with me here through Skillshare as well. I'm happy to sit down with you for an hour via online call, and we can go through what your goal is, what your film is. If you've already made it, I can have a look at it. I can help you try and figure out what some of the best place festivals are for you to submit to or what your strategy should be to get what it is that you want to get out of festivals and to ultimately reach that goal that you've come up with. In the next lesson, we're going to be looking at your film and breaking it down into what type of film it. 3. All About Your Film: So this lesson is all about your film. You might have already made it. You might be just about to make it. You might be partway through production. There's no wrong or right answer here. It doesn't matter where you're at. But this lesson is all about breaking your film or your film idea down. What's it about? Does it have a theme? Who are you as a filmmaker? We're going to be asking ourselves lots and lots of questions and getting a clearer and better picture what type of film it is that we're making? This is going to help us target specific festivals. There are lots of genre or niche festivals that if your film fits them like a glove, then it's going to give you a leg up and a better chance of succeeding and doing well. Especially if you have a goal of wanting to win awards or just get selections because these types of festivals are going to be looking for the specific film that you've made. So does your film have a theme? Is it about LGBT or the environment? Maybe it's got a taxi. There is a festival all about taxes. Whatever it is that's the subject matter of your film, the theme write that down. Trust me, there are so many festivals out there, thousands. There's going to be likely at least one festival that is going to be compatible with the theme of your film. Next, I want you to write down your genre. Is it a genre film? Is it a horror, a romance? Comedy. Is it an animation? That can be used to target festivals that are looking for films in alignment with your genre. There are specific horror festivals. There are comedy festivals. There are animation festivals. Are you a female filmmaker or a gender non conforming, non binary filmmaker? Are you a trans filmmaker? All these differences in your identity can make you appropriate for certain festivals. There are LGBT festivals. There are trans festivals. A lot of the women only festivals are accepting gender non conforming people as well. So if you're a non binary, but you are assigned female at birth, then you're usually able to submit there as well. Is this your first ever film? You under 18? Was it a student film? All of these things can help as well. There are lots of festivals targeting young or new filmmakers. Within a festival, there might be a category that's specifically for a young filmmaker, a new filmmaker, or even a student filmmaker. And, of course, there are festivals targeted just at students. There's even the student Academy Awards, the Oscars. There's the student version of that, and there is the student Bfters, too. So if you are a student and you've made a really good film, there are some quite big festivals that you might as well submit to because you're not going to be a student every time you make a film. Country of origin. There are international festivals. There are local festivals. If you have a festival that's local to you as a local filmmaker, that can sometimes help you. There will be a prize for that local filmmaker right down where this film was made, did you have collaborators? Was it just made in one country or was it made in several? Festivals want to know this information, and that is going to really help. Is your film a premiere? This is applicable if you haven't yet made your film or finished your film or put it into any festivals at all. A premiere means that it's not being publicly shown anywhere. This is a golden ticket for the top tier festival. Talk about those a bit later on. But essentially, you want to use that premiere status wisely. So if it's a premiere, write it down. If it's already played somewhere, it won't be a world premiere, but it still might be a premiere in some territories. So perhaps it hasn't yet played in the UK, or it hasn't played in the US. If a festival in those countries accepted your film, it would be a US premiere. Or it would be a UK premiere, for example. Film on a tiny budget, a micro budget. Some festivals are really keen for this. There's often a specific category for people that have created a film with very little money. You know, a lot of us don't have a lot of money. A lot of our films are self funded. So if that's you, write it down because you can put your film into that category or festivals that incorporate that element. Is your film actually a short, or is it a feature film, or is it a documentary? Write that down because there's documentary festivals, there's feature festivals. There's even screenwriting festivals. All these things help differentiate your film from other films and make it stand out and have that uniqueness that is specific to your film. Finally, are you a solo filmmaker or part of a bigger team? If you're part of a bigger team and you know who the people are that you're collaborating with, write those down as well, because that will help you with knowing what categories to submit for. Some festivals will accept your submission, and it's eligible to be nominated in a multitude of award categories. Other festivals want you to pay multiple times to submit into specific categories, so it might be that you think your film has great cinematography, and there's a cinematography category, and you can submit it there or same for editing or sound design or music. You are a solo filmmaker. Sometimes that can work to your advantage. There aren't that many festivals that are just about people making films on their own. But again, that can fall into low budget categories or early filmmaker categories. So any information that you've got that distinguishes you from other people is going to be helpful. All these things that we've just been discussing and writing down make up the unique fingerprint that your film has. And they're going to be really helpful for you to distinguish which festivals are most aligned for your film and give you the best chance of doing well and reaching whatever the goal is that you've decided you want to achieve in this festival run. Next up, we're going to be talking about the different tears of festivals. And I'm not talking about crying. It's something else entirely. 4. Festival Tiers: So in the simplest terms, there are three tiers of festivals. You've got a tier, the top festivals, B tier, mid tier festivals. They're still pretty good. And then you've got little and local ones, which are often new, sometimes much smaller, well, often, much smaller. They all have different benefits. So we're now going to go through each of those different categories so that you understand a bit better what these different festivals so that top category, the A tier festivals. These are the top festivals around the world. They are likely the ones that you'll have heard of that most people will have heard of at least one or two of them. And these are often described and defined as career changing festivals. If you get selected there and especially if you win there, it opens up so many opportunities. More people are going to see your work, know who you are. There's possibilities for distribution deals or just other festivals reaching out because they've seen your film, and they're like, We like that. We want that for our festival, you'll get waivers, which is essentially meaning that you don't have to pay the fees when there are fees to pay. And that is really going to help you out. Getting to festivals can get really expensive. So these are like the top top festivals. They can catapult you to bigger projects and more funding, especially if you win there. Now, they're obviously not the easiest to get into. They get way more applications than they have space to program for, and a lot of these festivals also already have some films on their radar. So even if you're an early bird submitter, we'll talk about that later on as well. They still might have already filled some slots in their schedule. They're getting thousands and thousands of submissions for only a handful of places. So if you're a first time or early filmmaker, don't be disheartened if you are rejected. I It doesn't mean your film is bad. They just physically cannot program that many films. For a new filmmaker to get selected at one of these, it's a rarity. But that doesn't mean that it's impossible and these things do and can happen. So don't be put off, I suggest trying one or two that you really like that would actually want to go to. But don't spend all of your money applying to all of these top eight tier festivals. A lot of them, especially in America, have really high submission. Next we're going to talk about the B tier festivals. These are the next run down in festival land, but they're still great. They're often affiliated with Bfters or Oscars, so they would be called a Bafter or Oscar qualifying Festival. If you win an Oscar qualifying one, you can submit your film for the Oscar short film awards. And if you're just selected at one, you can often submit your short film to Bafter for consideration as well. These festivals are more accessible and easier to get selected at. But that doesn't mean that it's going to be easy, and you still have to be really smart with the festivals that you choose to submit to because your film isn't going to be the right fit for everywhere. All festivals have a sort of a style and a thing that they're looking for. And every year they have different themes that they're programming for that can change. So if your film isn't selected, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad film. Like I said earlier, it just might not be the right film right now. So don't let that put you off. Just keep plugging away and making your next BTO festivals will often have been running for a large number of years, 50 years, 60 years. This gives them prestige and weight, as well. Like, their trust is festivals. They have so much history to them. So that is why they are also considered good and valuable to you. And within the film making world, at least, these sort of festivals are on your poster or your website. Then people are going to think, Right, well, you've made a pretty decent film there because these festivals don't just select any old film. You know, they're looking for quality yeah, being selected or winning at some of these BTerFestivals can make your film eligible to participate in some of the most prestigious award festivals in the world, like the Bafas and the Oscars. And there's Canadian equivalents, and there's also in the UK BIFR, which is a British thing. So it's not to be sniffed at. You want to be making sure you're targeting a good handful of these BTier festivals. But there's another tier that we're going to talk about next as well, which might be even more appealing to you. I actually think that these little and local festivals are the gold mine that you want to be tapping into. Alone local festivals are often newer and less well known, but not necessarily. Sometimes they still have got a history to them and have been running for ten, 15, 20, 40 years. If there are festivals local to you, you benefit because you're a local filmmaker, and that can really help you stand out to them. But also, if you're attending local festivals, it's cheaper. You don't have to spend as much on travel or hotels and you're meeting and connecting with people. At least some of that are likely local to you as well, which is helpful when you're expanding your network and trying to find other people to collaborate with. With these little and local festivals, do your research. If you're submitting on film Freeway, which is one of the main festival submission platforms, you want to be looking at does this festival run over multiple days? Does it have panels? Are there networking opportunities? Festivals are literally just an award ceremony. They call themselves a festival, but it's literally just sitting in a cinema and watching some films. Occasionally, they'll bring you up to the front to do a little Q&A. But you really want to attend the festivals that run over several days, have networking parties and specific ways that you can connect with other filmmakers, panels where you can learn from experts in different fields. And sometimes festivals will even do little interviews with you and Q&A type stuff, which they'll post on YouTube or social media. And that can be really valuable to start building your footprint of who you are as a filmmaker and sort of getting well known and more attention on you. So, have a look, see what that festival has done in the past, check out their social media and target festivals that have got the value that it is that you want to get out of them. Wever it is that your specific goal is that you've decided, look and see if they give out awards. Lo and see if they have actual physical trophies. Look and see if they have networking opportunities or panels. A lot of these festivals have something for everyone, and they cater to lots of different people. Do your research. Smaller festival can also occasionally have talent scouts attending them. These are people from the industry, sometimes with pots of money, looking for up and coming talent that they want to support, nurture, mentor, help. So by attending a small festival, it doesn't mean that you're going to be invisible and to not have any big opportunities. Big opportunities can be found anywhere. You make your own so just attending these things and talking to people is going to potentially open doors and lead you to where you want to go. So the little local ones are actually amazing. Submit to as many as you can. They're often cheaper, too, so your budget can go a lot further and you can submit to more of them. Some festivals are even free. And you'll find that every different tier we've talked about. You can find top tier festivals that are free. You can find BTierFestivals and little and local ones. So whatever ones you feel aligned to that jump out at you that fit all of the stuff we worked out when we were talking about what your film is and what it's about and who you are, it's a bit like a pyramid. Top tier, tiny amount. Mid tier few more little and local, as many as you're able to attend to as many are in your local area or that you can travel to with not too much expense, because the most benefit you're going to get out of a festival is attending it. There's no point submitting to loads and loads of festivals that you can't attend unless your goal is to just literally get as many laurels and selections as you want or as many awards as you want. If you're up for networking and expanding your network and connecting with people, then apply to ones that you can actually attend. Next up, we're going to be talking about your festival budget. 5. Festival Budgets: Budgets. Do you have one yet? Often with film festivals that you're self funding, it's a really painful part of the process, and it feels a little bit like playing the lottery. Buying tickets into all these festivals and just hoping that they're going to pick you, choose your ticket, and that you might win an award or be able to attend. There are a whole range of festival prices from free all the way up to over 100 pounds for a submission, which is literally a little bit ridiculous. Get a budget in mind. It could be 100 pounds or the dollar equivalent, 250, 500. You might even even be lucky to have 1,000. My film Hot mess, I didn't really know what I was doing, so I wanted to just submit everywhere. I wanted to learn as much as I could, attend as many festivals as I could, and just see which festival selected my film so that I could learn and work it out to share and help you, but also to help myself so that with my next film, which the set is here. I'm just about to start animating. I want to have an even better festival strategy for myself. Hot mess, I spent easily over 100. Because attending festivals costs money, too. That's something that you don't always factor in. You have a budget for your submission fees, but then you suddenly realize, Oh, my goodness, attending them is costing me money, as well. You've got to pay for your food, your travel, your accommodation, if you're staying over. It all adds up. It can get really out of hand, so you have to choose wisely which ones you're going to attend and which ones you're going to submit to. So let's talk a little bit more so there are free festivals out there, and some of them aren't bad at all. In fact, they're great. The only problem with free festivals is they're free. So everybody is submitting to them because they've literally got nothing to lose. So you're up against a lot of competition, which means it's harder to get selected at them because literally anybody and everybody submits to them, whereas a paid festival, even if it's just five or ten pounds or dollars to submit putting that small barrier of entry, they're going to get less submissions, which does give you a slightly better chance at being selected. Still, apply to all the free ones. Every free festival that you find that your film is eligible for, make sure that you read all of the rules, make sure that you're from a country that it accepts from. Make sure that if it's a genre festival, your film fits that genre. It's an animation festival that your films in animation, do make sure that you read all of the rules every time. This does take a lot of time, but it is worth it because you don't want to be wasting your money. I mean, I know, technically, with free ones, you're not wasting your money. But still, it's not a nice feeling if you submit to one which you're not eligible for, and then they disqualify you. So read all the rules, submit to all the free ones that your film fits, and some of them can even be BAFa or Oscar eligible or other prestigious awards. And, you know, if you get accepted there, it's going to be fantastic. So go for it. So, paid festivals, how on Earth do you decide how to allocate your budget, what to spend money on? It can be really difficult. It can even be difficult for experts, and filmmakers that have made many films still get it wrong. They still submit to festivals and get lots of rejections. It's just how it goes. This is a really competitive and difficult place to exist, and rejection is part and parcel. You're going to get rejected a lot. My advice would be submit to one or two of those top tier festivals. The way to decide those is to look and see what they programmed in previous years. Are any of those films similar to your film? Do you feel like your films a good fit? Is it the sort of style that they like and are looking for? Also, is it a festival that you actually like? Is it anywhere near you? Would you be willing to spend the money to attend? Because trust me, if you get into an ATO festival, they're going to want you to attend, and sometimes they even specify that if you're selected, you have to attend. Now, some of them might cover or help with some of the travel or accommodation costs, but that's not always the case, so you've got to be prepared to spend out the money. So choose wisely, choose festivals that if you actually got selected at them, you would feel amazing and super proud to be in them. They have a meaning to you. And you also, from your research, feel like your film fits. Beyond that, you want to be looking at those BterFestivals. The meaty ones in the middle that still hold a lot of weight and can still push you forward in your career. These will often still have a price tag attached to them. There's going to be a submission fee. There'll be varying levels from a few pounds or dollars to 50 60. More pounds or dollars. It can get really expensive. Again, look at them. Are they prestigious? Do they have an affiliation with Oscar Bafa if that is your goal, if you are wanting to win awards or to further your career, then those sort of festivals are going to really look good to future investors and people when you are packaging yourself as a filmmaker. Now, also, look at the ones that you can travel to. Ones that you would like to attend. The ones that you would feel proud of if you got selected at. These are all really good things to help you shorten your list. Now, there are other things as well. There's a festival calendar. So festivals are open for submissions, and then they close. So if a festival is closed for submissions, then maybe that's not right for you to submit to right now. Sometimes that can be an easy way of deciding. And if you've only got so much budget and you just want to get your submissions done, you just submit to ones that are open and that appeal to you. Festivals will often have an early deadline. Regular deadline and a late deadline. You want to avoid those late deadlines like the plague. The best chance that you're going to have is to submit on an early deadline because there's going to be more space in the program for your film, and it's also going to cost you less money. So if there's a festival that you really, really want to submit to, and it's on late submissions or submissions are closed, you want to wait until it's early submissions and submit then. It's also good to submit to those AT festivals I was talking about first and see what the outcome is before you progress down into the BTerFestivals, because your premiere status for your film also holds a lot of weight. AtierFestivals are going to want a world premiere in most cases. They want to be the first people to publicly share your film. It's really important. The mid tier festivals don't mind so much, and the little and local ones really aren't bothered. Your film could have played at 100 festivals, and most of the time, they will still accept you because they're just happy to have your film. Enter your film with a hierarchy of the festivals you really, really desperately would love to get selected at that would just make you so happy and that you could actually attend. Give them your world premiere, submit to them first. Wait on it, see if you get selected and then go down your list of other ones you want to submit to. Now, the other thing to factor in with your budget, which I have touched on a little bit, is the traveling and the costs associated with going to these festivals. It can get quite expensive. You might want to be saving a little bit of money each month from any work that you're doing to pay for that because train tickets, coach tickets, flights, accommodation, it can get super expensive. If you get into a really high level prestigious festival, your country might have funds available to sponsor you to go and give you a grant to travel. Look into what's available where you are. But most of the time, if they're mid tier or little and local, there's no help, so you've just got to pay for it yourself. So yeah, bear that in mind. Have a budget and stick to it. So tempting to go over, but you're going to get yourself into trouble and likely some debt. So stick to your budget and just submit to as many as you can for the amount of money that you have. That's the best that you can do. In the next lesson, we're going to talk about your goals and get clear on what it is that you specifically want to get out of your festival 6. Goals: There are lots of different goals that you could have for festivals. Everything from winning awards to expanding your network to setting yourself up better to get funding in the future and everything in between. It might just simply be that you want to travel around a bit, and it's a really good excuse to do that. Whatever your goal is, whatever your reason behind trying the festival circuit, that's awesome and hold on to that and stay true to that goal. I'm now going to go into depth on three different examples of goals that you might have to help you out in thinking about what it is that you're wanting to get out of film festivals for yourself. Example one winning awards. This can be approached in one of two ways. If you've already made a film, you want to do research and more research on all those things about your film that we broke down earlier in this class. And you want to target the festivals that are most specifically aligned with your niche, your genre, who you are as a filmmaker, and the little and local ones to help you have the best chance of getting a trophy. A lot of these, in fact, all of these here are London based festivals. I'm a London based filmmaker. I was able to attend them and receive the trophy in person, and I really enjoyed my experience at all of them. So those little and local ones, if you're after winning awards are really, really good. If you've not yet made your film and you're still crafting your idea, then there are some things that you can do to help yourself out and increase the likelihood that your film is going to get selected and potentially win awards. Make your film shorter. A film under 5 minutes is much easier to program than a film that's over 15 minutes. Short films are loved by programmers everywhere. So if you can make your film shorter, if you can tighten your edit, don't put an extra second in more than needs to be there. Another top tip that I have is to make your film as personal and unique to you as possible. Festivals love personal stories, and the more specific and unique your film is, ironically, the better that's going to connect with people, a really generic film is actually not going to have the effect that you might think it does. But if you make a film that's really true to you that goes really deep, that's really vulnerable and real, wherever the story is, maybe it's your story, someone else's story. But if it's really, really real, then it's going to connect with people. You want to get people to feel something from your film, and that's really going to help your film stand out. Of course, if you want to win awards as well, it's got to be a good film. Make sure that your production values in every area are as high as possible, especially in sound and cinematography. Those are really to technically heighten your film and make it sit higher. A lot of the judges are scoring on those technical elements. Of course, the most important thing always is story. So also, make sure that your story is unique, personal, impactful. And that's going to make your film stand out and have a much better chance of getting selected and winning awards at festivals. Little disclaimer, though, you could have the best film in the world, and it's still not going to win any awards or get selected at any festivals. Sometimes that's just the way it goes, and it doesn't mean that you're a bad filmmaker or that your films bad. Just sometimes a film isn't right for festivals. So if that happens to be what happens to you, don't feel disheartened and just keep making more films. The more films you make, the more chances that you have. And if you're an early filmmaker like me, you're not necessarily going to have huge luck with your first film. I made this film as a first film, but I had about 15 years experience going into that. I did my degree in animation. I graduated in 2012. So I have a lot of life experience and skills that I had gained that went into the film and gave me a bit of a leg up. If you're fresh out of UNI or you're not even at UI yet, don't put too much pressure on yourself. Just have fun. Go for those little and local ones and just to see if you can get a selection or two. I'll be fantastic. It's a great experience. Whatever happens. Example goal two is growing your network. This is one of the most valuable goals to have, and this was one of my main goals. To find people to collaborate with, I was specifically looking for producers. I haven't had much luck with that. Composers found many, and I've got one on board for my next film. I met her at a festival, and that was brilliant. You're going to meet so many people, other directors, other writers, cinematographers. And these people aren't just great to work with, but also just to have peers that become friends and you can help each other with your work. So many people have offered up their time to me if I wanted it to help me by reading a script or just looking at a cut of a film, and, you know, those outside eyes are really valuable because often we're so close to our but it can be hard to, you know, get outside perspective, and we can get really caught up on silly little details that really will not be noticed or mean anything to anybody else. So expanding and building your network can be great for making new friends, for getting a leg up and help to progress your own career. Sometimes there are job offers going. The more people that you know, the bigger your network is, the luckier you get. So that's a really great goal to have. My third example of a goal that you might have is to get funding. Was also a goal of mine as well. I had multiple goals going into this. The best way to approach that, again, is to expand your network. All these types of goals can work together. Speak to as many people as possible. You are putting yourself in a better position if you're getting multiple selections and winning awards because that sort of gives trust and makes you look like more of a competent filmmaker in the eyes of somebody who's got money to give you funding. This industry can be a bit fickle and sometimes funding will up and the person won't know a lot about the filmmaking industry, but just see that you've won awards and have lots of laurels on your poster and think, Wow, you're good at what you do. We trust you. Here's a little bit of money. So that can be really helpful. Other things with getting funding is just cold emailing people and reaching out to contacts that you've made and applying for every single grant or funding opportunity that you see because you're not going to be the right fit for everywhere, and your idea or pitch might not be perfect. But the more places that you submit to, the more chances you have of somebody saying worst that can ever happen is that somebody says no. So just keep putting yourself out there if that's your goal, attend festivals, connect with people, talk to festival directors. Often festivals have opportunities within them to pitch ideas or sometimes they even do offer funding. Often, it'll be one where you have to pay a small fee to submit your idea. I'm not too sure about those, but there are things out there and ways to spread the word and get funding. And of course, you could also be funding via a crowdfunder. And when you go to festivals, maybe have a card that's got your link on and people that have enjoyed your film. You can pass on your card and perhaps G, we're funding that way. There's even people that have made an app recently called Cinevte. They reached out to me and they're slowly rolling out into festivals where you can on the app at the festival, there's a QR code on the screen, and people that attend the festival can scan that and then donate money if they like to film. So things like that are popping up and expanding the possibilities for funding, which I think is really great and really helpful because it is really challenging as a short independent filmmaker to get money to make new just some goal ideas. Like I said, there's no wrong or right goal. There are many, many reasons why you might want to attend festivals and what you want to get out of them. It might simply be that you want to travel a bit. No goal is a bad goal. Let me know in the project window what it is that your goal is. Hopefully, you have got close to knowing that by now. But next up, I'm going to briefly talk about selection rates. 7. Selection Rates: If you're using a site like FilmFreeway to do the majority of your festival submissions, on your dashboard, you're going to have a selection rate, which is a percentage score of how well your film is doing, how many selections you've got based on how many submissions you've made. And this can vary widely from as little as 5% all the way up to 40 or 50%. Everybody's film is going to perform differently. There's so many variables involved. How many festivals you've submitted to, whether you've done your research, and they're well aligned to your festival. Someone who hasn't submitted to that many festivals, but they've chosen really well might get a lot of selections and have a high selection rate. Somebody that hasn't done a lot of research and has just submitted to 200 festivals and then hoped for the best might only have a selection rate of 5% because a lot of those festivals were either free ones or they just weren't well aligned for their film. So don't focus too heavily on whatever the percentage rate is that you have. Don't worry about it. You're going to get loads of rejections. It's normal. Even the best filmmakers, the most established filmmakers still get rejections. It's going to happen whatever level you are, whether it's your first film, your third film or your 50th film. So just know that you're in good company with that. Next up, let's talk a little bit about laurel 8. What Are Laurels?: So firstly, what is a laurel? It's essentially a wreath that is a identifier of a specific festival. It's like a badge of honor or an ad, I guess, for them. If you put it on your poster, then it can look good for you. But also, it promotes that festival, so it's sort of like a two way thing. Laurels are fun. And when you're a new filmmaker, it can be easy to get carried away and to just want as many as you can get to just cover your poster and your website and every. But you soon realize that some laurels are worth more than others. If you are getting yourself established, you might want to curate the laurels that you actually publicly share on your poster. If you've got into some really good festivals, maybe some of those B tier or top tier festivals, even or even little and local ones that you've won an award at, then you might want to include those laurels on your poster, because that's going to look really good. But if you just got, like, random selections and you didn't even attend the festival, then it might not be ideal to put that all over your poster. I mean, definitely share on social media. If you haven't already got a Instagram page or somewhere where you're promoting your film, then that's something that you should do as well because you want to build some hype about your film, and festivals love it when you share that you've been selected. Make sure you follow them, tag them. They'll share, usually, reshare what you've posted as well. And so that's going to help you grow and help you get known more. And it's sort of like this little ecosystem that just works away in the background and is just a nice addition, a digital part of the festival strategy that will help you for many of the goals that you might have, more people knowing you, being aware of your work might lead to funding. I could expand your network. And the more like you're promoting your film, the more likely people are going to potentially want to program it and select it. So definitely doing that. But try not to get carried away with festivals that just select pretty much everybody. Some of them are scams. I will be talking about that, too. You need to be aware, and I'm going to give you some things to look out for to assess whether a festival is actually worth submitting to at tool. If you're just after a laurel, then maybe it is. But if you actually want to get value out of it and want to, you know, look like a legitimate filmmaker that is professional, then it's not always the best thing. So enjoy laurels, show off the laurels that you're proud of that come from good festivals, but don't get too carried away with trying to just get laurels for the sake of getting laurels. X up a really important one. I'm going to talk about how to identify if a festival is a scam or legit 9. Festival Research: So like I've mentioned already, with festivals, you have to do your research. Research research research. You can never research too much. One of the first things that you want to do is see if the festival has got a real legitimate website. If you're on film Freeway, there's usually a link to that. Make sure that the link isn't broken, make sure that the website exists. Next, you want to look at has that website been updated recently? Is last year's festival on there? Can you see the award winners, the program? Do they have social media? Is that active? Are they posting? Can be a big red flag if they don't have a proper website, if their social media presence isn't great. So check it out and make sure that that festival actually exists and has a good solid footprint on the Internet that backs it up. Another good way to test to see if a festival is legitimate is to email the festival. There's usually email address on film Freeway or on their website, if they have one. Just email them saying, Oh, I'm not sure if my film fits your festival, just wanted to ask this or that. It could be anything, just something simple and see if they reply. Good festivals will reply to you. Bad festivals won't are plenty of festivals that I've tried this trick with, and they just flat out ignore you. You never get a reply. And so I don't submit to those festivals because I don't see that as a very good sign. Even the biggest festivals will eventually reply to you if they are worth submitting to. So that can be a really good test. Always trust the film freeway page. There can be pictures of people with trophies and it can look real and legitimate, and all of the blob that they've written can sound fantastic. But that doesn't mean that it is. True. Anybody can generate pictures these days and write some nice stuff. Check out the website, check out the social media because I've been to a festival that said that it had awards, and it didn't were pictures of filled out cinemas. When I got there, there was about five people in the audience, and we were all filmmakers from the selections. It was not the best for networking. There weren't any awards, so that aspect wasn't ticked either, and it cost me money to attend. It was just a bit of a waste of time, money, and energy. And you'll find that with some festivals. So do be careful and make sure that it seems legit. Check it out, make sure that things tally up and match up with what they're saying on their film freeway and what you see on their website and their social media. Read the reviews, but don't trust them completely because filmmakers leaving reviews that are public. They don't want to tarnish their reputation. So often they'll only say what's good, so you're just seeing the positive elements, and the negative reviews or comments have likely just been sent to the festival privately or anonymously. So look at the reviews. If there's a name on there, if there's somebody who's left a review, reach out to them. Ask them. Most people are really cool about that. Check out. See if they're legit, see if their experience was as real and good and true as they said it was. If there's anything that makes you feel suspicious about festival or you get that gut instinct that makes you worried to spend that money and to don't submit because likely there's something scammy about it. Another red flag is when a festival has, say, 50 awards that it's giving out. That's a huge amount of awards. Most decent festivals have ten to 15 awards, maybe 20, but nowhere near as high as 50. Those sort of festivals are often cash grabs. They're trying to get as many submissions in as they can to get money. They give out loads and loads of selections, have all of these awards. There's usually no physical thing. There's no certificate. There's no trophy. They'll email you afterwards saying, Oh, yeah, you won an award at half festival. Would you like to give us 100 pounds or dollars to get this trophy? Just want your money. And if you're a new filmmaker and you've not won an award before, it can be tempting, I guess. Don't fall for it. Good festivals won't make you pay out more money for a trophy. They will just give you a trophy at the awards. So that's a huge red flag. Avoid festivals that list loads and loads of awards. They're not useful or prestigious, they're not really going to help you in any way. Next up, I'm going to talk about some green flags, so positive things to look out for with festivals. 10. Festival Green Flags: So really good signs are that they have a physical event. They have social media and it is up to date, and they have a live an active website. They're all signs that this festival that you're submitting to is real and legit. It's good if they're posting regularly on social media, even when the festival isn't running because this shows that they're alive. Sometimes festivals are run by small teams, and they're active for a month or a few weeks before the festival. And then as soon as the festival ends, it goes completely cold and dead. That's happened to me before. I won an award at a festival. They said that there was prizes and trophies. I emailed them afterwards. I wasn't able to attend in person. And just have ignored me ever since, and there's been no updates on their social media. It's all a bit disappointing. So maybe they're not in the office and they just don't check their emails. I don't know. But if a festival is active on social media, throughout the year, that's a really good sign. Can you find any video evidence of previous years of that festival, if that festival is one that has existed for more than a year or two, see if there are any panels or networking or videos of any award ceremonies or anything really online. See if you can find any people that have been previously selected at the festival, look at their social media, see if they have documented anything. Again, you could potentially reach out to someone who's been selected at a festival and ask what their experience was with it. But if you're able to find video stuff online, that's a really good green flag. It shows that they had a physical event and it was documented, and it looks good. Other good signs to look out for. If you email them, they do reply to you. There's a moderate but not excessive list of award categories, and their submission fees seem fair. When you read all of the rules and terms, that all seems fair as well. Another really good green flag and a check that you can do is to Google the festival director's name, which is on the film freeway site and any other names that are associated with the festival and see if they check out. See if that person exists, is real, is listed somewhere like on LinkedIn, and it says that they are the festival director. Make sure that those details align, and that's another green flag for a festival being real and being good and worthwhile your time submitting. Next lesson, I'll just briefly talk again about how you can reach out to me if you want some more bespoke one on one help. 11. Outroduction: So, thank you very much for taking my class today. I hope you found it helpful. I hope you now have a clear goal in mind for what it is that you want to get out of festivals. And you now have a better and clearer idea of which festivals you should submit to by working out what your film is, the genre, the theme, who you are, and all of that business. Please do make sure to share your goal and anything else you want to share about your film in the project window. I would love to see that. And let's treat this like an online festival in itself, connect with each other, follow each other, support each other. I think that would be absolutely lovely. If you do want to have more bespoke help, one on one, then you can book sessions with me here through Skillshare. And if you've made a film, I'm more than happy to watch it and to try and help you figure out your strategy and which festivals you should submit to. If you like what I do and you want to support me and be a part of my journey and help me with my next film, then I'm doing a kickstarter, which is just about to launch, so I'll put a link to that. Loads of different perks and loads of different things. In fact, you can even book a session with me as a perk through there. And booking one on ones here for Skillshare, that money will go into the pot to help me to produce and post produce the film that I am currently working on. You can also find me on social media. I'm mainly on Instagram and YouTube. I've got loads of free tutorials on my YouTube channel, and on Instagram, if you want to know how I'm doing in festivals and where my films at Ven, follow me at Anime Tutor, and you will be able to see all of the latest updates and day to day things that I'm working on. 12. EXTRA: What is FilmFreeway?: What is film Freeway? If you're submitting your film to festivals, the most popular platform and easiest in my experience to do this is film Freeway. It's got most of the festivals on there. They're not all on there, but there are thousands for you to choose from and submit to. You create a profile which is all about your film. You only have to enter the information once. You put your film, your trailer, some stills, a bio about yourself, a synopsis of your film. You can even list if it's been selected in places and awards. And whenever you submit to a festival, that automatically is sent to them and they can see the film and everything about it. And they can even download assets if you are selected to use in publicity programs and putting your film on. If you just want to keep things simple and stick with one platform, film freeweight is my recommendation. I haven't really had much trouble on there at all. On the odd occasion when a festival decides to close, they refund you your submission fee. It's really good. And there's some stats on there that are helpful, as well, and it just keeps everything organized in a table, you know, when the announcements are for selections, you know, if you've won awards, you know, if you've been selected, keeps everything in one place, and is really good for keeping on top of your budget as well, because every time you submit, you get a receipt, and you can tally up all those amounts of money. Really cool little hack that I found on film Freeway, as well. They have an option to go gold, you pay monthly, and if you're going to be submitting to lots of festival at once, sometimes you can get reductions on the submission fees, so it's worth paying out for that. And when you have that gold subscription, you also have access half price to all of their marketing features. And you can pay for a marketing promotion. Again, it's about $10, ten pounds, no more than that. And it essentially says to all the festival directors on the platform is your film, and you're currently looking to submit to festivals. And if they like your film and they're interested in what it is that you've made, they can reach out to you automatically and offer you a discount to submit or even a complete fee waiver, which means that you can enter for free. I did this with my film. I actually did it twice at two different times in the year. I got probably 15 to 20 free entry fees and quite a lot of discounted submissions, which meant that I could make my money go further and submit to more festivals. So that's the top tip if you are using film freeway. I highly recommend