Received missives from both Rhode Island and Palm Springs this morning.
Palm Spring springs was a ‘thank you, but unfortunately…’ e-mail. Looks like the competition out there is huge. They did offer a free pass to the film market and parties/award shows etc, which is cool. Not sure if it’s worth thinking about the air-fare to make the trip though (even though the claim that 2/3rds of people attending the film market get industry interest).
Rhode Island was a little odd. Apparently they’ve had all sorts of problems with deluges of last minute entries and cinema’s not confirming availability. So while I’m still not listed, there’s still a chance I’m one of the 150 films on the waiting list.
Looking at the amount of shorts they had a Cannes this year, and the numbers floating around in these e-mails (both PS and RI received over 2000 submissions), the competition is going to be tough.
I think I’m going to have to start boxing clever, and perhaps try more European ones, which is more difficult as there doesn’t seem to be too many of them listed on Withoutabox, which is heavily US centric.
If anyone has any recommendations for European film festivals, I’d much appreciate them. I’ve already got a contact for the Malaga Film Festival, which I need to follow up very soon.
2 comments
Tim Clague says:
July 20, 2006 at 5:25 pm (UTC 1 )
Festivals are crazy. I must enter about 10 for every one that takes a film. And I have 2 or 3 films that I might be pushing at a time. In this current age I wonder of the position and usefulness of a festival anyway.
My advice – also get in touch with distributors (Dazzle, Atom, iFilm, MicroCinema etc etc) directly. And don’t forget the British Council.
annabel says:
July 23, 2006 at 12:12 am (UTC 1 )
I don’t know if this is helpful but the book “Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices” by Rick Schmidt lists out several European festivals that he recommends. It also lists some receptive European distributors.
I would list them from the book, but I just moved and I can’t seem to find my copy.