Secrets of Film Fest Programming

This is a letter to a friend whose film she's worked on was not able to be screened at a film festival due to a prior local premiere at another super small festival. Both fests are local, yet the smaller is local (which is cool) and the more established is national, with a long history, contacts, and good industry press coverage (yes, they are paid to report on what's new, even if it feels like the SOS).

Any idiot can figure this out. I respect anyone who puts the effort into a film festival, as it's a thankless task. What you may attack as an institution is in fact a small, tight group of underpaid volunteers putting in impossible hours for the love of cinema, and the random compromises to make stuff happen. I had an ideal of film festivals, and that ideal was shattered after working a fest for one run. Volunteering is far more fun- you get to hang with the guests, tell folks the good movies, it's positive. The job I did- There was the programmer who oversees everything, and then Programming Assistant who solicits entries. It's great if you have the stomache and distance for it. Me? I was too close to the filmmaker's boat. I was in that boat. Nice people would make the most derivative films. And the biggest jerks would have programmable films. A lot of hurt feelings, and frustration. Particularly when you're fighting for a premiere on the sole merit of the Premiere, not the movie. Them's the breaks.

Just because people misread EVERYTHING, I'm putting this is all caps. I DON'T HATE ANYBODY. I LOVE ALL INVOLVED WITH FESTS. THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU. Because truly, it's all about me.

EMAIL:
FFF actually holds to premieres for features since I was there in 1996.
Did it play Global Peace or Orlando? Orlando would be the death knell,
as I think the first year of the FFF it was called the Orlando Film Fest.
Fest folks are extremely territorial. Keep it in mind for the next project
you're involved in: no small fests before you contact the larger fests.
No playing ANYWHERE in Florida if there's a specific fest you're most interested
in.

Some regional fests could give a crap. But FFF is reviewed by Variety and other
industry trades. It's a trade off. Granted, they say they want first look but that also means
easy refusal.
They could say... um, no, and you've lost out on other fests. They don't
make final decisions until the very end anyhow, so the fest strategy is part strategy,
part dumb luck because you have no control over yes or no, just absolutely no if
you violate their codes of world, national, or regional premieres. FFF is at minimum
regional (state of florida/southeast).

Did I tell you I worked at the FFF? I was hired to contact ANY
and EVERY filmmaker and get them to submit to the fest. The filmmakers were SO hopeful.
A festival was calling them, chasing them, courting them. But it was all kind of
tawdry. The fest wants TONS of submissions so they cast a wider net. Of the wider
net, you have greater odds of getting better films. (200 films to choose ten vs.
30 films to choose 10). So it was my job to woo filmmakers, and it bummed me out to give false hope. My skin was pretty thin.

So some films that deserved attention didn't get in. And worthless films got
in for who knows what reason. And the more experienced filmmakers would hustle so
much shit out of the fest, while the humble filmmakers are going broke to be there.
Again, none of this matters to the quality of the film itself.

When people say it's politics, it's politics because it's personal and
personalities and favors. And like anything, it's self interest. They'll
program films sight unseen as personal favors to get a star to show up. Stars sell
tickets.

So, there you go. The big secret is that they need you more than you need them,
thanks to the internet and forums.
This is in relation to feature length films. Short films are just submit them. THey
program what they like. Totally about personal taste of the selection committee.
As for selection committees, we like to imagine them to be raving cinemaphiles.
But they're just folks. Just folks with time on their hand to watch 200-500
submissions. Which is to say, it's a thankless job that makes you hate indie
filmmaking and long for a slick Hollywood narrative.

Alright. Look forward to next Wednesday. Do I have to pick up the ticket beforehand?
Or Can I get it at the spot? What time?