Are Film Festivals Worth it?

5 Pro's and 5 Cons

Sundance just ended, Slamdance is about to close and South by Southwest and Tribeca are right around the corner. We’re in the ides of film festival season, and everywhere filmmakers talk, the question always comes up, “are they worth it?”

If you clicked through from social media and aren’t subscribed, why don’t you click this button and make it official:

If you’re just getting into documentary filmmaking, you’re probably asking yourself why wouldn’t it be worth it? There’s a lot of reasons. There’s also a lot of reasons why you should do the film festival circuit. I’m going to get into the pros and cons list, but first, here are the basics.

How do you apply to film festivals?

First, you have to finish your film. Don’t apply too early, we made that mistake. Make sure you have a complete documentary with picture lock. Make sure your music doesn’t have watermarks. We applied for film festivals with a fine cut and only got rejections, but once we completed Queen we started getting acceptances left and right.

Next set up an account on Film Freeway. Film Freeway is a website that connects filmmakers with film festivals. You can submit to almost any film festival on Film Freeway. You just upload your doc to the site or to Vimeo, pay a fee and you’re in… or at least in the cue to be watched.

Some film festivals, like South by Southwest and Hotdocs have submission portals on their websites, so make sure you keep an eye out. Also, know your deadlines, you want to apply early to get the early-bird fees.

So, are Film Festivals Worth it?

Here are my pro’s and cons:

CON: They’re expensive and you probably won’t get in anyway.

Most film festivals aren’t cheap and even though some of them are, when you start entering a bunch, the costs start growing. Each entry cost between $30 and $180. Film Freeway makes it so easy to enter, you may not notice how much you’re spending. On top of that, many don’t have budgets for travel, so if you want to go, it’ll be out of your own pocket. The only film fest that we got into that paid for our trip was the Virginia Film Festival.

On top of that, Film Freeway makes it so easy to enter, that you’re competing with hundreds if not thousands of other films. There were more than 8,000 films that entered Slamdance the year we got in, and we were in the company of more than 14,000 films that were rejected from Sundance. That’s a lot of competition. It’s so hard to get into past the screeners and accepted into a film festival, it almost makes it not worth entering.

It’s a political process too, we didn’t get into our local film festival, even though we got into much bigger and more important film festivals (no bitterness here 🤣). They told us there was another (not local) documentary about drag and it wouldn’t be fair to us to be in a lineup with that film (even though we got into more prestigious film festivals than this one). You just don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes with film screeners when they watch your film, and you don’t know what’s going on with the screening committees. So even if your documentary is good enough, you may not get in.

PRO: They’re Great For Networking

You meet a lot of great people at film festivals. Some can help you move forward in your career. At Slamdance, I met the other documentary filmmakers and have become friends with them. We chat every couple of months and talk through issues with distribution and future projects. I connected with critics, podcasters and journalists. At other film festivals, I met industry people from different cities, creating connections with people who can help me finance and distribute my next documentary (or at least give me advice on what to do.

CON: It Probably Won’t Lead to an Acquisition

Unless you end up screening at a top-tier film festival (Sundance, Tribeca, TIFF, South by Southwest) distributors probably won’t be there looking to buy. We got a lot of interest from Slamdance, but they didn’t show up to see Queen. When we screened at the Virginia Film Festival, we did get interest from producer’s reps. We didn’t hear from anyone at any of the other festivals. So just because you get into a festival, doesn’t mean you’ll get picked up by a distributor.

PRO: It Builds an Audience.

Any real festivals you get into do help add legitimacy to your film. If you can tap into the film festival’s audience, it’ll help you build your own audience (see the con below referring to doing your own promotion). As long as you’re promoting your film online, you can use film festival acceptances for social media content. While you’re there you can do the same thing.

Con: You have to do Your Own Promotion

This is something I wished I learned earlier in our festival run. When you get into a film festival, you’re not guaranteed an audience. You’ll be listed in the festival program and they might share your trailer, but you have to do a bulk of your own promotion. I’ll write a whole post on festival promotion in the for next week, but it takes a lot of work. You need to be your own advocate. Put up posters, go to the parties and promote your film and pitch your own press. Don’t rely on the festival, that’s not how it works.

PRO: They help with future fundraising

This may be overlooked. Most of the discussion in professional circles is that a bunch of laurels doesn’t help. A distributor will look at that and see desperation. My producer’s rep says that unless it’s one of the top film festivals, the laurel doesn’t help. There is an opportunity to put those laurels to use, though and that’s future fundraising.

If you got to people outside of the industry for funding, it won’t matter if it’s a small festival or a medium festival, if they see laurels, they see more eyes. Saying you got into 10 festivals to a business owner who’s looking to give you money for your next film just sees eyes on the product.

CON: Some Festivals are a Scam

You need to research the film festivals that you apply to. There are some festivals that are pay-for-laurels. Anyone who enters gets in and they don’t screen anywhere. It’s a complete scam. Filmfreeway gives films the opportunity to review the festivals they get into, so make sure you read those before you submit. Film festival submissions add up, so make sure you only spend your money on ones that are worth it.

PRO: You can learn from panels

This isn’t available at all festivals, but some festivals have amazing panels that you can learn a lot from. The Double Exposure Film Festival stands out to me, with some of the best panels for documentary filmmaking, especially if you’re interested in investigative documentaries. You don’t have to be a filmmaker to go to or learn from the panels.

CON: The crowd is self-selecting

Film festivals are pretty elitist, although that is changing with virtual festivals. It’s so expensive to travel to Park City, Utah, then you have to buy festival tickets on top of that. It can cost thousands of dollars. Local festivals are a little cheaper, but they still can be expensive if you want to buy a pass. Festival crowds are usually older, upper-class and white. If we care about reaching the broadest, most diverse audience, it’s not going to be at film festivals.

PRO: Nothing beats seeing your documentary on the big screen

There are other ways to get to see your film on a big screen, but festivals take the logistics out of it. And there really isn’t anything as amazing as seeing your documentary in a theater, with an audience. It’s an incredible feeling!

What do you think? Leave your pros and cons in the comments.

What I’m Watching:

I just watched Holy Frit, a documentary that premiered at Slamdance this year. It was fantastic! One of my favorite docs of the year. It’s beautiful and heartfelt and has such a good story arc. You can see the love put into this film.