How Important Are Film Festivals?

Yes, festivals are still an important part of an overall distribution plan...PLUS assessing benefits you might not expect.

In my last newsletter we discussed getting up to the first 30%- 50% of your film financing plan accounted for and we’ll continue on the financing thread next week, but in the mean time I’ve had several conversations with new and potential distribution consulting clients about the importance of festivals as part of an overall distribution plan.

The short answer is YES festivals do still matter to distributors not only as a vetting mechanism, but also to launch your film to audiences and give it some pedigree for the commercial release - whether that’s in theaters, on VOD, or both.

A side benefit of festivals that is often overlooked is that they can also serve as discovery for you as a filmmaker and start the ball rolling on building that all-important network we always talk about (remember it’s who you know right?). And if you’re taking a long term view, which you should be, then that discovery and networking element of festivals is critical for future projects you want to get funded and made and should not be underestimated.

I’ll give you an example from my own experience - last year we premiered Pinball at a solid tier 2 festival - Hamptons International. We were stoked to have it there and the first time directors (the Bragg brothers) were even more excited because Hamptons is known as a discovery fest which means as directors, they were in a spotlight that allowed them to gain great visibility and eventually, landed them a manager at a major company. As a side note, the directors had a previous short in Tribeca (Tier 1 fest) but Pinball didn’t get accepted there, nor any other Tier 1 festivals.

The Hamptons festival premiere started the ball rolling on publicity, which we were able to build on later with the official PR launch tied to our distribution release. The the film started to gain steam and we landed our out-of-this-world New Yorker review - again, more visibility and accolades for the entire filmmaking team followed. That led to more publicity, a 95% Rotten Tomatoes rating, and a successful distribution launch in theaters and online by Vertical Entertainment.

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In the past I may have turned my nose up at Tier 2 festivals but honestly, they are like the little engine that could. I’m a firm believer in them as a mechanism for building a pedigree, generating positive buzz for your film, and helping to build your career.

All the distributors I deal with also look very favorably on them - not only Hamptons but others of that ilk, and premiering a film there can absolutely lead to distribution offers that wouldn’t be available to you otherwise.

On that note, I’m also a fan of certain screenwriting and TV/series festivals for the same reasons…. with caveats that I can go into in a separate newsletter.

My distribution consulting now includes a festival strategy component where I help plan an effective festival launch for your film and we leverage that as part of an overall distribution plan.

→ For more details on all that and to submit your film for distribution consulting, email me at stacey@filmspecific.com to get the conversation started.

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What about you? What’s been your experience with festivals and what questions do you have? Hit me up in the comments section below…

On that note, I’ll wrap things up for today. I hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead and I’ll speak to you again next week.

To your success,

Stacey

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