IAC DISCUSSION FORUMS

Some revealing statistics; this year Sundance received 8.061 short film entries of which 60 were accepted. The average entry fee is $60 so 8,001 rejected entries contributed about $480,000 to the cost of running the festival. The rejected entries received NOTHING for their efforts. I suppose the moral of this story is not to enter the big name festivals as we will just be part of the contribution to their operating costs!! It will be very helpful if the organizers would let us know how many entries they get in each category so that we can avoid the big ones.

ned c

Blimey! I think I'll try to get the Surrey Film Festival up an running again! As I understand it the issue was never funding, but volunteers. Attract enough entries and we could pay them.

The other side of the equation is that many small festivals in other parts of the world would welcome entries from Britain or the USA and probably treat them kindly too.

As someone who has in the past entered some of these festivals, I agree with what Ned says. Unless you have a really outstanding and unusual film it is obvious sense to avoid the major professional ones like Sundance. There are numerous smaller festivals where the odds are not quite so heavily against acceptance, you just have to be very selective. I've had some success in one or two but it is worth bearing in mind that they do get a huge number of entries and many festivals are money making ventures.