Page 1 of 1

While you wait for BIAFF results ...

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 5:39 pm
by Dave Watterson
The judging for the IAC International Amateur Film Festival takes places this weekend, but it will be about a month before results are sent out. The delay is to give judges time to write their crits, for double-checking of scores etc.

Instead of twiddling your thumbs, why not consider submitting your masterpiece to other festivals?

There are thousands of them but good places to look for reliable festivals are:
http://www.theiac.org.uk/eventsnew/fest ... ivals.html
and
http://www.unica-news.com/festivals-en.html

In Britain we are very lucky ... English is the most common second language in lots of other countries, so our films can usually be understood everywhere. It is good manners to subtitle if you can ... but not always essential.

Re: While you wait for BIAFF results ...

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 7:06 pm
by Michael Slowe
Dave, there are two very active sites also. Withoutabox and Film Freeway. Mostly pro festivals but I've had a few 'accepted'. Not many mind you, they get literally thousands of entries.

Re: While you wait for BIAFF results ...

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 10:03 am
by Dave Watterson
Yes, Michael, there are umpteen lists of festivals but the ones I mentioned have at least some record of being fair, honest and genuinely welcoming to amateur films!

Re: While you wait for BIAFF results ...

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 11:05 pm
by Howard-Smith
There seem to be a lot of film festivals via Film Freeway which take your entry fee of $10 or $25 or whatever, and then reject your entry without any feedback and without refund of the fee. However, at last I've had a film "officially selected" to be shown at the Screen One International Film Festival in Leicestershire early March. Persistence has paid off! The film? AVOIDANCE which was a 3-star winner at BIAFF 2016.

Re: While you wait for BIAFF results ...

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 11:37 pm
by John Roberts
Howard-Smith wrote:There seem to be a lot of film festivals via Film Freeway which take your entry fee of $10 or $25 or whatever, and then reject your entry without any feedback and without refund of the fee.
This was something my Romanian friends mentioned when they entered BIAFF; they said ours was the ONLY festival they had entered that had given them any feedback, without exception all the others took their money and never contacted them again...

Good luck at Screen One, Howard :-)

Re: While you wait for BIAFF results ...

Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2017 5:04 pm
by Michael Slowe
Well done Howard, it doesn't often happen with us non commercial film makers. I've had Diamond winners rejected all over the place. As to the absence of feed back, that's to be expected, as I said, they get thousands of entries, quite a money spinner, which is, I suspect, the whole point. Actually, there are a few festivals that specifically allow for judges feed back - for an additional fee! I recently had a two page critique which in part was sensible, in part irrelevant I thought.

Re: While you wait for BIAFF results ...

Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2017 9:31 am
by fraught
As someone who enters many film festivals around the world, Judges at BIAFF AND runs his own Film Festival... I have to say that BIAFF is unique in that it gives feedback to EVERY entrant. Some festivals you can pay extra for written feedback, but pretty much all do not provide any feedback whatsoever. This is often unhelpful, but as long as you know that going in, you shouldn't be surprised.
I did hear a story about one festival (wont name names!) where the entrance fee was quite high, and the submitter got his film rejected without the film ever having been watched. No refund, no feedback, nothing. That sort of behaviour is outrageous, which is one of the reasons i don't submit my films to festivals with fees over £25.

Re: While you wait for BIAFF results ...

Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2017 9:32 am
by fraught
Ps... BIAFF was on FilmFreeway this year for the first time ever. Things are moving in the right direction. ;-)

Re: While you wait for BIAFF results ...

Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2017 9:43 am
by John Roberts
fraught wrote:Ps... BIAFF was on FilmFreeway this year for the first time ever. Things are moving in the right direction. ;-)
...and rumour has it that a good 50% of the entrants this year were received via file transfer, also a move in the right direction :D

Re: While you wait for BIAFF results ...

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 5:55 pm
by ned c
Last year Sundance received 8,000 entries in the Short Film category at an average of $60 each, an income of $480,000; they screened 60 short films. I believe that Festivals should report the number of entries in each category and the number screened otherwise we are just financial fodder to support the festivals without recognition or reward. BIAFF is definitely a very special Festival, we must ensure its continued success.

ned c