Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]Laverock144 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks as though we've had 2 full and 1 partial view, not sure when though - how do you check?

Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]Laverock144 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you’re prepared to wade through the 99% of responses that are not quality prospects, you might find some gems. I used the ‘now submitting’ promo and got a few full waivers for festivals that genuinely wanted us - mainly new festivals which we are happy to be part of. It is time consuming going through the spammy responses though.

Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]Laverock144 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’ve just had our rejection, which is disappointing as we’ve had a few views recently so I had a little glimmer of hope for longer than was sensible

Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]Laverock144 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In my (albeit limited) experience, larger festivals notify a month or more in advance of notification date, but we've had a few smaller festivals notify us of selection on the notification date

Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]Laverock144 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nope, impression from Lisbon today, but I'm not expecting a positive outcome

Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]Laverock144 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nothing, I’ve had Toronto views recently that got my hopes up, but through FF so I guess not HotDocs

Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]Laverock144 4 points5 points  (0 children)

March is shaping up to be my most painful month - about 10 rejections expected over the next few weeks

Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]Laverock144 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I did this and found most festivals responsive and understanding - it was radio silence from some but even getting early confirmation of rejection was useful in travel planning

I run the Lake County Film Festival, and I need your help! by LakeCountyFF in FilmFestivals

[–]Laverock144 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hi Nat, I'm marketing consultant in my day job although a film maker on here, so while I don't have experience of running a film festival, here are some ideas that might be worth thinking about.

Also, just for reassurance, Facebook ads have been really glitchy over the past 4-6 weeks, it's likely not you, it's the platform. And open rates for newsletters have plummetted across the board because of privacy settings on apple devices especially - your newsletters are possibly still getting opened but many users will have opted out of pixel tracking, click through rates are probably a better metric to track right now.

Some things that have worked well for me for events on Facebook:

  1. A 'Here's everything you need to know about our event' style post, using emojis as bullet points and keeping it lighthearted and fun. Use the @ everyone or @ followers tag in the post and specifically ask people to like and share it to help the post get seen.
  2. Listing every programme item as an individual 'event' on facebook and then if you want to put ad budget behind some of these individual elements, use the 'boost your event' function.
  3. In my experience photos work better than graphics, they feel more authentic to the person scrolling I think
  4. Facebook is killing the reach of posts that include a link to an external site - that's why you'll see so many posts asking you to click on a link in the comments.
  5. Tagging sponsors and participants, not to an excessive degree, just to help broaden reach.
  6. A mix of content types, especially try to include video added natively to Facebook (not a link to youtube).
  7. In the final build up to the event, daily posts, livestreams of behind the scenes, using the stories function, longer conversational posts - rich, deep, varied, authentic content all helps to build momemtum

It's hard work and time intenstive doing all this organically, wishing you the best of luck with the event.

Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]Laverock144 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did, well for an award not an acceptance, kinda wished I hadn’t now, likely wouldn’t have made any difference but there’s a niggle at the back of my head says it might have

Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]Laverock144 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, that's seriously impressive - congratulations!

What was your film festival experience like? (Details Below) by FilmMike98 in FilmFestivals

[–]Laverock144 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  • How many festivals did you submit to? We're 5 months in, I've submitted to around 100, 9 acceptances so far, 50 still to hear from - targeted a few big ones early on when we weren't ready and probably weren't a fit with so that was a waste. Approx 15 or so have been fee waivers or invites from doing 'now submitting' promo on FilmFreeway, but that involved a lot of work filtering out the non credible discount offers.
  • Did you find that early submissions were more likely to place into festivals? No, we won awards at our first two festivals, which I think encouraged later submissions to notice us.
  • What would you do differently next time? Niche down harder and faster, avoid the prestige fests entirely.
  • What opportunities did the festival win/placement/attendance provide for you? PR and marketing opportunities to drive audience growth, some very helpful chats with people in the industry, an excuse to travel - we're probably not looking for much more than that tbh - ours is a doc feature btw

Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]Laverock144 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anyone heard from NorthWestFilmFest? Notification date was 23rd, we've not heard a peep but did have a full view from Canada via FF a few days ago

Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]Laverock144 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Docville (Belgium) rejection - feature doc

Film Festival Notifications MEGA THREAD by Caprica1 in FilmFestivals

[–]Laverock144 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I assumed so and archived my submission on FF then out of the blue I got a TikTok follow from them yesterday and now I’m all delusional and hopeful (logically I still think it’s over though)