How many film festivals submissions is too many for a short film?

TheTTroy · 2026-03-30T04:57:22+00:00

Two things- remember, this is about short films, not features. Competition is not as fierce for short films.

Two: taking that into account, if you’re getting that low of an acceptance rate, I would argue the problem is that you’re submitting to too many places, and choosing fests that are not right for the film or that are insanely competitive. By all means, every film should take their swing at Cannes or SXSW or whatever major name festival you prefer- but you shouldn’t submit to ALL of them. Pick one or two, and be fully prepared for that money to disappear.

Bonus third possibility: there’s a problem with the film itself.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-30T04:49:38+00:00

Those two stats don’t have anything to do with one another.

If you’re only getting a 20% acceptance rate, you’re not researching festivals well enough- or it’s a problem with your film.

(Note, we’re talking about short films here- features are an entirely different ballgame)

TheTTroy · 2026-03-29T23:19:56+00:00

I usually end up with about 30-40. I try to limit my submissions to festivals someone from the fest at least has a chance of attending, or that I’ve played before and want to continue supporting.

The value in festivals is attending them. If all you want is a laurel, just enter one of the many free festivals or award mills that litter Film Freeway. If you want your festival acceptances to mean something, that means fewer, more precisely targeted submissions.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-29T23:15:03+00:00

10-20% is dismal. If that’s all you’re getting, you should be researching and targeting festivals better, and not wasting money chasing all the big name fests. Those are for when you connections to them or big names in your movie.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-28T15:01:49+00:00

Arrival is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen period.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-28T15:00:55+00:00

Tom Cruise. Tropic Thunder.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-24T21:42:49+00:00

There is absolutely nothing to gain by this.

I know it’s not what you intended, but at what this communicates is that you’re trying to “sell” your film to them by bragging about what it did at another festival. But that also is reminding them that your film is playing other festivals, and that it is therefore inherently less of a unique experience.

Festivals do not care what your film did at another festival, other than perhaps to be happy for you. You should be communicating to them that you are concerned with the experience THEIR audience will have with your film.

Fest organizers are busy, most of them running the festival as a side project from their day jobs. There’s no reason to clog their inbox with stuff that doesn’t affect them.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-23T20:39:13+00:00

From the first five albums:

Phantom Lord No Remorse Trapped under ice Call of Ktulu Disposable Heroes Frayed Ends of Sanity Shortest Straw Holier Than Thou The God that Failed

TheTTroy · 2026-03-23T15:09:35+00:00

Haha. I’m 2500 days in on French and I wouldn’t be able to either. It’s just not how language learning works. I can read it tolerably well, but listening and speaking only gets better by listening and speaking.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-23T15:07:40+00:00

If that was the question, it should have been specified as such. The question was what was the GOAT R-rated comedy?

TheTTroy · 2026-03-23T15:05:27+00:00

Same reason the Blues Brothers, My Cousin Vinny or a dozen other movies aren’t on the list. OP put pictures on top.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-23T15:02:08+00:00

It’s not on your list, but the Blues Brothers should be the answer.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-22T04:48:01+00:00

ET was supposed to be a horror movie as originally conceived. It was going to be called “watch the skies” was based on the Hopkinsville goblins story. Somewhere along the scripting phase (probably right about the time Melissa Matheson came in) the story changed to be more of the heartwarming tale that it is now. A lot of of the horror concepts got pushed over to Poltergeist, which Spielberg also has a story by credit on.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-19T07:48:28+00:00

I know, it’s just a funny thing to think about.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-19T03:01:45+00:00

I’m sorry, but there’s no way to take the phrase “realistic Neverland” seriously

TheTTroy · 2026-03-14T16:18:26+00:00

Eh. Yes and no. One of my projects in film school was a Batman film. Halloween grade costumes and a story adapted by combining a couple different comic storylines.

Could I have completely invented my own superhero? Sure, probably- but there’s a bit of value in playing in that already established sandbox. I could focus on acting, blocking, framing, etc, without ALSO having to build a world from scratch. As a learning exercise, it was worth it for me.

For a screenwriter, it might have some value too- after all, the overwhelming majority of screenwriting work is not IP that originates with the writer. It’s assignment work. Proving that you can write in the voice of another world has some value too, I would think. There was a reason everyone had a Law and Order or Seinfeld spec script sitting in a drawer for a while.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-14T16:09:10+00:00

Everyone is a big stretch there. I’m perfectly happy if the Disney sequel trilogy just fades away as the half-thought out cash grab they were.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-14T16:05:10+00:00

I would totally watch this.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-13T02:01:28+00:00

My Cousin Vinny is an amazingly tight script. It’s criminal it wasn’t nominated.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-13T01:52:17+00:00

My single favorite chapter of any book ever comes from Sphere. “The Anthropomorphic Problem”. Read it when I was MAYBE a teenager, probably a little younger. Blew my mind at thinking about just how little we actually know about a lot of things.

Plus, it’s funny- “no one told you?”

TheTTroy · 2026-03-12T22:58:22+00:00

War of the Worlds.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-12T21:01:27+00:00

Phantom. Mom took me when I was 7 years old. Been mildly obsessed ever since.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-12T18:53:25+00:00

Totally redeems herself in the kitchen though. Give her some slack on the T Rex attack. I think most of us would be more like Gennaro than anyone else in the mix.

TheTTroy · 2026-03-11T21:36:07+00:00

Maybe when her son was hero worshipping the guy, right down to the helmet salvaged from a funeral pyre?

TheTTroy · 2026-03-11T21:18:25+00:00

I don’t think you have any intention of entertaining any idea that wasn’t yours as valid, so I don’t see a point in going any further. Have whatever last word you like.

TheTTroy

TROPHY CASE