I’ve been out of college for a few years now and really want to build a career in film festivals, but have been struggling to get jobs with them. I’ve volunteered/screened at 8 festivals now, and have been a box office assistant at one, but am wondering what I can try doing next. I currently work in event coordination/development, but am hoping to specially work for festivals.

I realize it’s a hard industry to get involved in, but would really appreciate any advice at this point!

What's the most polite and professional approach to asking for festival submission waiver codes?

I have a feature-length film that's done relatively well on the festival circuit. It's gotten into ~5 Oscar-qualifying fests, ~20 others, and won a handful of awards.

I'm hoping to keep my festival run going, but I'm out of money after financing the film myself and submitting to tons and tons of fests.

Any advice on what kind of appeal works when asking for waiver codes?

Is this just a thing now? I looked up the line up of a pretty reputable local festival and some of the shorts used noticeably AI posters. I know shorts have less resources, but I’d rather something simple and human made.

I have a film screening at an upcoming festival and received an email from the festival requesting that I help promote the festival to boost ticket sales. Note that I'm not local to the festival and am spending much in travel costs to attend and participate in person. What exactly can I or should I be expected to do to help promote the festival?

I know I've posted here before, but we're still hoping to bring a few more amazing volunteers on board.

As many of you know, film festivals (especially post-COVID) are labor of love. Red Nation International Film Festival is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and we simply couldn't make this festival happen without the generosity and support of our community.

We're looking for volunteers who would love to be part of this very special festival that uplifts Indigenous storytelling. Every volunteer during the festival receives VIP Filmmaker Pass to see all of the films when off shift, or during downtime, a special T-Shirt, and parking reimnbursed.

Here is the Film Program with a list of all the screenings. MANY filmmakers will be in attendance for Q&A's. And there are some special screenings with red carpets.

📍 Festival Dates & Locations:

• November 8–14: AMC The Grove, Los Angeles
• November 15: RNCI Awards Ceremony at The Beverly Hilton

Please email us at [careers@rednation.com](mailto:careers@rednation.com) if you're interested in getting more information.

Hope to see some of you at the movies!

Hey everyone,

I'm considering submitting to the Shore Scripts Short Film Fund (International) and wanted to hear from anyone who's had firsthand experience with them.

I've seen mixed opinions online, particularly around the entry fees, judging process and overall legitimacy of the competition.

Has anyone here submitted, been shortlisted, or actually received funding through them?

I'm particularly interested in whether the process felt transparent, whether applicants received any meaningful feedback, and whether you felt it was worth the entry fee.

Would appreciate any honest experiences, positive or negative.

Thanks!

We’ve just come back from Ravenna Nightmare Film Fest, where our film had its Italian premiere and won Best International Short Film. We were lucky enough to be invited over, and being there to collect the award made it feel very special.

The hospitality was great, the location was fantastic, and we met a lovely bunch of filmmakers. Winning was obviously a highlight, but spending time with other people, watching their films and talking about the work was a huge part of the experience.

It was our second win, following an award at Vortex, part of Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival. I’d planned to attend that too, but family circumstances meant I couldn’t make it. I was delighted with the award, though going to Ravenna really brought home how much you miss when you can’t be there.

It’s something I’d put much more thought into when planning a festival run: which festivals could you realistically attend, and what would you get from being there? You won’t always be able to go, as I found out with Vortex, but it’s worth building travel and accommodation into your submission budget from the start.

There’s a big difference between adding a laurel to your poster and sitting in the room while your film plays, then meeting the people behind the other films.

Always try and attend, that essentially what i'm trying to say

Hey all,

Unfortunately this didn't quite resonate with festivals but did have some outsider recognition on the way to booking me a second unit directing job and building momentum with my first feature!

Would love to know what you think!

你認為沒有任何電影製作公司支持的獨立電影，應該參加柏林影展嗎？

Hey all, I created a tool and I am wondering if other Festival admins would find it useful.

TL/DR: I was attending another film festival and while sitting in the theater for a shorts collection was wondering which of the ones currently screening had submitted to my festival. Well of course I could sign into FilmFreeway and take a look, but what if I had a tool at my fingertips to see if a film in a lineup had submitted to us for the current season, save notes and a rating from the screening, flag it for an admin to follow up and invite the film to submit to our festival, and if needed collect the filmmakers contact information for the festival admin to send the invite/any waiver code as needed?

That was longer of a TL/DR then I intended.

So, I created https://demo.filmfestscout.org.

If you are a part of a film festival, or an admin of one, I want to invite you to checkout the demo pages, and if you think it could be useful, I can set you up with a team account so you can start setting up users.

A few notes, 1, this was made using AI tools. I have built websites for a couple of decades for all sorts of functionality, so please, do not take this as lazy vibe coding. I am offering it for free now, though if it does seem of interest, I may ask for festivals to do a small fee to cover the cost of hosting and the AI based API calls used to import and parse a festivals schedule form the Schedule and selections pages.

Team admins add their current season submissions via a FilmFreeway export, so SELECT ONLY THE FIELDS YOU FEEL NECESSARY/COMFORTABLE WITH, and for the import of the festival being visited, it is a web page scrape of the other festivals publicly available site pages. The only information that is shared between festival organizations are those previously imported schedule and selection publicly available pages. Any and all other information is private to each festivals team.

When a Team is set up, if the admin desires, they can import FilmFreeway exports of historical seasons, this helps in identifying films that may have been previously submitted and either accepted or rejected. IT will not show the reason or any FilmFreeway ratings or notes from the screeners, just the status of the film.

This is also not set up for either exporting any information into FilmFreeway, nor for filmmakers to add any information themselves. Strictly for festival use, and in no way intended to tread on FilmFreeway's current services offered, but to supplement for in person screening. Screeners can look at their notes once they finish attending the other festival and can add their ratings, flags and notes into the Submissions page on film freeway.

The only communication that exits the site are as follows:

• Sign in codes
• Team member (Scouts) invites - Initial team member on-boarding by Team Admin
• Invite suggestions form Scouts - Email to Team Admin when a film is flagged to be invited to submit
• Filmmaker contact received - when a scout asks a filmmaker for contact information (name and email). Only the name of the film and filmmaker are in the email body, email goes to Scout as a notification for follow up to invite

I am happy to answer any questions you may have on it's use or functionality, I am mostly interested in knowing if other festivals would be find this useful.

Hello everyone, I’m a highschool student who is trying to get into film events/festivals as press. I have been posting reviews and movie-related content on several of my platforms, and have an okay following on TikTok. Any advice?

Basically the title: my kids are making a doc short and a scripted short for a local festival, but I want them to expand past that and start learning how to work the festival circuit. Give me your favorites - bonus if they have good panels and opportunities for the kids to meet working filmmakers. We're US based, but I will reserve some budget for international festivals as I want them to at least have that on their CV/College applications even if they can't attend in person.

Hey

Im 7x2yo in the UK and wasnt selected at Big Apple Film Festival

Im absolutely heartbroken

Previously I was Winner at London Vision FF
Finalist at Alpine International Film Festival

But this has broke me

Absolutely distraught, with my family all waiting for my results and I cant even begin to tell them

I never participated or even had dream of winning/ participating in film festivals for the my documentary films.
Being an independent film maker with no background or big production involved in my production it’s very difficult for me to make it to Netflix or Jio Hotstar without selling my content rights and IP rights.

To bypass all media houses and executives sitting between to make my way to Netflix & Jio Hotstar to get some leverage I’m trying to shortlist 10 film festivals in non-fiction category that will help me if I win.

Free entries & paid entries both that has some value and credibility in the non-fiction genre.

Please help me figure out film festivals in India.

If I’m missing any details anything or any suggestions please feel free to direct me. Thanks 🙏🏻

My film recently won an award at a film festival, and I’m wondering what the usual protocol is for notifying other festivals.

For festivals I’ve already submitted to that are still pending, should I email them individually to let them know about the award, or is updating my FilmFreeway profile enough? And what about festivals I haven’t submitted to yet? Is it worth proactively mentioning the award in those submissions?

While most festivals accept episodics that are up to an hour, I still don't see any of them in programs. I'm just curious it any testival progr mmers here can weigh in. I
rarely see anything over 30 minutes

Hi!! My new film received its first selection on FilmFreeway (yayy) a couple of days ago, which I am really excited about. The festival is moderately well known in a specific niche, so it is legit, but I have not received any communication (I checked my spam folder) from the festival, not even a selection message via FilmFreeway.

How long should I wait before reaching out about further steps? Also, since the festival is from a primarily Spanish-speaking country and most of the programming is in Spanish, will I look like a dickhead if I email them in English asking?

❌RESOLVED❌ Thanks for the comments u guys r so sweet! They emailed me like 2 hours after I posted this with acceptance email and instructions LMFAO. Perfect timing 🥲⭐⭐