In today's climate of over 1,000 film festivals around the world, making the right choices as to where and how to submit one's film for the best possible results is more and more of a dilemma. It's difficult to position yourself to take advantage of the different festivals if you do not know how festivals work. It is heartbreaking when really good movies screen at a festivals and they do not get the exposure they deserve because the filmmakers are not aware of unwritten festival rules of the game. The hidden awful truth about film festivals is that the success of a film depends less on the actual film and more on cocktail chit-chat.

The harsh reality is that there is often no money for promotion and marketing of Canadian films so filmmakers must self promote at festivals and markets and they are not aware that they should be working on promotion morning noon and night. Most festivals do not promote the films they schedule. Or if they do will focus on larger budget films that typically have publicists attached.

Most festivals are marketing tools. Filmmakers need to prepare for the festival release of their film just as meticulously as they would principle photography. Important questions to ask are: what's the marketing scheme? What are we getting out of festivals? What international festivals should we target? Do we have enough money for a publicist? If so, how do we spread out the publicity dollar?

One of the best ways to get the word out at a film festival is to work on cocktail chit chat at parties and receptions. It is often over a few free beverages filmmakers can make the biggest splash. Target receptions that are sponsored by distributors and make note of who will be in attendance. Make best efforts to get to these people and strike up a conversation. This may seem ridiculous but distributors are people and people have relationships with other people not with movies. Therefore, one of the most effective marketing tools is for the right people to say: “I sure like so-and-so and they make good movies too.” ~WH

CLICK HERE for more on Film Festival Strategy