Festival Advice Needed for present time

[jp201]

Hey everyone,

We are just finishing off the final tweaks to our short at the moment. Im a bit torn about when would be the best time to start entering festivals. There are still some very good festivals coming up in June/Jul/Aug that are still accepting submissions. However, many have obviously finished accepting entries/passed this year already.

I know that each festival differs but I have seen on a few festivals (cannes etc) that the film needs to have been completed after January that year. Im guessing this means if we were screened at one festival this year it could put us out of contention for all next years festivals as it would be deemed to have been completed in 2010.

Does anyone have any experience with this or any advice.

Many thanks

J

 

[jp201]

no-one have any thoughts on this?

 

[Dreadylocks]

+1 on wanting to know the answer to this.

Although it sounds kind of like you already answered your own question. If the film needs to have been made after Jan, I would def think that any proof it was made before then would disqualify you. Rules are rules.

But is this the case with every festival?

PS: are you actually planning on submitting to Cannes or were you just using it as a 'for example'?

 

[jp201]

Just an example really although we probably would submit to it just for the sake of it.

Im just unsure whether now is the time to start sending or whether we should be waiting until next year.

 

[sonnyboo]

In most cases, film festivals state that they only want films finished in the past 18 months of the time of submission. They aren't Nazi's on this as long as the premiere status for the region is accurate.