Getting Your Film Noticed
How to market your film for the fall festival season.
You can spend two years making something incredible, lock the final frame, and still watch it totally sink because you didn’t have a plan for what happens next. Programmers and buyers are buried in screeners, and if your materials look messy or your targets are random, they are going to pass without a second thought. You need to treat the rollout with the exact same seriousness you brought to the edit bay.
Clean up your presentation first
Before you send that link to a single programmer, look at your package through an outsider’s eyes. Decision-makers decide if they care within the first ten seconds of reading your logline or opening your deck.
- State what the movie is about in your logline so nobody has to guess the stakes.
- Test your links to ensure passwords work and playback doesn’t lag before people close the tab.
- Keep pitch decks tight with visual assets that match the tone of the movie instead of old mood boards.
Stop spraying and praying
Sending your film to every festival on a massive spreadsheet is a fast way to burn through cash and get nothing back.
- Research the programmers who curate your genre or the buyers acquiring your style of independent work.
- Study past lineups to find the specific curators looking for what you made.
- Point your energy right at the decision-makers who match your project instead of casting a wide net.
Get a second opinion from the community
Trying to figure out your festival strategy by yourself means you will miss obvious gaps in your pitch. Sharing your materials with trusted collaborators gives you the objective perspective you need.
- Post your pitch deck and logline inside The Crewsaide to get constructive feedback from fellow filmmakers.
- Run your package by your peers to catch weak spots before you spend money on submission fees.
- Tap into the collective experience of the network to build a festival and market list that fits your project.