Playing the Odds
Real data on film festival odds.
We apply to a lot of film festivals. A lot. Amy and I have a standing reaction to the rejections: That’s not right, did they even watch it? If they’d watched it, we’d be in!
It’s good to have this kind of overconfidence in your work but also, also… I probably mentioned that I was on the screening committee for the Seattle Jewish Film Festival last year (and hope to do it again this year). It was an enlightening experience and helped me understand all the variables that go into programming a festival.
Most of the rejections we get are pretty generic “Thanks but no thanks” kind of statements. I get it, you send out hundreds of these, you need to do a form letter. But.
We recently got a rejection from Walla Walla Shorts and I wanted to share a key paragraph:
This year, I personally reviewed 2,484 shorts, which I then narrowed down to 288 contenders, from which I eventually selected the 100 titles that will screen at The Crush next month. So, about 1 in 25. Tough odds, made tougher still by the fact I program shorts in thematic hour-long blocks, so selections are dependent not only on their own quality but also their compatibility. I would say there were at least 11 shorts that it pains me to not have been able to include this year, even one which I produced and hold very dear.
I believe that our film was one of the 11 that just couldn’t fit, no matter how the director tried, but also, that’s kind of beside the point. What I wanted to focus on — again probably not for the first time — is that even when the odds are good, they’re tough odds.
This festival director screened nearly 3000 films. Compared to some of the larger events we’ve applied to, that’s nothing. Sundance saw some 17,000 submissions. Palm Springs International Shortfest had 6300 submissions. Raindance (a London festival) gets over 10,000 submissions.
Amy tallies everything on a spreadsheet, of course. We move to the next in line after a hot minute to think, “Did they even watch it?” Melbourne notifications come out the end of this month. (Hi Ali!) After that, well, there’s lots on deck.
This is all… okay, honestly. If you’re relatively new to my work, you might not know that my manuscript was rejected 75 times before I found a publisher. Film is a different process in many, many ways, but it requires the same tenacity.
It does help to see the data. It’s hard to feel like a rejection is a comment on the work when the odds themselves err on the side of rejection. Those odds, they amplify the value of each win, too. We’re in our fourth festival right now.(New York, Vegas, Hollywood, and currently, Seattle.) That feels pretty good.
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You’ve got just a few more days to catch Elvis of the Yukon in the virtual section of the Seattle Film Festival. Please share. We don’t make a nickel off the virtual box office, but we want everyone to see it in any way they can.
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Whatever with the odds. We made a movie and it’s in the world. That is a triumph.
//Pam