These days I have been working on the new Madrid en corto call; many of the short films submitted are in the final stage of post-production. In most of these cases, they are submitted with the work print, better known by the English term: work in progress. When you are in the … Read more
If you are starting to move your film through film festivals, you must take entry fees into account. They have become so widespread that you cannot afford to ignore them in your distribution strategy, especially if you do not want to miss out on opportunities. One of the best strategies for dealing … Read more
I have been observing the gradual evolution of vertical cinema for some time now, and how festivals and sections dedicated to these works are timidly emerging, as I already mentioned in the post about ideas for organizing festivals. Vertical cinema challenges a paradigm that has been untouchable in cinema until now: the … Read more
The selective world premiere strategy is one of the most complex in festival distribution, as it requires medium and long-term calendar planning. Festivals with premiere requirements often receive many submissions, and it’s increasingly difficult to secure a selection. Until now, I had discussed festivals with strict premiere requirements, but there are other … Read more
If you are just starting to distribute a documentary, it is advisable to take into account some preliminary considerations, not only to plan the festival circuit, but from the post-production process, and before finalizing the final edit. There are some elements that are specific to documentary festivals, and that differentiate them from … Read more
I imagine that you are now starting to prepare your film’s festival distribution, you have recently locked picture, and you are looking for the first festivals to be able to submit it. You have started an Excel spreadsheet with the main festival details: the deadline, name, website, dates, fees, etc. This spreadsheet … Read more
The festivals for children and youth are increasingly important, and represent a great opportunity for festival distribution. Within this festival segment’s circuit, we could differentiate two types of competitions: those festivals exclusively dedicated to children and youth audiences, and other more generalist festivals that have sections dedicated to these audiences. These latter … Read more
Film festival distribution is a long and sometimes complicated path; the diversity and different requirements of festivals increasingly require designing a festival strategy. What are the best strategies? How do we approach them? In principle, I believe we could group them into two main categories: The selective and intensive strategy. The selective … Read more
Last November, I published an article about fake festivals. In that post, I differentiated between fake festivals and others that, while sharing some of their characteristics, were not fake in the strictest sense. This second group possesses characteristics typical of other festivals and adopts their form, but fundamentally, they are not festivals. … Read more
Every week I talk to directors or producers who are starting to distribute their films, and who write to me through the blog to discuss their doubts and the mistakes they believe they are making in festival distribution. Some of these mistakes tend to be repeated over and over again, even if … Read more