The production date is one of the most important festival requirements, along with others such as runtime limits.
Although at first you may think it is an objective piece of information, in reality, when preparing your distribution strategy it is relative and may be subject to changes.
The most prominent festivals, and those with some kind of premiere requirement, set an early production date, especially from January of the year prior to the event date. Although others may allow up to two years, smaller festivals or film showcases may accept a production date from three or four years earlier.
Therefore, you need to think carefully about the production date and not set it lightly, to avoid missing opportunities.
The production date is not just the shooting date
First of all, you need to understand what film production actually is. Although it may seem a bit strange, there are festival programmers who confuse the production date with the shooting date, which can cause some problems at the start of distribution.
Production covers all the processes needed to finish the film and have a final copy ready to be screened in cinemas. After shooting, you need to edit picture and sound, do the colour grading, mixes, prepare subtitles, copies, and create the DCP.
All these processes can take months of work after shooting; in the case of documentaries and animation, these months can turn into years.
If, for example, you shoot your film at the end of 2018 and the post-production processes finish in the following year, from January or February 2019 onwards, your film will have a production date of 2019, not 2018.
What’s more, if in the middle of post-production you have had problems and your project has been on hold for a while, it would be the same. The production date is defined by the completion of all processes, even if shooting took place two or three years ago.
At the beginning it is a relative date
Even if you have finished production on a specific date and start submitting to the first festivals, this date continues to be relative.
Imagine you start distribution in the middle of the year. You begin first with a selective strategy with few festivals, but you do not get any selections and time goes by.
You reach the last months of the year without having premiered at any festival and, in the end, you do not get any selection during the year.
Well then, since you still have not premiered and since many festivals have a production requirement of one or two years, it is advisable to change the production date to the following year. Otherwise, your film’s chances at festivals can be greatly reduced.
Keep in mind that there are festivals with very short windows, such as Curtocircuito in Santiago de Compostela, which requires a production date from January of the same year the event takes place. For example, this year only films produced from January 2018 onwards could participate, and the deadline closed on May 31. If you kept a production date in 2017, even if you had not premiered, you would no longer be able to take part in this festival.
As you can see, you can keep adapting the production date, as it is a relative piece of information. You should also bear in mind that during this period you can still make some modification or re-edit, although it is not very common.
So… when does the production date become an objective piece of information?
When you get your first selection at a festival and you have premiered your film in competition. At that point it will become an objective piece of information.
Therefore, the definitive production date is set according to the festival premiere.
Some cases where you should be careful
Due to this dependence of the production date on festival distribution, there are some cases where you should be careful:
#1 Avoid premiering at small festivals at the end of the year
For example, if you premiere at a small or medium-sized festival in December 2017, when just over a year has passed, in January 2019 your film will actually be two years old. So it will not be able to participate in festivals that require a production date later than January 2018.
If it is a more important festival, such as Seminci or Gijón, there is not as much of a problem, since after a year the most normal thing is that you are in a more intensive distribution, at festivals that accept more than two years for the production date.
#2 After the premiere, distribution should increase
Once you have premiered and therefore have an objective, well-defined production date, start to increase the number of festivals, because you cannot afford to waste time.
#3 Avoid putting dates in the end credits
Do not do it in the rest of the film’s promotional material or on the website either, especially before the festival premiere.
If you have no choice and it is the end of the year, try to use the year after shooting as the production date. For example, if you are doing the final credits in November 2018, put 2019 as the production year.
#4 Be careful with test screenings during post-production
I have known cases of short films that held a test screening during the edit, for a small group of people at the end of the year. This screening was shared on social media, and later there were problems with festivals, as they considered that the film had premiered the previous year, when it was actually still in the editing process.
If you do any of these screenings, make sure nobody talks about them on Facebook or Twitter and do not create any kind of public event.
Have you had any problems with the production date at festivals?
See you in the comments!