My short The Wedding Bouquet (Buchetul Miresei) got only an award and 3 selections after spending more than USD2500 on entries. Too many times the festivals don’t even watch the movie, we were receiving reject after reject while our view count stayed the same on Vimeo. This is why I’m organising this October a plain air film festival in the Romanian countryside, 70 km from the capital Bucharest: Wallachia Intl Film Festival, the legendary land of Vlad the Impaler. https://filmfreeway.com/WallachiaInternationalFilmFestival https://www.facebook.com/WallachiaIFF https://www.wallachiafilmfestival.com http://www.promofest.org/films/the-wedding-bouquet
Introduce Yourself : "They" say that up to 90% of film festivals are pre-curated by Tudor Voican
"They" say that up to 90% of film festivals are pre-curated
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For many years I was a Festival Director, a Screener and a Judge for quite a few festivals in the western US - large & small. At some of the larger festivals, I couldn't screen every submission; Some festivals had over 2,000 submissions! But I did screen all submissions at the smaller festivals and made it a point to respond to every filmmaker as to why their film was rejected. Some festivals want Documentaries, some want Comedy, some want Drama... whatever. Some are 'kid friendly', some only program shorts... There are all manor of reasons that your film may/may not be selected - foreign language is a major issue - with/without subtitles. You seem to have spent a lot of money on entry fees but I wonder if you truly researched specific festivals for a good fit of your film.
All the best to you on organizing your Romanian festival.
Doug, thank you for your answer. I had some success with festivals when I was young. In 2002, a graduation film I co-wrote was nominated for EFA awards, at that time I didn’t even know they exist. In 2007 we sent an unfinished movie to Cannes in the last day and we got in. Today, everything is networking. Many producers are associated with festivals; it is a revolving door. I sent my resume to a London agent and she like it a lot but she doesn’t understand why I’m not working in Romania. I don’t make money out of a short, as screenwriter and co-producer I work for free and I invest some amount. If I make 2 or 3 more shorts I’m broke. Also, as artistic director and jury president at Wallachia IFF, I work for free at this moment, we need money for the cash awards. Thank you for your words of encouragement. All the best from Bucharest!