A List of All the Film Festivals + Deadlines Now Through The End of The Year + 2025
Plus: If you're looking at September 23, 2024 (ie The Sundance Deadline), are you already too late?
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This post is providing you with a list of all of the major and mid-tier film festivals now through the end of the year with their links. Plus, Sundance narrowed down its locations to host Sundance Film Festival beginning in 2027. They are:
Atlanta, Georgia
Boulder, Colorado
Cincinnati, Ohio
Louisville, Kentucky
Park City/Salt Lake City, Utah
Santa Fe, New Mexico
They’re asking the public to weigh in on where you think they should go (or say if they should stay put!). If you want to take the survey, the link is here.
A List of All the Film Festivals + Deadlines Now Through The End of The Year + 2025
Once again, I'm providing a list of all of the major festivals and their deadlines so you don’t have to hunt all of this information down. But as the info comes from third party websites, be sure you check the entry dates and deadlines for yourselves. The link to the list is below:
I know many of you are just here for the spreadsheet so I’ll save you time and just post it here, but I hope you’ll read this post as it discusses the best time to enter your film in a festival and that can hopefully help you set yourself up for success.
Here is the link to the spreadsheet.
The sub-headline for this post is: If You’re Looking at September 23, 2024 on Your Calendar, Are You Already Too Late?
What do I mean by this? Too late for what?
September 23, 2024 is the final call for Sundance film submissions. And many of you are racing to get your films in by this deadline. I want you to stop and take a deep breath and consider the added time, expense and stress this is going to cause you as you try and slide your film in under the wire.
It can happen, last minute selections for films DO happen at festivals for late entries, but the odds of getting accepted under a late entry decrease dramatically with this approach. The reason for this is that the program has more than likely been loosely put together and your film has to be absolutely outstanding in order to bump another film that might already be selected or add a screening date to accommodate it.
This is what I mean by asking the question - if you’re going for the late entry deadline (for ANY film festival) are you already too late?
And if you’re racing to get a cut in with temp music and unfinished color, you’re not necessarily putting your best work out there, so it’s a bit of a double whammy: you’re squeaking in under the wire plus not putting your best foot forward.
It’s up to you but be mindful of the notion that this approach isn’t going to do yourself any favors. I know it might be unavoidable but it’s something you should be asking yourself as you race to button up your film and get it submitted.
So When is The BEST Time to Enter a Film Festival?
I can’t conclusively say when the “best” time to enter a film festival is because they all operate differently. I once got a rejection from a festival the day before acceptances went out and they had only watched six minutes of my film… the day before they announced their lineup.
It was a regional festival so I knew exactly where the view had come from and was pretty galled they only watched it the day before they announced the program. I can only surmise that they were scrambling to watch all of the submissions by the announcement deadline and were watching as many films as quickly as possible. If something didn’t grab them immediately, it was given the ax.
I was gutted that they only gave six minutes of consideration to my film (which is demonstrative of how audiences have been trained to consume films these days) but I can’t compete against that. I didn’t think it was fair, but life isn’t fair. And I had entered the film well before the regular deadline. So even if you do everything “right”, there are no guarantees and you have ZERO control over how a festival is run or programmed or anything else.
You need to focus on the things you CAN control, such as your film festival strategy. And if you don’t have one, you need to make one because film festivals are a critical part of getting your film out into the world.
Again, there are no guarantees, but I will say this: if you enter by the regular deadline with the BEST cut of your film that you have, you will never have the lingering question of what would have happened if you opted for the late entry. It’s just one other hurdle that you have SOME control over: my advice is therefore if you can get your film in by or before the regular entry deadline, do that.
I’m in favor of stacking the deck as much as possible to be in your odds and it’s just one small thing you can do to help.
But I’m curious! Did you have a film that was a late entry and got accepted into a film festival? Share your experience in the comments below and thanks for reading this week’s newsletter!
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