When a director decides to embark on a film festival journey, it brings with it an added pressure.
Festival Pressure
With over 10,000 festivals out there, it becomes a midfield for a director to decide on their golden selection – the ones they are super keen to be accepted by. These are frequently Oscar or BAFTA Qualifying festivals, along with the ones personal to the director. Every festival matters, but these ones draw the eye more. They become the benchmark which you use to judge how your film is regarded out there in the world.
These high profile festivals receive the most entries. On average they receive over 5000 entries from which they select 1% for the festival itself. In the case of Sundance, they frequently receive over 14,000 entries. It is a pressure cooker of competition to secure one of those screening slots.
Furthermore, cast and crew are looking at their director’s updates. They see directors post about getting into one of the big festivals, and then see their director remain silent — they have missed the cut. A director knows their cast and crew is not expecting, just hoping, but still, that saving face is adding pressure on them.
Directors will have identified the notification dates of these red carpet festivals as the key dates of their campaign.
In other cases, directors will also post about how much they are hoping they get into these particular festivals. They are in essence adding more pressure on their shoulders — they are setting themselves up for a year’s worth of dejection.
Enjoy the Campaign
None of this behaviour is good for your mental health. This kind of campaign intensity is not the way to enjoy your festival run. And that is the key: you need to enjoy this experience. You have worked hard making a film to share with audiences, so the next step has to be enjoyable.
At the start of the project’s journey, it was just an idea on paper. It seemed light years away from a completed film you could share with audiences. So, now that it is, enjoy every second of that. Audiences are going to watch something you made — that is an incredible achievement. One to enjoy.
Enjoyment must always be put first, not notifications. Enjoying being a director is important.
Let Go
You must let go of your festival journey. Let your film discover its own journey through this process. The festivals it is meant to get into. The audiences it is meant to screen for. Use the campaign as a positive process of surprise – discovering your film’s journey.
Notifications are just digital beeps. They are not personal. The ‘no’ email from a festival is common – just smile at it and move on. Your film was not meant to take that path. Be excited by the next step – discovering who is going to say yes. These are the festivals that embrace your film. That is what the festival journey is about — discovering those who embrace you as a director.
As you learn to do this, you will look at your festival tracker far less. You will even forget when the notification dates are for festivals you have entered. The dates will dissolve away. You have learnt to let go.