I want to share some thoughts as somebody winding down a year on the festival circuit at the moment.
I went to Fantastic Fest with a
short last year and it had a really robust industry presence and networking opportunities. I was as Sitges this year which was probably even better, but my film wasn't in the fest so it was a little harder to segway into networking conversations. My movie and I were in a very cool little genre festival in Rennes shortly thereafter---it was a really nice and intimate experience, but it wasn't bustling with producers or sales agents. It's also a little difficult and demanding balancing screenings and parties. Really hard---like harder than some giant music fest IMO, only because you have to keep your industry hat on a bit, and think about promoting your work.
In any case, in my past year on the circuit and earlier with previous films, I've run the gamut from begging people to watch the film in the back of a motel conference room and having one or two other filmmakers in the room as a personal favor, to having a crowd of over a thousand give me a surreal standing ovation. (One was in Madrid and the latter was in Barcelona, just a week apart). Film festivals are such a crapshoot, you can be in the gutter or the stars, and it's not always easy to strategize which festivals to reach out to, either. I had very little idea of the playing field, and debuting at some fests made acceptance to other, more 'presitigous' ones impossible. Regardless, I do believe the constant is you can always meet and hang with some awesome people passionate about the same thing we all are. Regardless if they want to option your script into a 5 million dollar feature, or just wax poetic on filmmaking over a cup of coffee---I've made some tremendous friends. Also, as much as I sunk into the development of a proof-of-concept short, it paid off ten fold as a passport around the world. I am definitely going to miss traveling the film circuit.
I have a feature script to go along with the
proof of concept short, so I hope to do it all again. Going to shoot the breeze at AFM today in Santa Monica, and generally trying to utilize all my resources in the wings to make something happen. Wish me luck screenwritingERA.