Festival Success Stories: Thomas Hescott
Thomas Hescott | Illustration: Frankie Stewart
Interviewed by Mark Brennan.
Edited by Kate Stocker-Wright
Even the most experienced of directors can find the global festival circuit to be something of an unknown beast. Thomas Hescott brought his second short film, The Act, to Festival Formula after taking on the circuit solo with his first short.
In between, Thomas became a prolific television director on shows such as Holby City and Eastenders, and since his festival journey with The Act, has gone on to direct episodes of Call The Midwife and Casualty.
Thomas Hescott found out first-hand the vastness of choice on FilmFreeway which can dizzy any filmmaker looking for a home for their short film. How did the experience compare independently and with Festival Formula for Thomas?
“The first time I had a film on the festival circuit it was all very overwhelming. There's over 10,000 festivals listed on FilmFreeway. Knowing where to submit, which festivals are legit, which are a bit dodgy, knowing who is looking for your kind of film - that's hard. Then when you get the film accepted there is so much information the festival needs instantly. Honestly - working with Festival Formula made the whole experience so much more enjoyable, much less stressful, and we had much more success then we would have had on our own.”
The Act began its festival run just as the pandemic arrived in 2020, meaning most festival acceptances were for virtual events. Even so, some festivals really went above and beyond to provide a platform for their selected filmmakers.
“The one big advantage of a virtual film festival is that we were able to connect with filmmakers and audiences all over the world. BFI Flare has a really broad audience, and I think by showing the shorts via the BFI player platform we really reached a big audience. Being part of BFI Flare was a dream come true. Bolton International Film Festival also really took the time and care over the films they presented and they were such a friendly team.”
And despite the virtual festival run, The Act has still been a success - important to know with many film festivals continuing their online offerings in future.
“The film has led to all sorts of exciting opportunities. It's opened all sorts of doors, and got me some great meetings, and allowed me to go up for some fantastic directing jobs - some of which I got! But most excitingly I've had some really great writers get in touch with me with interesting projects to collaborate on, which has been the biggest compliment.”
The Act has recently been released as part of the Boys on Film series by Peccadillo Pictures, which Thomas is very excited about. With such a great end to his own festival run, what advice would he give to others about to start theirs?
“The first time I made a short I didn't know much about the festival circuit. In between my first short and my second I'd had the experience of helping to programme a few small short film events. That experience really helped when I came to make my second short film. It focussed me to think about who I wanted to see the film and what festivals I wanted to screen it.
“There were two things I really remember when watching lots of shorts - festival programmers are desperately willing your film to be good because without good films there's no good festival. I also learnt that the shorter the film the easier it is to programme.”
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