What do filmmakers really think about festivals?

This year at the London Short Film Festival, we took the opportunity to host a ‘town hall’ style meeting where we invited both filmmakers and festival programmers/directors to come together for a frank discussion about the film festival experience.

The aim of the session was to shed light on different perspectives of the film festival circuit in the hope that constructive discussion could lead to better outcomes and understanding for all.

Below is a transcript of that discussion. Utilising Chatham House rules we have not noted who said what for freedom of discussion.

FF: Just as a quick show of hands, who here is a filmmaker? And who here is as a film festival? And who here is as industry? (The room was a 40/40/20 split respectively with some overlap.)

TL:DR: This section features a discussion of filmmaker experiences at film festivals. This leads into a discussion of whether festivals need break-out blocks for filmmakers and whether filmmakers find the number of shorts blocks at festivals overwhelming. One festival programmer describes setting up a space in a bar for filmmakers to meet with industry members throughout their one day festival as a solution to previously having run industry talks concurrently with film programmes. The need for parties at festivals is also mentioned as a way to allow creatives and industry people to meet.

FF: What highlights a festival on our radar is the filmmaker experience that they get. Is this something that is often overlooked?

 FILMMAKER:            I’m a DOP, but I go to a lot of film festivals, and one thing I've noticed is every film festival is like a reflection of the personality whoever runs it in some way or the team behind it, or the sort of organisation that puts it on. And some of those are much more focused on the experience than others.

A good example for me (is) Manchester Film Festival. They’re a lovely festival that is incredibly focused on the filmmaker experience.

Last year I had two or three films in that festival but made a tonne of new friends too and we're already planning getting together this year. And what was great about that festival is it built momentum across the edition, which is, I think the first time I've seen that. From day one it was a kind of social event and, yes, it was initially awkward and nobody wanted to talk to anybody they didn't know, but then day two you got to know two or three people, then again on day three and day four, and by the end of the week there was a group of 30 of us all like best mates and just hanging out and going out. That social part is very intentional from their point of view, yet they don't actually have an ideal venue for it. I think they would say themselves that their venue is not is particularly well set up for it, while other festivals have venues much more conducive to that but don't put as much work into it. I think you need to be active in creating community. I realise it’s one of the hardest things to do but I think it's got to be a big part of festivals.

FF: Do you think that festivals should be upfront about what they can offer as a filmmaker experience? And that's a question for everyone as well. If you're here as a festival, if that's something that you make sure that you're quite clear of, or if you're a filmmaker, what you would prefer to know about.

FILMMAKER: I didn't know going into Manchester Film Festival that it was going to be so good on that side of things, and partly I guess you're also a little bit at the mercy of who turns up and how much they want to socialise. But it’s really useful having breakout spaces that are part of the venue but not specifically being used for screening so people can hang out and foster that community.

FILMMAKER: Has anyone been to a festival where they felt the screening blocks were too overwhelming, because they're wall-to-wall screenings? I find it hard balancing attending industry stuff because I want to see films and I feel I’m not allowing myself to go and learn as well as watch films. Has anyone found that's an issue?

FILMMAKER: I went to one festival where the screening finished the next screen started straight away with no intro, no break. I didn't even have time to go to the toilet, never mind network, so definitely with you on that, just for health and safety reasons top.

FILMMAKER: It’s very important to foster that community and that network experience. Otherwise, you do get people just drinking and discussing their film while another film plays, which isn’t a good look.

FILMMAKER: Obviously they get a lot of grief, perhaps by not screening as many films as they would like if they were to have breakout areas. And sometimes that's a bit of payoff that if they show less films, it means they have more opportunity for that, which is something that's always gonna be an issue, because, you know, you want to screen as many films as a festival. But you also want to allow time for people to kind of engage and have a break and everything else.

 FF: Do you mind if I bring you [festival director] in on this? The reason being is your last edition you made a conscious decision about making sure there was space between the screenings for lunch and for people to have a break. So it would be good to kind of get your experience from a festival perspective.

FESTIVAL:     Yeah, so the festival I run is just a one day festival, where we programme around 45 short films. We learned that we're slightly different to some festivals in that right after every single short is screened, there's a short Q&A with the filmmaker, so it's not a bunch of shorts screening one after the other, there's a slight break between each one. And, as you were saying, it's very important to have the time and space in the day to meet people and also to go and eat, which is a very practical requirement. So we structure the day so there is time for that to happen. Another thing we tried doing differently last year from previous editions was, where we've previously had an industry talk at some point during the day, we found that would clash with films that were screening, so people were having to make a choice between watching films or going to an industry talk.

So, we tried something different at the last edition, which was instead of having specific talks throughout the day, we essentially had an area in a bar where we had all our industry guests camped for the afternoon and were there for people to go and talk to whenever they would have a chance.

I realise our festival is a bit different because it's just the one day, so we have to pack an awful a lot in in that time, but that's come from learning from and attending other festivals and seeing how we can make the whole day work for us.

FF:  As as a follow on question, just talking about the quantity of shorts that you do screen because again, that has changed over the years where you've kind of decided, actually, we wanna play more films, but it's been at the behest of the experience, and then you've reduced it. Is that correct?

FESTIVAL: Well, this year, actually, we showed more films because we added an extra block, but in a part of the day where we previously didn't have a screening block. We used to have one block in the morning, then two that run concurrently and then one at the end. This time around, we had two screenings run concurrently right from the start. So we've showed more last year, and I think it was 48.

FF: Before we move on, has anyone else got anything that they want to add to that about kind of good or bad experiences they've had with either with not having space or too many films?

FESTIVAL: Yes. I want to say I'm a programmer and a festival strategist who has also worked in many festivals.

I do believe that festivals without parties are terrible. We are not there only for the films, we could watch those at home, so why do we go there? I think this is a question that festivals should ask themselves.

If we gather somewhere, it's not only to watch a film, because there's alternatives for that. I believe in cinema is a community thing and a collective thing, so it's all these things around the films that are so important. We need to talk about them with a beer, you know, I think it's It's a must to have all those spaces.

FF: I think once your films played two or three times and you've got the big premieres out of the way, it's great to have those spaces to talk to people because it's not just a place to screen a film. It's a conversation point to meet like minded people because you don't know who's in the room with you. You might meet your next editor, your next producer.

In my experience, when I've been to festivals, I've met people that just started working on smaller projects but I've also met people from Netflix and Disney. You just don't know who you're going to speak to next, so having these opportunities can really break some walls down. So again, as a filmmaker, is it good to know what the festival has to offer?

FILMMAKER: I think it is really important because we are submitting to too many festivals and it's very expensive to go to them. So, if we get into a festival, it's good to know what else is there apart from the screenings because that, for me, would be the deciding factor of whether to go or not.

Of course I want to see other films, I don't care to see my film because I've seen it 1000 times, but, I also want to meet people and I want to network. Some festivals do organise events and then let you know in advance, things that they have organised specifically for you as a filmmaker, not just the panels or what everything that's open to the other people, but things that they organise for the filmmakers attending. So, it's good to know that in advance, because that would make you decide to go or not.

TL:DR: A discussion of how film festivals and filmmakers can better communicate with one another. One example is festivals communicating rejections.

FF: As you say, there are so many film festivals, probably 40,000 plus and counting, around the world. And they're not all good, they're not all bad, and they're not all real. You know, when you are a filmmaker trying to find those festivals to put your work into, you are making those decisions based on the shop window that the festival is promoting to you.

I always think it's key that festivals are very upfront, where they might say, ‘Look, we are not the glitzy glam. We're not the red carpet, but you're gonna have an amazing time. We're gonna look after you. It's gonna be fun. You're gonna make some new friends’. There are some festivals don’t necessarily sell themselves enough, some festivals we know are really great, and when we look at their listing on FilmFreeway or Festhome it looks really dry. I'm then hoping that filmmakers do a bit of digging or ask around, or perhaps look at the website and so on.

So, for the festivals in the room, literally say ‘We give you that space to meet people, we have put on a space for all of the selected filmmakers who are attending to be in one room without that kind of interruption of other people’. I think that's really valid. There's been some that I've spoken to in America who actually refer to their festivals as a drinking event that sometimes plays films! So, really sell what you can offer, even if it is something as simple as telling the filmmaker you’ll give them a ticket to their screening because that's something that filmmakers might at least expect.

Off the back of that, the next topic we wanted to mention is communication. Communication is key; are there areas that both parties can improve on? Now, as a team, we've have lots we could say, but we want to hear from you because we want to see if it chimes.

FESTIVAL: Yes. I work for a film festival in London as the Senior Programmer, and I have had the pleasure for the past couple of years of also handling hospitality once the programme was done because someone has to do it. Even with a festival that might seem to the outside world like it has a big huge scale team, our team is tiny. We are so stretched, beyond reason. You know, one person will throw the ball to another person about a certain task or communication with a filmmaker.

I had to bring 50 people to the UK from all around the world, book them flights and hotels and organise all of that for the feature filmmakers, and then also communicate with the short filmmakers. At the end of the day, we do the festival because we love films and filmmakers and we want them all there and we want them knowing what is happening, but because of burnout or workload, I know I might have been guilty at times of not communicating as well as I would have liked.

Image from our Happy Hour, which ran separately from the Town Hall event.

FF: I think some people presume that all festivals do have a big team, but sometimes it literally is just one person or a small team.

Some of our experiences have often been that the bigger festival that we deal with, and I'm talking very top tier, the worse they are which is is mostly because they have too many people. They have too many departments all asking you for the same thing for your film and they’re not talking to each other. Don't don't light a fire under our arse saying you don't have it, because you do have it. It’s probably someone sitting in the office next to you that has it.

Filmmakers in the room Is there something that you wish festivals would do more communication wise, but flip side festivals?

FILMMAKER: I think oftentimes, at least with the films I've made, it seems festivals have no problem taking your entry free and accepting any type of submission from any type of filmmaker, but when it comes to getting rejected, the communication as to why, or even before you submit what they’re specifically looking for in terms of their judging criteria or what the agenda of the film festival is, or if they're only looking for specific, stories or films that present a certain perspective… there's none of that. There’s just that bog standard email to say sorry you didn't make it or not even provide you with that, you just get a rejection from Film Freeway or whatever.

FF: Sometimes you don't even get that. That pisses us off and we have to chase them!

With the submission fee, we like to refer to it as a viewing fee, because you're paying for someone's time to watch your film and consider it. We do get the frustration from the filmmaker side but when you’re Sundance, for example, and they get 12,000 submissions for short films alone, they’re never going to be able to reply back to everyone. There's also two types of feedback. There's feedback on your film, but also feedback on why they didn't pick it. We can guarantee that you’ll want it for the latter, which is not conducive for the festival when they need to focus on those they have selected, and for you it’s just going to rub salt in the wounds.

FESTIVAL: I'd love to chat to that. We run a small festival that started as one day but now run for three days. It breaks my heart every year when I have to send the rejection emails, it is devastating as the film organiser to action that. After all the team has looked at them and all the judges have gone through them, we know who our finalists are going to be, and having to press that button is awful. Actually, just so that you all know how much I care and how much our team cares, there were emails I sent personally to filmmakers before the rejections went out this year because they had been in contact with us all through the process and didn't get through. I was devastated for them. A couple of years ago someone got rejected and she said to us, “I found out about that being rejected after you had already told the people who were accepted because everyone was posting on socials”, and she said that was really tough on us because she’d been in our festival before.

That happened in our first year and we took that feedback on board and then immediately changed the way we did it from the following year onwards. We made sure that people knew that they weren't getting through beforehand they could write back to us and we could give them feedback.

FESTIVAL:     Do you have an embargo?

FESTIVAL:     We do but not all filmmakers adhere to it.

FESTIVAL:     We just send it out to everybody on the same day.

FF: I wanted to ask a follow up question. If festivals were transparent in their write up and they talked about their selection process, for example, every film gets watched by at least two people or X number of people, would that be of benefit to you to know that?

FILMMAKER: Yes, but also, it’s always hard to account for personal taste. If one person doesn’t like your film it may just mean the rest of the room doesn’t see it or it’s hard to argue that it should be included if others don’t like it. There will always be personal bias at the end of the day.

FF: I think the one thing that I can tell you from our experience is when a festival has pre-screeners for their festival, they are prepped with what the festival wants to select. So, there is some kind of guidance because otherwise every festival will just be like the screener personal taste.

Also, they might not know what to programme until they see what they have. They might want to do a body horror block but just don’t have the films come in that year, so they lean towards a final girl horror block rather than body horror. So, the programming style can be quite erratic at times, because they won't know what they’re looking for until they've watched everything. It's a vague answer, but it’s also truthful as well, every festival is different.

But there are some great festivals out there that will be a little bit prescriptive about what they want and what they're looking for. What I will say is they are off the beaten track, so they're not going to be those top tier festivals that have industry kudos attached to them. One festival I can definitely recommend is Hell’s Half Mile Film & Music Festival in Michigan. They are very prescriptive about what they want in their listing, they have very set categories, like late night feature film, female directed short or LGBTQ and so on. They are also a rarity in that they also write a personalised email after you submit it, for which Don is amazing. They're also very cool because one of their screening venues is a planetarium. And it's where Madonna was born, because that's what everyone will tell you when you go there.

FILMMAKER: I don't know how many films you guys have have done the strategy for now that I've shot, but I would highly recommend if you've got a film that is struggling to find an audience in film festivals, to talk to people like FF because it's about finding the the right audience.

Maybe submit to one or two of the bigger festivals, but actually there's tonnes of niche festivals that your film will find a home at, and it's about knowing those about those festivals.

FF: I want to bring you in here as a more niche format festival.

FESTIVAL: That’s the beauty of this session, we’re getting feedback as a festival from the people that have attended, and we rarely get feedback from people in the position that you all here to reiterate, that you’ve not had the right communication or you feel the rejection wasn't as nice. And that kind of wall is such a horrible thing for a filmmaker to come up against, especially when making a film is kind of exhausting enough and then you hand it over and are saying, “Do you love it?” and then to get nothing back. It just makes it even worse.

I really appreciate what you're saying, but just to kind of make you feel a little bit better from a programmers and festival director's point of view, on the Short of the Week website, Rob Munday's been doing a brilliant set of articles called Meet the Gatekeepers. He's interviewed those in charge of selection processes and everyone says something different. What we say as a festival is that at the end of the selection process, it feels like we've been battling each other, and we've all watched the films differently. We've watched them so many times, and the films that end up in the selection are almost a compromise.

It’s not the case that these are our favourites, these are the best. If you imagine it as real estate, there's only so much time and there's only so much space, and I think that's probably going back to a previous conversation as to why festivals want to cram so many screenings, it’s because they want to show so many things.

It breaks my heart going to all the festivals and seeing the films that we had so many arguments about but didn’t select up on the big screen. I don't watch the film, I watch the audience and see what they're doing because I'm interested to see if we let one go from our grasp.

So, I just want to put the filmmakers minds at rest, that we're not just mix-taping our favourites, these are what we feel are the best for our audience. There’s more of a nuance and really it's a challenge. I mean, you could probably make a whole new festival from the rejection pile, and you know what? It would be an amazing selection as well.

Also, if you paid money to submit your film, we've only done it for the first year last year after being free, but I like to explain it as you're contributing to Kickstarter, and it's helping the festival, not just with watching the film. Festivals don't have a year round income, but if they have a year round call for entries and when people are chucking in a few quid here and there, you're helping support the work of the people that get film scene.

FILMMAKER: I'm still very new to this whole festival thing. I've only just sent a film to a festival for the very first time, and I've been learning a lot. I think the thing I would say I’d like is clarity. For instance, I had a festival come back to me saying, Oh, you're a finalist! And I'm like, OK, what does that mean? And the festival director said, “You're in. I'm so excited to meet you. My team will be in contact very soon”. The team comes to me and they give me a very vague, unclear email that sounds like I'm not in. We have a back and forth and they finally told me I'm actually not in. We really liked your film, but it’s not selected this time”. The lack of clarity, the fact the festival director themselves didn't even know. It didn’t feel great.

FF: And I'm sure this is where I can bring our team member in who is handling probably all our submission clients on the slate.

FF: Every festival does something very different to the other ones. And we get frustrated because sometimes the festival uses different vernacular. So they'll use Semi Finalist, and we’ll ask, ‘Semi Finalist means you're in the festival and you’re also in the running for perhaps an award, right?’ But some festivals use it as, ‘Oh, you were close, but you didn't get in’ so there is that confusion.

And there's a lot of confusion as well, because I have filmmakers who see on Instagram that another film has got a finalist or a Semi Finalist laurel, and they're like, did we get one? And I have to explain, ‘OK, your film is a Semi Finalist but for this festival it means that it's not selected and you don’t get a laurel you make it yourself’, and I end up having to go through that horrible process of explaining a rejection.

FF: There’s a fairly big festival, Academy qualifying, that literally has been listing films on their website, but not actually saying you're picked. They’re basically saying you’re in strong consideration, so they still might get told no but there’s no clarification on that so we have to gently remind filmmakers it doesn’t mean anything yet.

It's kind of disgusting because you don't want to get filmmakers hopes up because that might be the biggest festival they get into to then drop the trap door and and and let them fall. It's just, like simple communication. Don't say anything unless, like, it's actually something.

FF: Just going back to the point about communication, but honing in on the idea about notifications. We changed our verbiage to at least take away some of the sting, when we send out updates to those that want them. We don't call it rejection, we reference it as “not selected”. We also never mark that off until we have absolute clarity from a festival, either we have been told by notification or the festival has announced the programme, or the festival has taken place or about to take place. And there is a reason we do that. The reason why some festivals don't send out rejections upfront is because they sometimes do very last minute selections when they’ve had had to pull a film, or a filmmaker has pulled their film from a festival, so the festival looks to the reserve list. That's where we have had literally a week before a festival's happened that a film has been selected - and that was a big festival. So, that's part of the process, unfortunately, but it does grind our gears because some festivals will drip feed their selections.

FF: Do not sit and look at those notification dates on FilmFreeway because they mean jack shit. Because either a festival will use it to let only the selected know or only the rejected know, and some festivals send out their notifications all at the same time. Some festivals will send out an email that's personal and then update that notification sometimes after the festivals happened. But the point is, that is very frustrating job for me because I have to trail through websites and programmes and find the small print and look at every single film just to make sure that it was all OK, and all notifications were correct. Don't get me started on how complicated some festival websites are to use, they are nightmares.

Image taken from our networking drinks, which were separate to this event.

FF: Sometimes festivals will have rolling selections. We're in a unique position and we may be handling 30 films or whatever going to that festival. We might get an early selection for a film so we can kind of tell that filmmaker.  But for the rest of our slate we can't say yes or no yet because they're still open for submissions, which is a whole other grey area.

FILMMAKER: I think what is really nice is getting an email from the actual festival before the FilmFreeway rejection because the FilmFreeway rejection is often very dry, and I don't know if this is just me, but it always seems to come at, like 11 o'clock on a Friday night.

It's hard to find out that you've been rejected just going into the weekend. I just think it's really nice when it comes from the festival, once they've made that decision, and it really does make a difference how it's written. I mean, I've had some rejections that feel like a win and some acceptances that are sort of weirdly you're in, send us your stuff and then never hear from them again. I think wording that email is important.

FF: There’s actually a festival in America that sends out rejections by post. I mean, I had to put on a festival organisers group after receiving them two months late, “Yeah, it's not the most cost effective nor useful way of telling us”, but it's a nice thing being acknowledged.

FILMMAKER: Yes, well, I think that's the crux of everything, particularly in the industry over the past year and how much it has been a problem in general for freelancers, or people working in the industry who are getting absolutely battered at the moment. But there's a huge amount of emotion that people put into their projects, and we're not just dealing with jobs here. We're just dealing with, like, a huge amount of love and care.

FESTIVAL: And I think that's what we're all really craving as well, that connection with other people to just be like, ‘Oh, I've just put everything into this for the past four months.

FILMMAKER: Exactly. I’ve been rejected from everything and it's just that bit of communication, where you can feel OK about yourself and like to push forward. I know how passionate people are and having to take other jobs and other things or like working six jobs just to make one movie that year or one short.

FESTIVAL: I think it's that collective respect from people who are working in industries to get back to people and that small bit of communication can just go such a long way. In the times that we've been experiencing over the past, you know, even since Covid, I think it's very relevant. And, yeah, it goes a long way to know that people people do care.

FF: Honestly, I will say post-COVID the behaviour of film festivals have definitely changed from our perspective. Some for the better, some for the worse. I think at the height of COVID when we had that shift of festivals still being able to give you something, with it being online or kind of a virtual kind of landscape for festivals, I think it definitely showed the kind of the passion that a festival can offer a filmmaker, which is “we still want to go against the odds and deliver you something. It's not gonna be what you expect, but it's something that we can do that in a world that is kind of slowly burning.”

I think that comes down to what we've mentioned in several aspects, which is the communication part. How do you articulate that communication? Even if it is a non-selection. Phoenix Film Festival sent out their rejections recently, and literally in the second paragraph they say, “we’re going to rip the band aid right off. Unfortunately, your film's been not selected this year.” But then they kind of go on to expand on their their process of how many people watch it and the depth of the feedback that goes between the team.

You don't get that feedback. Obviously, that's an area that festivals just don't have the the resource to accommodate. But also, and this is from experience of doing it 20 years,

if a festival gives you feedback, it opens the gates to a filmmaker to take umbrage with that feedback. It becomes a conversation that is irrelevant to the filmmaker because they're fighting a losing battle. The festival didn't pick their film. They might like it, but they just didn't pick it.

Also, the festival gets the energy and the time taken away having this conversation, when they've got selected films to be dealing with.

FILMMAKER: I think that also leads into something I wanted to bring up and ask a question, that thinking about these things in terms of one festival is maybe the wrong way to think about it. My experience of films I've been involved with that had festival runs is it's about the run that the film has at festivals more than about individual selections or not. And what I wanted to ask you guys is what you think about that and how filmmakers should approach that. But also for the festival programmers here, whether they are ever looking at where else the film has already played, or whether they're seeing films at a festival and thinking, ‘Oh, that would be perfect for this part of our programme’ or something like that.

FF: The main research is finding that film’s audience, what are the areas that we can pull out to be more focused on the circuit. Which in turn means it gets traction in places that other festivals wanting that kind of film or have that remit can lean into and request the film. That could be debut feature, rom-com, filmmaker under 25, narrative over 50, BIPOC, Human Rights, anything. Other festivals will look to their programme say think, “We know and like their stuff, it's validated.” So then that's where you get other festivals approaching you. I will say it doesn't guarantee a selection.

We always use Sundance. Last year, as an example, we had two films play there. One was the North American premiere and the other one was a Utah premiere. That's the only premiere you could give it, which is nothing to shout about. The film played at Cucalorus two months before, it had played at L’Etrange the month before that. It played at LSFF the same month it played at Sundance. But the film made absolute sense for Sundance’s Midnight Madness strand.

So I think sometimes this idea of success and playing at only the big festivals is not necessarily the best way to look at it. The best way to look at it is where is the audience for my film? Where is the potential selection so increased?

Because I have done my research and looked at what they programme or seen what remit they have. It doesn't mean you're going to get selected, but it means that you're being savvy and using your budget, and you're being a little bit more aware of the strengths and perhaps weaknesses of your film. I always say don't look for the lights of the film festival that you aspire to play at. Look for the eyes who want to watch your film because that's the best way of finding where your film will get seen.

FILMMAKER: It’s really, really hard to find out what festivals have played in the past or who's on their team. A lot of festivals don’t always seem to have that information on the website and, obviously, you're working with a limited budget.

So, when I'm trying to decide if I can submit to this festival or this one simply because there's a limited budget… I’ll probably always go with the ones that have more information on them.

FF: Google is your friend, but also, and this is a little tip that we use, Wayback Machine which is actually a website that you can use to find old captures of websites and submission pages. It doesn't work for every single URL, but you can take a URL and you can put it in there and it will take it will have taken snapshots of it for the last few years.

I think the last few years, because of the pandemic, a lot of festivals have used Eventive or other online digital platforms that will generally have it in the copy. I think the category is always a good indicator of what they want, so they if they're asking specifically for female directed films or horror or whatever very, very specifically, that's a good guide because if they're just saying we want live action, it's basically them saying right, surprise us with what you've got, because they've they've basically got an open book. They haven't got a remit per se, but still use the website to get a flavour of the tone of the types of films that they're playing. That can direct you a long way to understanding the level of your film and whether it's got that synergy with previous editions piping in here as well.

You can also check their Instagram and Twitter and Facebook. And I'm sorry if you've already done that, but a lot of the times I am scrolling back on festivals. Instagram is good as they do carousel posts, and you're kind of rummaging through that.

FESTIVAL: There is a problem with trying to submit to film festivals and places that take your money and give you a laurel and then charge you if you get a paper version.

10 film festivals in the UK, we got together last year, we’re brand new, and created the Association of Independent Film Festivals.

We're just taking on board new film festivals as they come. The remit is that for each festival that is a member, all films have to be watched by multiple judges, it has to have a live event, you can't charge too much, so if the film festival charges like $40+ for a short film that they wouldn't be allowed to be an AIFF because we think that's just too much for a short. We really care about you guys and we really love running film festivals and don't make any money. I’m also a filmmaker myself. It’s really transparent and our plan is just to make all the film festivals that are doing it right recognisable to filmmakers. We're kind of trying to be like the Casting Directors Guild and the CSA of the film festival world. This is currently just for UK festivals.

FF: Overseas you have the Short Film Conference, which is European centric but with some rest of world festivals. There’s also the Film Festival Alliance, which is again worldwide but mostly concentrated on North American festivals. They are all really good resource because essentially, you are able to look at those festivals and see that they've been vetted.

Well, our time is up! This has been an experiment, and we hope it's been helpful to the filmmakers and the festivals in the room. Thank you for all of your thoughts. This has been interesting for us. And I hope it's been equally valid and interesting for all of you.

Post-event we had the following feedback from one of the attending film festivals:

“This was an enlightening event which opened a much-needed dialogue between filmmakers and festivals. As a festival we get a lot of audience data but we get very little opportunity to gather feedback about our submission process and so we got great insight into the perspective of the filmmaker who might not know the type of films each festival are looking for or specialise in which no doubt will help shape our future communications. We also had the opportunity to share with filmmakers our perspective and shine a light on the programming of films which was met with an empathetic response. From both sides there are a lot of misconceptions that were quickly changed in the space of an hour at this marvellous event, I feel a gap has been bridged and we all know each other’s problems and how we might work together to solve them in future – thanks Festival Formula!”