Making a short film takes hours - sometimes years – of blood, sweat and tears. When you’re all done there’s another hurdle – how do you release it into the world? What festivals do you target? To help avoid the pitfalls, here’s a list of our top 10 common mistakes when releasing your film.

1) Submitting too early

In the final days of editing haze, it can feel like your short is coming together so well. Anyone would be an idiot not to see that the final result will be a masterpiece right? Wrong.

Submitting incomplete works in progress is a risky undertaking at best. You are relying on busy programmers to see through your place holders and envision the feel your temporary music gives the gist of. They are busy watching thousands of entries, so may not have the energy and trust required to imagine your end product and know you will deliver it. Especially at the expense of all the other completed shorts they already have.

2) The scattergun approach

You can spend thousands of dollars applying to festivals without a strategy. Film festival entries are expensive. You might not have a huge budget for festival submission fees, so you need to create a list that targets the festivals that are the most suitable for your film, and for your goals as a filmmaker.

It’s important to spend some time looking at the festival calendar. When are festivals playing? When do their Calls for Entries open? Keep a running budget so you can check your progress and monitor how much you spend along the way. The process of applying for festivals is often a long one, and it’s important to have a strategy.

3) Fake festivals

The internet is a wild place. Scammers have cottoned onto the fact that filmmakers have money to spend, and are working hard to part filmmakers from their submission fee cash. Many of these fake or pseudo festivals will have a name that sounds like a real, prestigious festival, but don’t actually screen films to the public. Make sure you do your research, look them up, check their websites and socials… figure out whether they’ve been operating for a decent amount of time.

We have an excellent resource called Avoiding Fake Film Festivals that we highly recommend you read if you’re new to the film festival game.

4) No research

It’s vital to research what type of films each festival is actually looking for. Do they have a maximum length? Do they mostly play avant-garde style shorts? Have they a late-night slot for thrillers?

Festivals often have ‘tastes’, which means they’re looking for a particular type and style of film. It pays to spend a bit of time looking at what was selected for the past years of the festival to see what their programming taste is. Figure out if your film fits within the style of the festival and decide from there whether it’s worth adding to your target list.

2023 Show Me Shorts People’s Choice Award winner ‘Just Kidding, I Actually Love You’

5) Going over budget

Yep, we’re back talking about money. This is because it’s important and we want to make sure you’re listening: make sure you set a budget and don’t go over. The cost of submission fees adds up quickly and while it’s important you get your film out there, it’s also important your family will still speak to you afterwards.

Figure out how much money you can responsibly afford to spend, identify what festivals matter to you and which are a good fit for your film, then patiently wait for their entries to open.

6) Over- protecting your premiere status

A bird in the hand as they say, is better than one in the bush. It is very risky to say no to a film festival that wants your film, in the hope that a more prestigious one will accept it in the future. There is no guarantee your dream festival will take your film, and you may lose out on both festivals.

There once was a time when guarding your premiere status was a high-stakes battle. Times are changing. There is a lot of scaremongering about holding your premiere status. This is over-rated and out-dated as many festivals are much less concerned about your premiere status these days. Most international festivals do also allow you to have screened in your home country first, so it’s usually fine to enter film festivals in your home country at the same time as the big international ones.

It still pays to check, and some of the top festivals still insist on a world premiere or international premiere, so make sure you enter there first if these are high on your target list. But don’t stop entering other festivals until you hear back. Just be selective.

For lower budget films there are some advantages in premiering at a smaller film festival. They will be super happy to have your film, so will invest more in promoting it, and be more likely to invite you to present at Q&As and take part in events.

Show Me Shorts Opening Night, complete with our Pink Carpet.

7) Online festival fear

Since the pandemic most festivals have been experimenting with hybrid formats, meaning they offer some live cinema screenings as well as some virtual. This means showing films through an online on a platform, like we do with Show Me Shorts On Demand.

Audiences for short films are sophisticated and there is strong demand to watch films in multiple ways that suit the viewer. There are also opportunities to connect with more audience members via online screenings, for example people who have disabilities, parents of young children, or they live far away.

If a festival wants to show your film online, do your homework and read the fine print. Good questions to ask are how long will the films be available online, and will the platform be geo-blocked to only one country.

8) Pestering the programmers

We know you are impatient to hear the result of your film entry. But, don’t keep bugging the programmers asking them if your film has been accepted. Festivals receive thousands of entries, and there’s a huge amount of work involved in watching those films and deciding whether they’re a good fit. This process often involves a lot of volunteers as well as paid staff working long hours. Think carefully about every email you send to the festival team. It’s highly unlikely emailing them will increase your chances of getting your film selected. They will be in touch as soon as they can.

9) Going online too early

If you’ve been applying for festivals for a few months and you haven’t had much luck, you could be forgiven for thinking now is the time to release on Vimeo or YouTube. This is a mistake. Take a deep breath and harness all the patience you can muster.

Remember what we said in point 2? A short film’s release can take a long time, sometimes as long as a couple of years. If you’ve done your research and targeted the right festivals, it might take well over a year for your film to begin living it’s festival high life.

Be patient and brave, your film will end up online eventually, but just be sure you’ve done it the right way with a solid, well researched plan.

10) Breaking the embargo

Congratulations your film has been accepted into a festival. Now’s your chance to sing it to the masses - add screening information to your website and social media channels, update your IMDB listing, and put the laurels on your poster. Wrong. You will have to wait until the programme is announced by the festival before you can share the good news with your network. You can get all of this information ready to go though, so when the announcement is made you have some nice images and assets ready to share.

Final thoughts

A successful festival strategy looks different for every film and filmmaker. If you need help crafting yours Show Me Shorts offers a Festival Strategy Advice service, where we do the heavy lifting of researching and recommending a list of legit festivals for you.