Submitting to Festivals

I'm back. Here's what's happening.

Just when you think things couldn't get any more complicated, you finish your movie. Then you have to edit it, that's a whole other story. Then after you finish that you now have to not only submit to a festival, you have to be accepted by them.

There are thousands of film festivals out there. Only about 20 in the world are really worth it. And most people say it's easier to win the lottery than to get accepted at any of them, especially when you've made a no budget movie, with no name actors.

So after I've spent money submitting to the expensive festivals, waiting months for a letter of rejection, I decide I at least want to be in some festival. Put a nice award on the ol' resume and the film as well. Live like a rock star for a few days. Have the inside the actors studio experience while being interviewed. And according to other sources it's possible to land distribution deals at the smaller festivals. The smaller the venue the more the movie sticks out.

So I've decided to submit to smaller festivals, but which out of the thousands should I choose. They say to submit where a similar movie made it big, but they're the same big festivals that already rejected me...Now what?

There's a lot of money that goes into this, that I want to use on my next project so I'm being choosy. I've picked out a handful and we'll see where we go.