ACTING & FILM SCHOOL

Film School Students Choose Film Festivals Wisely

Studying at the New York Film Academy is a great way to learn how to translate artistic inspiration into a well-crafted cinematic artwork.  However, most students desire to have their art displayed on a larger scale, and one of the best ways to achieve that is to enter film festivals.  Film Festivals are a great way to improve your résumé, network with other filmmakers, and, of course, find distributors to pick up your film!  Today, there are thousands of film festivals world-wide, and that means thousands of opportunities each year for you to exhibit your films to new audiences!

The first step for any filmmaker looking to enter a festival is to find the festival itself.  You have probably heard of the bigger festivals such as: Cannes, Sundance, The Toronto International Film Festival, and South By Southwest.  However, just type “film festivals” into a search engine and millions of pages will be available!  There are also myriad online directories for film festivals, such as FilmFestivalsPro.com, and the International Federation of Film Producers Associations website, which are great resources for directors.

These days there are also specialty film festivals that cater exclusively to certain types of cinema.  For example, DocumentaryFilms.net has a plethora of festivals (such as the United Nations Association Film Festival) for documentarians who want to exhibit their films.  Scary movie fans can find a competition for the creepiest creature feature at festivals like the NYC Horror Film Festival.  Directors who want to “go green” will find a home at festivals such as the Washington DC based Environmental Film Fest.  With a little bit of research you can find a festival for almost any genre of movies!

The best piece of advice I can give you is to “choose wisely”. All film festivals are different, with varying entry fees, submission requirements and quality level of works submitted. The larger international festivals receive tens of thousands of entries that include Hollywood casts and have large productions.  This means the competition is very tough, especially for student filmmakers.

Most film festivals have several categories you can submit your film to. Choose the category that best fits your film.

New York Film Academy Students have a lot of advantages when it comes to submitting to festivals.  First of all, there are many festivals set up especially for students, and you can find out all about them at Studentfilmmakers.com.  NYFA now has its own student film festival as well, The New York Film Academy Online Film Festival, where you can compete for up to $5,000 in tuition! Students in New York City can also find plenty of festivals right in their own back yard.  The Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcastingc keeps an updated list of Film competitions here in New York City.

New York Film Academy students have a great opportunity to gain exposure for their work by participating in film festivals.  Many of our alumni have won big in film competitions, some with films made at NYFA.  Zac Wong, who took the teen summer film camps, was nominated at the Young Cuts International Film Festival in Montreal for his short film “Not Without My Dog.”  Phillip Dorling produced his short film “Predisposed” while at NYFA and it went on to be officially selected to be played at Sundance!  By entering festivals you can share the successes of many NYFA alums, and share in the experience of having your film be enjoyed by audiences worldwide!