Hi so any advice is helpful. My short film got accepted into Morbido Fest , it would be giving them our international premiere (I’m a US filmmaker), and it’s just a bit confusing because their notification date on film freeway is just 12 days before their festival (Oct 29 is opening date), that gives me like zero time to decide if I’m attending. They also are giving us six days from the acceptance date to give our materials (Spanish subtitles, etc), and also I’m assuming DCPs. I went to their website and their programming is already up, it’s all feature films I believe, so im just confused.

I found out about this festival through research and the internet makes it appear to be a very large festival (100k followers)…. But I don’t actually know their reputation.

I’d love any insight, and advice of anyone who knows about this festival, their reputations, and their experience with short films. If I should accept, if I should try and attend (it going to be so expensive for flights this last minute ).. etc

Thank you!! 🙏

I had a genre short screen at a festival last week that wasn’t genre-centric and we ended up in a totally chaotic screening block that was a mix of experimental, drama, horror and comedy.

There was absolutely no flow from one film to the next - it went from a drama about grief to a splatter film and I was just sat there laughing at the continual mood whiplash.

It was an interesting experience as I’m programmed in genre blocks 99% of the time, but from a curation perspective I found it totally baffling. Would love to hear others’ experiences like this.

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Hi I am filmmaker I have produced and made this 2 films as I am new to this film festival so dont want to waste my money any Film Festival strategist/ Filmmaker/Cinephile is interested in watching my movie and help with the festival please reach me out.

I checked with the mods before posting this.

I've been entering screenplay contests this year and wanted one place to see what's open and what's about to close, so I built a calendar for it. It's at festivals.page4films.com and it's free, no account or sign-up.

Right now it has 2,710 listings in 118 countries. That's 2,437 film festivals, 65 screenplay contests and 208 funds, labs and grants. You can filter by type, entry fee, region, or Oscar and BAFTA qualifying, and you can save the ones you care about and add their deadlines to Google or Apple Calendar. There's also a weekly email of everything closing in the next two weeks if you'd rather not check.

Every date comes from the festival's own website. A lot of festivals only post their deadlines on the submission platforms, so about half the listings say "See festival site" instead of showing a date. I'd rather leave it blank than guess. If a festival hasn't announced next year yet, it shows last year's dates and says so.

If you run a festival you can list it for free, and every listing has a button to report a wrong date. I'm still adding more, so tell me if yours is missing.

So on Day 3 of Austin Film Festival this year, there is a conference party hosted by Mubi that I wanna go to, but it's on Halloween. And I wanna know the dress code for these types of things. I got a button-up shirt just in case, and my costume is easy to get out of at the hotel I'll be staying at.

If anyone had gone to one, am I safe to go in my Halloween costume (Gir from Invader Zim if y'all were wondering), or should I dress nice (i.e. business casual)?

Do I travel to Big Apple Film Festival?

Hey I am 7x2 (cryptic eh😂),

Of course I wouldnt travel alone and could possibly win at Big Apple Film Festival,

Yes the majority of the benefits are virtual, e.g. pitch forum and stuff

Do you think it’s genuinely beneficial for my career to cross the pond?

Thanks

Hey everyone,

Long time lurker here...my recent short film got accepted i to the Hex After Dark Film Festival. The festival is screening 20 films in their "scream room" part of Calgary's Screamfest. They also have a theatre they booked:

"As well as showcasing your work at Screamfest, new this year we also have been able to afford to get an actual theatre showing on Oct 27 at the Grand Theatre on 1 street SW in Calgary. It is a classic theatre and we are stoked for such a cool location. We won't be able to show all the films selected as we only have two showings of 90 minutes each. That being said - we are very excited to share your film"

They told us to watch their Facebook for updates but they haven't posted in over a year, their Instagram is similar, and their website still has last years programming on it.

Their FilmFreeway reviews are decent but part of me is wondering if I should even bother making the 10 hour drive to attend. They're in their 7th year but it feels so barren.

Thoughts? Has anybody attended in the past?

TL:DR - My short film got into the Hex After Dark Film Festival in Calgary but their social media and website hasn't been updated in over a year. Is it worth it to attend?

Imagine if FF had a calendar which showed every festival's deadlines, notification dates, dates of the festival itself, etc. You could filter by region or type of festival, or even if it's on your watch list or if you've submitted to it.

And exportable to CSV or pdf. That would be super valuable.

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hey all,

i’m a film student from bangalore planning to visit goa for iffi 2026.. from around 19th to 28th November.

it'll be my first time attending a film festival of this scale n also I'll be travelling solo.

If anyone's going to iffi this year especially if you're travelling solo too feel free to comment or dm.

would love to connect beforehand..

also if there's already a whatsapp group, telegram group or other groups for iffi attendees, please let me know.

I’m in post on my short film and it’s apparent the final cut with credits will be somewhere between 30 and 35 minutes. Likely pushing the upper end of that range.

To be clear, playing in film festivals wasn’t the priority when making this film. I am well aware that shorter short films have much better chances of acceptance to film festivals. Technically, almost every fest I look at says under 40 minutes qualifies as a short film. Again, I’m still aware that the shorter the film the better.

Knowing that, I’m wondering if anyone knows of any fests that are particularly friendly to the longer short films. I’ve found a couple that actually have categories for submission for films of this length, one even calling it a featurette. Anyone had success with festivals submitting something in the 30 to 40 minute runtime range?

I’m a young documentary filmmaker and last year I had a very successful circuit with my short doc titled “Fjallferð” about Icelandic sheep farmers and a yearly trek they take each year to find their sheep in the highlands and bring them to the coast before winter.

The film had a wide international tour and I experienced the festival circuit for the first time after it premiered at Reykjavik international film festival, went to banff mountain, hollyshorts, and more.

This year I made another short doc about armored combat fighting in NYC called “The Knights of NYC”. I was super proud of the film and thought it exceeded my last in many ways, but for whatever reason it’s not getting into many festivals. I’m curious to hear from any programmers why they think that is and what I could have done differently? It’s super tight and programmable at about 8.5 minutes about a quirky subculture and it’s funny. It’s played incredibly well with audiences whenever I’ve had screenings. Would really love any advice!! (I’ve attached the promo to the film below and can send a private link to those who want to review the full film)

Anyone ever heard of a short playing at SXSW that wasn't a US/World Premiere?

Tomorrow I am set to fly to FICM in Morelia, Mexico. It will be my first-ever film festival, and I was very excited. However, what I see as chronic technical issues have me concerned that maybe I have made a mistake.

First, they only released the actual schedule two days before the fest, which I made work but does seem very late.

Now, however, I'm struggling to make any ticket purchases. I bought for myself the highest level of civilian credentials possible which was to come with 11 tickets to films that I could purchase via their website. Tickets are supposed to go on sale at 10am, two days before the screening in question.

HOWEVER. Yesterday their websites were not properly updated at that time and I kept getting error messages. I had to step away for work and when I came back, all tickets (in four different theaters) for the opening screening of Campeón Gabacho were sold out. And now today, almost an hour after they were set to go on sale, I am unable to secure tickets to Ray Gunn, Behemoth!, or Paper Tiger. I need to get back to my day, but I am worried that I will come back and have another situation similar to yesterday.

I am frustrated. But also, as this is my first film festival, I wonder if this is at all typical?

If anybody has advice, I would love to hear it. Before this, I was so excited that I was already eyeballing other festivals to attend in the future. But if this is what I could expect, I'd rather not waste my money.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I’m helping distribute an independent short film that has received nearly 40 festival rejections and zero selections. We know it might find a place in a smaller festival circuit, but we’re trying to understand what it would take to compete at the highest level.

Would anyone be interested in watching it and sharing their honest thoughts on what might be holding it back? We’re especially interested in perspectives from filmmakers and festival enthusiasts who can help us identify weaknesses we might be too close to the project to recognise.

The film is still circulating through festivals, so I can’t share a public link. I can send a private screener to anyone interested, provided the link remains confidential and the film isn’t shared or reposted.

I’m also happy to return the favour and watch another filmmaker’s work!

If you’re interested, leave a comment or send me a DM. Thanks!

Hola Busco dos entradas para la maratón de la tarde del Domingo del festival de cine fantástico de Sitges.

I’m looking for some honest outside perspective from festival programmers, screeners, reviewers, or filmmakers who have a good sense of how shorts are evaluated.

I have a roughly 12-minute horror short currently on the festival circuit. It’s a recovered-media/found-footage-style film dealing with conspiracy culture, AI, isolation and psychological deterioration. The film is professionally produced, and the response from people who have actually watched it has generally been very strong.

The festival results, however, have been much tougher.

So far we’ve had 22 completed decisions: 2 selections and 20 rejections. One of the two selections has since advanced to Finalist status. We intentionally aimed fairly high with a number of submissions, including several major and highly competitive genre festivals, but we’ve also now been rejected by a number of smaller or seemingly strong-fit horror/genre festivals where I thought the film had a more realistic chance.

What has made the results difficult to interpret is that the actual feedback has often been much more positive than the acceptance rate would suggest.

One horror festival scored the film 7.7/10 overall, with most individual categories receiving an 8. Another festival provided a very positive written jury review and specifically praised the filmmaking, editing, production design, sound and thematic execution. A third festival director told me directly that there was “no negative feedback,” that their team really liked the film, and that it narrowly missed fitting into one or two programming blocks.

I’ve also had a professional producer/festival judge review both the screenplay and finished film. Her assessment was very positive on the technical and creative execution and she originally felt it should be competitive with strong Tier 2 festivals.

At the same time, I have received one particularly useful piece of critical feedback from a programmer at a larger genre festival, and there is some overlap between that note and something the producer above had previously wondered about. I’m intentionally not including that criticism here because I don’t want to influence anyone’s reaction before they watch.

At this point I’m trying to determine what the results are actually telling me:

Is the film good but simply not quite strong enough for the level of festivals we initially targeted?

Is there something about the film itself that is consistently keeping programmers from advancing it?

Is it difficult to program because of runtime, tone, structure, subject matter, etc.?

Or am I over-interpreting a rejection rate that can simply happen in an extremely crowded short-film landscape?

I’m not looking for reassurance, and I’m not trying to argue with festival decisions. I’d genuinely rather hear, “Here’s why I wouldn’t program this,” if that’s your reaction.

The film is still privately circulating, so I don’t want to post the screener publicly, but I’d be happy to DM an unlisted link to anyone with relevant festival programming/screening/review experience who would be willing to watch it.

The most useful questions for me would be:

• If this came across your screening queue, what would keep you from advancing it?
• Was there a point where your engagement dropped?
• Did anything feel underdeveloped, unclear, overlong or too compressed?
• What level/type of festival would you realistically see this playing at?
• Does anything about the film make it harder to program even if you think it’s good?

I’m especially interested in first impressions before I share any of the feedback I’ve already received.

Thanks to anyone willing to take the time. I’m trying to learn as much as possible from this film before deciding whether the right move is to adjust the submission strategy, revisit anything in the cut, or simply take the lessons into the next project.

I’ve put my short (8 minute 58 second psychological thriller) onto the film festival circuit. Got some selections at some smaller genre festivals under my belt and waiting on lots of responses.

I’d be really keen though to get feedback from festival screeners if possible. It’s a very visual film and I’ve had mixed feedback on the twist ending in particular. Would anyone be up for watching the short and giving some feedback at all? Would be so grateful!

Has anyone gone to previous fests? Anyone going this year? My short is playing Saturday afternoon so I’m going to get there Friday and hopefully see a few films and network. How’s the overall turnout, how well are films attended, networking etc?

Has anyone gotten any SXSW notifcations yet for short films? Do acceptances ever come before Jan?