Film Festival Secrets Exposed!

Wazzup filmmaking friends!

The newsletter this week is unique as it includes all the typical juicy details you love as well as a behind the scenes look at our film festival. This is a newsletter you are going to want to share with your filmmaking buddies as we dish on a lot of the BTS of UIFF.

In this Newsletter

• What’s Getting Selected?

• 6 Tips to Get into a Film Festival

• Cast/Crew Gigs

• Top 100 Best Reviewed Film Festival - Again

• Submission Discount Code

What’s Getting Selected?

Is your film too long or too short? Does one particular genre outperform others? I compiled the last several 14 years of data to determine what has the best selection rate at UIFF and the numbers might surprise you.

Movies that run between 11-15 minutes get selected more than films of any other length in the history of our film festival. But don’t miss out on the MICRO-Shorts. Those films that are less than 5 minutes get selected a lot, with one in four submitted getting selected.

Different genres will outperform others at different festivals. At the Utah International Film Festival, Dramas make up the majority of the selections. But if you have an outstanding Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi or Comedy, you still have a very good chance of making it into the screening schedule. For a more in-depth analysis of the numbers and conclusions that can be made, check out the full report HERE.

6 Tips to Get into a Film Festival

You poured your heart and soul into a short film, right? Awesome! Now, how do we get that seen by the world (and, more importantly, by some cool film festival programmers)? It can feel like trying to crack a secret code, but fear not, my film friends! I’m ready to spill the beans on what really makes a short film shine in 6 simple steps:

Write a Powerful Ending
Don’t Second-Guess Your Sound
Create Engaging Characters
Add a Memorable Moment
Use a Cohesive Color Palette
Keep Your Edit Tight

If that is all you needed to hear then you are set. But if you want more clarity on these 6 tips check out my little blog post HERE

Cast/Crew Gigs

Looking for your next gig in Utah? The Utah Film Commission has jobs posted for the following productions:
Homestead (TV Series)
Zeus (Feature)
If either of these sound like something you would like to throw in on, you can get the contact information HERE

Top 100 Best Reviewed Film Festival - Again

FilmFreeway has us listed as one of the “Top 100 Best Reviewed Film Festivals” for May and we have not missed a month since the inception of this recognition for the past several years.

“According to reviews from real FilmFreeway users, your festival ranks in the top 1% of more than 14,000 film festivals and creative contests around the world. No doubt, this ranking is a testament to the countless hours of hard work and care that you and your staff have devoted to creating such a wonderful event.” - FilmFreeway

This honor is not possible without the feedback we have received from our filmmakers, programmers, volunteers, sponsors and staff.

Submission Discount Code

You made it this far, you deserve a prize. Best I can do is a discount code for a future submission. Use the code UIFFNewsletter and get 50% off your next project submission at https://filmfreeway.com/UtahFilmFestival 

That’s it for this week. Thanks for taking the time to open up the email and give it a read. Hopefully it was useful informative or at least, not too painful. I am already putting together the next email that will include tips on how to out perform 99% of your competition on FilmFreeway. It’s gonna be a game changer.

Chat more with you next time.