Product Description

Every year thousands of filmmakers like you unleash their newly completed movies upon the film festival circuit. Whether you're a first-timer with a comedy short or a seasoned veteran with a documentary feature, you all face the same set of problems. You all ask the same questions. You all want the pleasure of seeing your film play before a festival audience and gain the recognition it deserves. This is your book. Film Festival secrets will help you select the right festivals for your film, prepare your festival screener, save money on festival fees, create marketing collateral, and craft a screening sell out plan. And that's just the beginning.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #502887 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-06
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

The Film Festival Resource You've Been Looking For
As a first-time filmmaker entering the festival scene, I am finding Mr. Holland's book to be an invaluable resource for every step of the process. I can't say enough about the thought and care that has been put into this book. It is truly a must-have for anyone entering in the film festival process-- directors, producers, and publicists will find information in this volume that will undoubtedly improve the whole experience.

The book is conveniently divided into chapters that comprehensively handle each stage of the process: Before you submit, When you submit, While you wait, When you get the call, The pre-festival push, At the festival, and Aftermath.

I am finding each chapter to be deeply informative. Holland breaks up the text into easy to follow bullet points and checklists so that it can function as a field manual as well as a text that you want to read ahead of festival time. Poignant anecdotes are interjected throughout an offer insight into some of Holland's broad experience in the film festival world. The advice is current and includes tips about [...], how to deal with rejection, and what steps to take when you get in.

I strongly recommend the book to anyone out there looking for a complete and thoroughly helpful guide to what can seem like a daunting process. As a reader, I feel privileged to receive the insider's advice I get every time I open the book.

Helpful and inspiring.
I finished FILM FESTIVAL SECRETS the very same day I received my rejection letter from Sundance. The strange thing was how well the book prepared me for the rejection and also lifted my spirits, convincing me how much more is out there for a indie filmmaker like myself. For someone who has never done the festival circuit this is a great book to help you prepare in all aspects of festival fun. I feel ready and well prepared for the war ahead of me...the fun, awesome war!

Very Good, a little basic and a little pricey
I recently finished reading film festival secrets. I appreciate much of the advice found therein, but it can be exceedingly basic at times. The book is divided into the following categories:

1. Before You Submit
2. When You Submit
3. While You Wait
4. When You Get The Call
5. The Pre-Festival Push
6. At the Festival
7. Aftermath

Holland's enthusiasm is apparent, and he gives solid advice about Withoutabox, organization, and promotion as well as an amusing list of Filmmaking cliches. There is a reiteration that you need goals going into festivals, and a review of the basic marketing materials used for them. There are also good checklists to end each section.

That said the book feels very much geared to the neophyte filmmaker setting out on his very first festival run. A lot of common sense and little new information for twenty five dollars. Much is rehashed here, although in a convenient form all in one place.

Some books that I would recommend are Chris Gore's Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide, Friends Fans and Followers by Scott Kirsner, The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott.

If you are very new, this is for you, but I find it a little too expensive for what is offered.