I’m talking about film festivals. Almost all film fests have a short film section, playing shorts in front of some features and multiple 90-minute programs of shorts. If you make a good short it’s possible to play literally 100 cities with it. Here is some strategy to go into the festival world with.

First thing is first – find another film that’s just like yours. I know, nothing else is like it, but find something similar in style and atmosphere, if not a similar story or form. Which festivals did that film play? Look for features too. It’s safe to assume that the festival programmers would like your work too.

For a short to play in front of a feature, it will need to be on the shorter side, often 10 minutes or less. But fests play a lot of 70 and 80-minute features and programmers love to get more talent in the mix and want to play a short in front of them. Something that isn’t exactly the same but compliments the show.

And think sideways – a fest that shows weird sci-fi films may also be into a stylish doc about Tesla.

Many festivals have a focus, and that’s the best way to spend your submission fee budget. There are tons of niche fests with a specific focus: documentaries, animation, experimental, genre, and some only show short films. Whatever you made, there is probably a fest that only wants that type of film, even shorts about mountain climbing.

Festival logistics help make decisions. Festivals have budgets for travel and rooms, but it often covers the features only. Don’t get sad, just see which fests do have stipends for shorts to help out, or prize money if that interests you. With CineVegas, any filmmaker with a short just had to get themselves to Vegas and we’d provide a room for 4 nights (gambling not included).

And don’t forget friends and family. You got parents in the US? There is probably a festival in their town and you know they’ll bring you home and feed you. Look cool in front of the parents that might have paid for the film too.

Side note: why try to go to the festivals? Besides the best reason – to see your film on a big screen with big sound and an audience – you will meet future collaborators. Just the people inside your shorts program will be great and most likely at the same stage of filmmaking you are: hungry. You’ll run into cast and crew, and if lucky a producer who wants to help on the next one.

Plus the motivation you’ll find at a festival to make more work is impossible to describe. You think you re the only one struggling, and then you meet others in the same boat and realize you’ve all made something that is worth sharing with others. This is how “waves” start.

Last but not least, try for the large film festivals. This may seem like the most important thing to go for first but not necessarily. Check their submission rules. If they require a world premiere, which is rare for shorts but it happens, then you would have to submit there first and see what happens. For many fests we just want to show the best shorts we can find and its ok to play another fest first as a short.  In fact, every festival finds a great film at another fest. It doesn’t matter who finds it first, just that the film gets one or more champions.

The biggest thing is to keep trying. If you made a film and it doesn’t get into one of the big festivals, it’s not personal (I’ve been right there too).  It can be frustrating waiting for the first show but it doesn’t mean you are a bad filmmaker, its just that every festival has its own taste and even then they can’t fit every good film made into the screen space we have. Keep making films and keep trying.

Want to learn more about the world of short filmmaking? Check out Sundance ShortsLabs on July 14th in NY and Aug. 11th in LA.These full-day workshops for shorts filmmakers offer firsthand insight and access into story development, production, and exhibition of narrative short-form storytelling.Hear directly from festival programmers and short filmmakers about their work.

 Click here for more information about NY: http://www.sundance.org/programs/shortslab-nyc/. And here for LA: http://www.sundance.org/programs/shortslab-la/.

“Notes on the Other” Sergio Oksman

When you are making a short film, take your time and concentrate on the film you are making. Don’t worry too much about what you may make in the future. Sergio Oksman tackled the strange, true world of Hemingway’s doubles and the running of the bulls in his short “Notes on the Other.” While the subject is well known around the world and full of mythic lore, Oksman needed only 12 minutes to tell the story. The result is hypnotic, with a vibrant visual style guiding you through the multilayered background. You can see the time and effort put into the filmmaking in the image, the soundtrack, the narration, the edit. Not to mention the locations and events involved. You leave the film with new insight.

I should also make the point – we show a lot of films that are not as slick in their production as what Oksman pulls off. But they are still crafted. When you see the start of John Bryant’s “Oh My God,” you may wonder if it took more than a day to make and he threw away the tripod. By the end, you realize every artistic decision made sense for the film. More importantly, you are laughing too much to think about that at all. The animated films of Martha Colburn don’t look like a computer program made them – and that’s great. You can feel her brain and hands at work, making a unique film experience with true meaning to it. We’ve shown her short films as many times as any other director.

“The Pact” Nick McCarthy

If your goal is to make a feature film, then a great short film that plays well in a theater full of people is the key, not just practicing to make a film.  Nick McCarthy wanted to make a creepy-cool horror short, and he made an 8-minute film called “The Pact.” We showed it because it was genuinely creepy and stylish. When it screened well in front of a midnight feature, producers with money in the crowd saw it and found him after the show, asking if he had a feature script they could read. He said he did, and then he went and wrote a draft. McCarthy’s goal with the short was to stay busy, but he wanted to make a short that he would like and get to festivals. The surprise result was a deal to make the feature version, which played Sundance the following year.

“Una Hora Por Favora” Jill Soloway

Even if you are successful in “the biz,” you might still need to make a good short film to help your career. Jill Soloway was a writer and producer on “Six Feet Under” but by her own account, no one was begging her to become a film director. Wanting to make a film, she finally went out and made a short. The funny “Una Hora Por Favora” showed what Soloway could do as a filmmaker. When we selected the film for Sundance, I didn’t know her background, I thought the film was funny, the filmmaking was good and thought it would play well with a crowd. I did recognize the actors, but that can hurt as much as help. If you have someone famous in your short, it better be good. With the success of the short in festivals, Soloway went on to make the feature “Afternoon Delight” which just won her the Directing Award at Sundance last month.

Practice should stop when you start the camera.