Your first documentary festival: a survival guide for filmmakers
What to sort out before, during and after your first documentary festival: press kit, stills, screeners, the Q&A, industry meetings, money and stamina. Some links here are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
In this piece (7 parts)
The invitation arrives as an email with a festival logo at the top and a list of deadlines underneath. The first reaction is joy. The second, usually about an hour later, is the slow realization that you have a few weeks to produce a press kit, an exhibition file, a set of stills, a travel plan and some idea of what you will say into a microphone in front of strangers.
Late October is a good moment for this. The autumn festival run is still going, and plenty of filmmakers are about to walk into a festival lobby with a film of their own for the first time. I have read submissions, sat on committees and watched a lot of first-timers in that lobby. Most of what goes wrong is small, foreseeable and cheap to fix in advance.
If you are still deciding where to send the film, start with our field guide to Canada's documentary festivals. This guide picks up after the yes.
Before you go: the paperwork that travels ahead of you
Festivals work from your materials long before they meet you. The catalogue writer, the press office, the projectionist and the programmer who will moderate your Q&A all start with whatever you send, and they will use it exactly as sent. A typo in your synopsis can follow the film for years, copied from one listing into the next.
Publicist or not
For a first festival, especially with a short or a regional premiere, most filmmakers don't need a publicist. The festival's press office lists the film, and most of the coverage it attracts will come through that office anyway. A publicist starts to earn the fee when the film has a significant premiere at a large festival, when there are buyers to impress, or when the subject is likely to draw news coverage that needs managing.
If you do hire one, hire early, and ask what they will do, day by day. Then decide whether that work is worth more to you than a subtitle file and two nights in a hotel.
The press kit
A press kit is one plain document, usually a PDF, plus a folder of images. It should contain:
- a one-line logline, a one-paragraph synopsis and a longer synopsis of about a page;
- a short director's statement in your own voice;
- brief biographies of the key creative team, written or approved by each person;
- full credits and technical details: running time, country, language, year of completion, exhibition format, subtitle languages;
- contact details for one person who will actually answer.
Write the synopsis for a stranger. Programmers, journalists and audiences all read it cold. Lead with what happens and who it happens to, and save the themes for the director's statement.
Stills
Send stills that are sharp, well exposed and free of text. Choose a range: a strong wide image, a frame that shows a main subject clearly, and something that tells a reader at a glance what the film is about. Caption and credit each one. Festival designers crop hard, so include at least one image with plenty of space around the subject.
Then check that everyone visible in a publicity still has agreed to that use. A release that covers the film may cover promotion as well, but a face on a poster lands differently from a face in a scene, especially for people who took risks to be filmed. Our piece on consent, safety and anonymity when filming survivors explains why this deserves more care than any other line in the kit.
Screeners and the exhibition file
Keep two kinds of copy. The first is a private screener link for press and industry: password-protected, downloads switched off, and an expiry date well after the festival ends, because journalists file late and buyers watch later still. The second is the file the festival will actually project, often a DCP for cinema venues or a high-quality file in whatever format the festival specifies. Read the technical requirements twice.
Ask for a tech check, a short slot in the cinema before your screening to confirm picture, sound levels and subtitles. Many festivals offer one. Some will fit you in only if you ask. Carry a backup of the exhibition file on a drive, and a second backup in a different bag. Projection booths are run by careful people, and things still go wrong.
The screening and the Q&A
You will probably not enjoy watching your own film with an audience. Most filmmakers don't. Some stand at the back, some slip out and come back for the last ten minutes, and either is fine. What matters is that you are in the room, composed, when the lights come up.
The Q&A is usually moderated by a programmer or a festival host, and it tends to run short. Prepare for it the way you would prepare for a brief radio interview.
- Pick three things you want the audience to leave knowing: where the film came from, something about the people in it, and what happens next for the film or its subject.
- Write a two-sentence answer to the question you will certainly get, some version of how you found the story.
- Repeat each audience question into the microphone before you answer. The people at the back rarely hear the person asking.
- Keep answers short and let the moderator call the next question rather than filling the silence yourself.
- Thank the projectionist and the volunteers. It costs nothing, and festivals remember.
Bringing people from the film onto the stage can be the best part of the night. It can also put them in front of questions they never agreed to answer. Talk with them beforehand about what might come up, agree what is off limits, and tell the moderator. If a question goes somewhere it shouldn't, step in. That is your job, not theirs.
Sooner or later someone will use the Q&A to make a speech, or to tell you the film got something wrong. Thank them, answer whatever part of it is a question, and move on. Arguing from the stage never flatters the person holding the microphone.
The industry side
Larger festivals run an industry programme alongside the public screenings: pitch forums, one-on-one meeting schemes, panels, sometimes a market or a private online library for accredited buyers and press. If your festival has one, read its schedule closely before you arrive. Some meeting schemes take applications well before the festival opens.
Meetings
Know what you are asking for. A finished film needs festivals, a sales agent, a distributor or broadcast sales. A film in development needs money and partners. Each meeting should carry one request, said plainly in the first two minutes.
Bring a one-page sheet with the title, logline, running time, status, premiere history, one still and your contact details. People who take meetings all day remember paper better than conversation.
If a sales agent shows interest, slow down. A good agent can take a documentary to buyers you would never reach alone, and the terms deserve a careful read: territories, length of term, commission, and how marketing expenses are recouped. Our piece on the long life of an independent documentary after the premiere explains what agents do and how the release windows fit together. Never sign anything in a festival bar.
Follow-up
Most festival contacts are lost in the week after. Keep a running log on your phone: name, company, what they said, what you promised. Write it the same evening, because by the fourth day every conversation blurs into the next.
Follow up within about a week, one email per person, with one specific reference to your conversation and one clear next step. A screener link and a single line recalling what they told you will do more than three paragraphs of thanks. If there is no answer, write once more a few weeks later. Then let it go.
Money and stamina
Festivals cost money even when they pay you. Before you accept, ask in writing what the festival covers: travel, accommodation, a pass, a screening fee. Some cover a good deal; many cover very little.
Then build a small budget for the trip. Transport, a bed, meals, local transit, the extra night you will want after your screening, and the days away from paid work. Share a room if you can. Keep every receipt in one envelope, because your accountant will ask.
Stamina is the part nobody plans. A festival day can start with a breakfast meeting and end at a party well past midnight, then repeat. Eat a real meal at least twice a day, carry water, and skip at least one party without guilt. And watch other people's films. That is the best thing a festival offers you, and the lineup for a stranger's documentary is where you meet future colleagues.
After the festival
The week after is when a festival either turns into something or quietly ends.
- Send thank-you notes to the programmer and the press office. Short, specific, sincere.
- Add the selection to your press kit, using the laurel the festival provides and following its rules for how to display it.
- Save every review, listing and photo.
- Revisit your premiere strategy. Your next festival may care about regional premiere status, so check before you accept anything.
- Keep the film offline for now. A public release can cost you invitations still to come.
- Write down what you would do differently while it is fresh. By the next film you will have forgotten.
A checklist for the week before
- Press kit final, proofread by someone who has not seen the film.
- Stills captioned, credited and cleared for publicity use.
- Private screener link live, password set, expiry well past the festival.
- Exhibition file delivered, tech check requested, two backups packed in separate bags.
- Subtitles checked against the final cut, not an earlier version.
- Q&A notes: three points and a short answer about how the film began.
- Travel and accommodation confirmed in writing, receipt envelope packed.
- A contact log set up before you arrive.
Questions first-timers ask
Do I need business cards?
They are less common than they used to be, but a card or a printed one-pager still beats spelling out an email address over loud music.
What if hardly anyone comes to my screening?
It happens to good films, especially in weekday afternoon slots. Give the same Q&A you would give a full house. Programmers notice how filmmakers behave in a half-empty room, and the people who did come chose your film over everything else on the schedule.
Should I bring the people in my film?
If they want to come and the festival can host them, often yes, with the briefing described above and someone looking after them for the whole visit.
Can I put the film online once the festival is over?
Not until you have decided what comes next. A public online release can affect premiere status at later festivals and can make the film less attractive to broadcasters and distributors. Settle the festival run and the distribution plan first.
Last thing: pack the backup drive before you pack anything else.
