IDAinsight: Festival Strategy Workshop Member Only

A very small number of film festivals seem to hold an enormous amount of sway over a film’s sales and distribution prospects, as well as the filmmakers’ chances at creating a sustainable living through filmmaking. This perception drives many filmmakers to pin their hopes on just a handful of market-driven festivals that are most important in their region, whether it’s North America (where Sundance looms large), Europe (Cannes, which accepts very few documentaries), or elsewhere. In reality, there is a vast ecosystem of film festivals that can all contribute to the healthy life of a documentary film project and distribution that doesn’t rely on the catalyst of perceived film festival success.

In this workshop, IDA Director of Artist Programs and Editor of Documentary Magazine Abby Sun walks filmmakers through the process of developing a film festival strategy that takes the particular expectations, needs, and prospects of your individual film into account. Guest speaker Marielle Olentine (producer of Three Promises) provides a case study drawing on Marielle’s own experiences navigating the film festival circuit without a sales agent.

This seminar covers:

- Evaluating one’s expectations and desires from a film festival run
- Festival strategy before a film is finished
- Researching film festivals and finding comps
- Researching, networking, and maintaining contact with festival programmers
- Sales/festival agents pros and cons
- Waivers, deadline extensions, and other negotiable items with film festivals
- Tradeoffs between different types of festivals (niche, regional, documentary-only, established market or not)
- Film festival markets (such as IDFA’s Docs for Sale)
- Festival screening fees and travel stipends
- A case study featuring Three Promises (2023), with the film’s producer, Marielle Olentine, providing details about the film’s world premiere at Visions Du Reel and its successful festival journey and direct distribution after attending a previous IDA Festival Strategy workshop
20 minutes each workshopping festival strategies for two projects, with personalized feedback from IDA’s Director of Artist Programs and Editor of Documentary Magazine Abby Sun and guest speaker Marielle Olentine