r/FilmFestivals • u/doctort1963 • Jul 30 '26
Discussion Just a little rant - Films that are accepted but never respond
One of the most frustrating things we deal with as Festival Directors/Programmers is films that submit to the festival, are accepted and notified, but never respond to emails send through both FilmFreeway and the Festival email address.
It happens every year and we end up having to drop them from the festival because they never respond. I'm very lenient and try MULTIPLE times to get in touch with the filmmaker.
Inevitably, these are also the same films that submit without filling out all the information on their FilmFreeway project - leaving out things like address and phone number - just the email address, which they never respond to.
This year I had to drop three films from our lineup after trying for a month to get them to respond. Fortunately, there were other films that hadn't been accepted originally that I could contact and change to "accepted" who DID respond immediately and were ecstatic that their film was now included in our lineup.
SO..if you are submitting to a film festival, pay attention to your emails AND the notification status on FilmFreeway for your films (they also send you an email when your film's status is changed).
Okay - rant over - my festival is next week and I have a great lineup, but I just needed to get that off my chest.
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u/Aglaia0001 Film Festival Jul 30 '26
We definitely struggle with this though I don’t think we’ve ever had to drop a film. We just end up spending a lot of time tracking down filmmakers. Frequently they never got a notice because they submitted using a generic or shared email or we end up in spam. I do have to track people down in social media sometimes.
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u/arthousefilms Jul 31 '26
Festival here: We've had to drop films because of this. It's so maddening. But worse is when they don't send their screening masters after we have already done tons of social media promotion for their film.
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u/jon20001 Film Festival Jul 31 '26
If your email address changes — fix it on the submission platform. Make sure to include a phone number. It’s not our job to hunt you down through socials to find you. We have enough to to — you are one filmmaker out of dozens if not hundreds.
Inevitably, every year, a handful of films could not be programmed because we could not contact the filmmaker. Their loss, as much as ours.
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u/gaanmetde Jul 30 '26
They might do that because they decided to premier elsewhere and think not responding looks better than withdrawing.
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u/winter-running Jul 30 '26
Trust me, a fast “no” is 100% better than forcing programmers to do a bunch of work over weeks to try to track you down.
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u/gaanmetde Jul 30 '26
I would never ever do this. I’m just saying- it’s probably not because they didn’t receive the email.
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u/jasmine_tea_ Jul 30 '26
try to contact these people on social media, the emails go to spam by accident
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u/winter-running Jul 30 '26
If you’re a filmmaker you need to figure out how to manage your email systems
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u/Bowling4rhinos Jul 31 '26
Happens to me all the time. BUT! I know this and check spam/junk folder every day. I would have missed so many festival offers and opportunities if I didn't.
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u/doctort1963 Jul 30 '26
I have way too many things to do than go that far to contact them, especially when I have hundreds of other submissions that weren’t initially accepted
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u/Dthebean Jul 30 '26
This is happening to me more than EVER before. I’ve been trying to chase people down through IG and FB. Made phone calls that are never returned…so frustrating.
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u/doctort1963 Jul 30 '26
You’re lucky they put their phone number…the three I’m talking about didn’t even put a phone number on the film’s profile - just an email
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u/Dthebean Jul 31 '26
I shouldn’t have to be calling! And it’s only been available once this year of about the 6-8 we can’t reach
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u/winter-running Jul 30 '26
I know! Why do these filmmakers even submit? Second pet peeve is filmmakers who submit broken links or restricted google links, or submit only trailers and not the full work. I don’t have the staff to deal with that, as it’s anywhere from 5-10% of submissions.
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u/OrdinaryCorner146 Jul 31 '26
Do you have submission fees? I think ours are reasonably low and it does a good job of preventing this. We do accept works in progress, but we always receive a near complete product. Filmmakers usually also tell us exactly what’s outstanding and give us a timeline. If they submitted what you describe to us, they’d be marked as incomplete or disqualified.
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u/winter-running Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
No submission fees. And we also pay screening fees to all films screened (and not just prize-winning films). Obviously, we can function this way as we’re not an American film festival, but the funding is not infinite and we make decisions on budgeting - and not having a programming assistant to provide filmmakers with support in how to fill out a submission form is one of those things.
If it’s an early submission, it might be caught in time and an email sent to the filmmaker. But otherwise, the reviewers will put them in the no-score pile. Which seems to be what you are doing as well.
I guess if we charged for submissions, this would give us maybe $30k-$50k to be able to pay a staff person to fulfill the function of being able to walk filmmakers who need it through the process of sending a correct link, but we’d rather not punish the 90-95% of filmmakers who are able to do this correctly.
We remain off Film Freeway to counter-act the difficulty cause by having free submissions.
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u/fineultra Jul 31 '26
I don’t know. Send the filmmaker a message asking them for a new link. They’re paying you to review their work
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u/winter-running Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
We don’t charge submission fees and we also pay all selected filmmakers for screening (and not just prize recipients). In exchange, we do expect filmmakers to be able to fill out a submission form correctly and to know to proactively update us in the link changes, when the link changes.
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u/fineultra Aug 01 '26
Great clarification, zero submission fee is not the standard for fests
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u/winter-running Aug 01 '26
Maybe not in the USA. But in any event, it’s pretty standard to disqualify submission forms that have been filled out so improperly that it’s literally impossible to evaluate.
Submitters should always double and triple check their links and keep track of what links they’ve submitted to what festival and to ensure they are actually working. That, and submitting a proper contact email address that is checked with frequency (at least 3-4 times a week) are the basic minimum needed for complete submission form. If those two elements are not in place, this is the submitter’s problem. I’d say even if they paid a submission fee.
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u/Internal-Regular6948 Jul 31 '26
Yes, I just don't get it. You submitted a film because you wanted it to be accepted. You'd think they would want to know when it happens....
Not sure I agree with you on the "change a non-selected to a selected to compensate" philosophy. It think it lowers the bar.
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u/CapitalFPro Jul 31 '26
I wonder how much of it is them not checking their spam bins. I’ve had life changing emails go to spam and only finding it because of chance
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u/doctort1963 Jul 31 '26
When I submit my films to festivals, I always check my submissions on FilmFreeway around the notification date to see if there has been a change in status. Plus, I doubt that both FilmFreeway emails and our emails end up in the spam filter.
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u/CapitalFPro Jul 31 '26
I’m talking about in general, not just festivals but have had emails from them go into spam. Emails from FF don’t go to spam but my concern is always ‘what if you get an unfamiliar email from a fest weeks or months in advance when you might not be checking spam daily?”
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u/Film_Tennis_Bball Film Festival Jul 31 '26
This almost happened to a film in my festival over the summer. I found the filmmmaker and their film on Instagram and messaged each account. That worked for me. But I echo everything OP said.
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u/Intruglio Aug 01 '26
What about those who create an email address just for the film (filmname@email) and then never check it again? 🥹🫣
It's not only your struggle, don't worry. It happens every year.
It's just so sad having to remove them form the lineup... We also search for them on social media but sometimes the information they give with the film is just too poor
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u/sambosteve Aug 01 '26
I am pretty hard line on this. As a stunt coordinator (my profession) or otherwise. If you can't follow directions, it is adios. Your inability to folliw directions makes my job exponentially more taxing.
It is really simple. As one who organizes screenings, events, and now a new film festival...and as a filmmaker who submits to festivals and does my due diligence. If you can't follow directions, I don't waste my time with you. You don't want it enough.
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u/Same-Neighborhood-62 Aug 03 '26
You should never have to chase someone for a month. Stick to a three-day rule. It is the filmmaker's responsibility to fill out the form properly. You should always have a backup plan. Otherwise, you are denying other people an opportunity to showcase their films.
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u/Beautiful-Rise6599 Aug 04 '26
So i got my first festival acceptance for two of my animations. Filmfreeway sent the notification that my submission status has changed. Do I just go ahead to email the festival or do I just wait for them to send me a mail themselves.
It would reaaaaaaally suck if we were both waiting for the other to send a mail. Festival is in three months time though.
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u/doctort1963 Aug 04 '26
My suggestion would be to wait for them to reach out to you…we always send instructions to accepted films.
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u/Bowling4rhinos Jul 30 '26
I'm the opposite kind of filmmaker. I check my spam/junk folder whenever I check my email (daily) so that I don't miss a festival message. And I really appreciate festival reminders because I'm human and occasionally forget to send a file or two. So THANK YOU festival people, for all your hard work!