ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

12 years, 11 months ago - Helen Jack

Hi Jim,

The vast majority of filmmakers submit their work to festivals themselves, with a few stand-out shorts getting picked up sales agents/distributors. There are really only a handful of shorts distributors out there - Shorts International, Future Shorts, Dazzle, to name a few. Many of the films on their rostas will have been picked up after having been watched during the film's festival run, so it's a chicken and egg situation. You need to get the film into festivals first, in order to get others to see your work and potentially acquire it. So the answer is definitely, yes. You should do it yourself. But be careful not to confuse the terminology you use. Filmmakers don't really 'distribute' their film to festivals, instead they submit it. The term distribution tends to come further down the line when a company has bought your film and is then distributing it (most often) for broadcast. I think you'll find the resource Shooting People has on this subject useful - https://shootingpeople.org/shortsighted/. In September, BAFTA will be publishing a series of videos from the last Short Sighted event we did in July. Hope this helps

12 years, 11 months ago - Jim Peakman

Thank you, that's a great help.