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I had no idea that some film festivals had short script/screenplay categories until I submitted Marbles to the Women Over 50 Film Festival.

After I submitted to the first film festival, I browsed Film Freeway to find others with a short script category. The site also includes screenwriting contests so I entered a few of those too. There are tons out there and so many with a specific niche like animation, horror, sci-fi, and environmental. There’s something for everyone!

At first I was submitting to anything that had a short script category, but soon realized I needed to be more selective and choose festivals that offered services or perks even if you didn’t win. These festivals typically had more prizes for the winners as well.

I often submitted to festivals that had options to get feedback from the judges. I also submitted to a festival that had an option for their team to build a budget based on your script (that one was really helpful).

Then each festival offers something different to the winners. Cash prizes are always nice because you can put that towards your project, but other prizes included 1:1s with producers, subscriptions to industry information, and marketing opportunities. One festival offered the chance to have a video interview and would post it on their website and YouTube channel.

There are pros and cons to submitting to festivals during the script phase, but I think it’s worth doing as a first time filmmaker. It’s a great way to see how your script resonates with others, to get feedback, and to network.

I submitted to 45 festivals and screenwriting contests and was accepted into 21 of them (about a 47% acceptance rate).

You can see all of my script awards here.

The best take away I had was actually getting experience with a festival run. I feel like I’ll be better prepared when we do it all over again with the completed film.

There are things I would do differently the next time around specifically doing a better job at networking. I felt so out of my element that I was too nervous to talk to anyone.

Even though I didn’t network the way I should have, the act of observing and being present was just as important. I took in the event process, surroundings, types of people attending, and so much more.

I also got to experience my name being up on a big screen for the first time. I didn’t win that festival, but seeing my name and film up there really made my night.

I’m really anxious and excited thinking about the future festival run for Marbles. It will be a totally different experience in many ways, but the script festival run has helped me gain confidence and I can’t wait to share that experience with you as well.

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For the next post, I’ll be sharing my experience with Script Awards Los Angeles where I had won for Best First Time Writer for a Short Script.

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