ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Top Ten Film Festivals To Enter your Independent Film

Updated on May 12, 2011

So you've finished your first Independent film, You've slaved over it, lost sleep over it, you've edited over and over again, you've put the best soundtrack to it and you have perfected it to a T, and now your ready for the world to see it. Your probably thinking,"Well how do I start"? I was asking the same questions when i finished my first short film and wanted to share it with the world, so now I'd like to share this vital information with you to help out other struggling film directors and producers. The absolute best way to get your material seen is by entering it into film contest. This blog will only contain the top ten but there are thousands of film festivals so don't freight. 1.Sundance Film Festival Started in 1978 as the Utah/Us Film Festival, renamed to Sundance in 1991, is the biggest and most well respected Film festival in the United States, sundance sets the tone for the industry. Sundance has an enormous schedule of over two hundred films to be displayed every January. If your interested in entering your independent or Indie film. Entry Deadlines Early October, shorts are Mid-September, Entry Fee: $50 www.sundance.org . 2. Toronto International Film Festival Begin in 1976, It is the home of many oscar nominated films, they have a variety of foreign films, retro films and independent films. Toronto has one of the best organized festivals you'll ever see. If your interested in entering your film. Entry Deadlines Early June, Entry Fee: $65, all Genres are welcome www.tiffg.ca .

3. Cannes Film Festival Big buzz going on with Cannes right now, there 2011 Film fest will be blasting off May 15th so there are a lot of things going on in the media right now with Cannes. Cannes started in 1946 in France, its one of the most respected and prestigious film festivals all over the world. Cannes Film Festivals attracts top industry players world wide. If your interested in submitting your film to Cannes, Entry Deadline is March, Entry Fee $30 for basic entry VHS or DVD other formats up to $415, www.festival-cannes.org . 4. American Film Institute (AFI) Los Angeles Started in 1986, every year in November they have there big 10 day event, the whole city of LA shuts down just to help prepare for the rare celebration. The AFI Fest is Robust with industry celebrities, the festival attracts executives from all over the world, if your interested in submitting your film, Entry Deadlines Early June, Entry Fee: Short $30, Features $40, all Genres are pretty much accepted, www.afi.com

5.Tribeca Film Festival Is by far the baby of the group and started in 2002, but no film festival has grown faster then the Tribeca Film festival. The founding father of the festival is the legendary Robert DeNiro and the co-chair is Martin Scorsese. There widely known for there red carpet star studded premieres. If your interested in submitting your film, Entry Deadline Is November, Enter Fee, $40-$50, All Genres including animation is welcome, www.tribecafilmfestival.org . 6. Seattle International Film Festival Started in 1995 in Seattle Washington has one of the longest film festivals ever, twenty five day event!! has 250 films in there line up, had a number of American Independent films and a wide range of international debuts, attracts a lot of prominent critics. If your interested in submitting your film, Entry Deadline Late May-June, Entry Fee $25-$70, all Genres are accepted, www.seattlefilm.com .

 7. Los Angeles Film Festival Started in 1995 the LAFF got a huge boost after being taken over by the independent Feature Project and has by far one of the biggest prizes then other festival. The largest prize is 50,000 cash for best Narrative Feature and 25,000 cash prize for best documentary, this is definitely the contest you want to enter to your film in hopes to win those big cash prizes. Entry Deadline Mid February,  Entry Fee: Features $65, shorts $45, all Genres accepted, www.lafilmfest.com . 8. Telluride Film Festival Begin in 1974 in Colorado, transforms the whole city into a celebration of cinema,the telluride is a festival all about appreciation and love of film, its only 4 days long and it has lots of perks, if your interested in submitting your film for this film festival, Entry Deadline Mid July, Entry fee $25-$95 all Genres accepted, www.telluridefilmfestival.org .  9. SXSW Film Festival (South by southwest Film Festival) Austin is a party town and there's no better bash then the SXSW. The SXSW has lots of venue, the Alamo Drafthouse is where the movies are viewed,they have prominent guests and a very informative panel, this is a great opportunity to screen with  indie and mainstream movies in a very relaxed atmosphere. If your interested in submitting your film the Entry Deadline Early December, Entry Fee's $25-$50, most Genres accepted, if your interested in submitting you film, www.sxsw.com/film . Last but not least we have our number 10. Berlin Film Festival Begin in 1951 in Berlin, Germany, this is one of Europe's longest running, over 50 years and most prestigious event, beyond the competition, the European film market is in full effect, great place to network and met people so if your interested in submitting your film this one is wonderful also, Entry Deadline November, Entry Fee feature $150, short $60, www.berlinale.de  Just remember a very important piece of information, there are thousands of film festivals, these are just the top ten and most popular,if you don't make it into any of these, don't worry there are so many others to choose from and good luck.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)