Today I’ve been researching into websites and platforms that submit films to film festivals all over the world. I started with the links that James provided in the task sheet list which included, Film Freeway (https://filmfreeway.com/), Withoutabox (https://www.withoutabox.com/) and Film Festival Life (https://www.filmfestivallife.com/). All websites are inherently similar with different ways of submitting your film projects to festivals internationally. The great thing about Film Freeway and Withoutabox is that both of the platforms are free to register and submit works to film festivals whereas Film Festival Life is a paid service depending on how many films you would like to submit and what plan you want to subscribe to.

Therefore because of this I’ve decided to register accounts with Film Freeway and Withoutabox because they’re both free services, and despite not having any films to submit at this present moment, I could possibly submit my finished film project two if I feel really comfortable in doing that. Which, I guess never say never? Plus by making these accounts I can definitely continue to create and submit my work whether it be university orientated or my own personal projects.

Film Freeway is really cool because you can submit your film literally anywhere around the world, and the submission process can be made easier by selecting specific festivals that really narrow their attention to a specific genre or type of film e.g. comedy, documentary etc. Withoutabox is different as it works in partnership with IMDb, which is also really cool to make a professional profile page for the work you’ve created which is another thing I’ve never really thought about before. But it definitely adds an element of professionalism to your work, even if it is a low budget film you’re making. On Withoutabox it lists all upcoming film festivals, their location, dates, fees, deadlines and accepting categories as you can see here:

Similar to Withoutabox, Film Freeway does almost the exact same thing just with a different interface:

Both sites go into the awards and prizes for the winners, as well as the rules and terms and conditions of submission to the festival. One thing that Film Freeway does include on this page is reviews of the festival from other members/film makers on the website, which is really useful and can give myself a really good understanding of the environment of the film festival and if I was to attend, what I’d be getting myself really into.

So after making accounts and looking a bit more into submission processes for festivals it doesn’t seem as terrifying as it did originally. Hopefully I can create something worthy of submission in the next film project as well as in the future because it is definitely something I want to pursue going forward.