A film festival selection or rejection is not necessarily a verdict on a film’s quality. For programmers sorting through hundreds or even thousands of submissions, the decision can depend on everything from the balance of a lineup to the audience for which they are programming. That issue was at the center of “Film Festivals Decoded: What Happens After You Press Submit?,” a panel held this week during the 13th Sharjah Intl.
Film Festival for Children and Youth in the UAE. Variety spoke further with two of its participants, Rotterdam Arab Film Festival artistic director Rosh Abdelfattah and Alexandria International Short Film Festival president Mohamed Mahmoud, about what actually shapes their decisions once submissions arrive. For Abdelfattah, artistic quality is only one consideration when assembling a program.
Rotterdam’s festival aims to showcase cinema from across the Arab world, meaning the volume of films produced in different countries can itself affect a selection. Abdelfattah is also looking for filmmakers who resist an increasingly familiar festival aesthetic. He points to the proliferation of labs, co-production programs and other development pipelines over the past decade, arguing that films can lose some of their individuality as they move through them.
Filmmakers, he argues, too often submit without determining whether a festival is suited to their work. Whether filmmakers distribute their own work or work with professionals, he argues that they should consider premiere strategy, a festival’s programming priorities and whether its audience is appropriate for the film rather than simply submitting as widely as possible. Once a filmmaker has identified the right festival, Mahmoud points to more basic mistakes that can derail a submission.
Filmmakers enter the wrong competition, leave required information or materials incomplete, fail to respond to festival requests or submit films that fall outside eligibility dates. Abdelfattah estimates that roughly half or more of its program comes through Arab festivals such as Cairo, Red Sea, El Gouna, Marrakech or Amman, with relatively few films sourced through Cannes, Berlin or Venice. He also rejects the idea of a single Arab cinema.
Abdelfattah says Rotterdam’s audience is roughly evenly divided between the two, and films do not always land with each group in the same way. Comedy can be particularly revealing. During one screening, he remembers hearing different halves of the room laugh at different moments.
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