On my producing page you’ll see that my first producing project was for a film called My Body to Love, directed by Tony Themloeas. He asked me to produce this short after we met on a set last year and saw how I could keep things organized, running smoothly, and fun.
We did a proof of concept shoot back in February, used it as a promotion on Kickstarter for funding, and raised a little more than $2k for the shoot. It’s no Marvel budget, but with Tony’s connections and my project management our final production in April turned out really well with everyone!
We’ve been in post-production since, and I’ve seen a few different cuts for the film – it looks awesome! And I just found out that we were accepted into the Big Sur Film Festival. I had actually never heard of this film festival before, but it’s an encouraging first step and hopefully will not be the last festival acceptance for this film!
Here’s a list of festivals Tony has also applied for:
- SF Indie Fest
- Mill Valley Film Festival
- Oakland Short Film Festival
- SF Shorts
- SF Indie Shorts
- Sundance
- Seal Beach
- SF Independent
- Sacramento Underground
He’s really leaning into the local festivals, which I think makes sense because that connection is always helpful. And then of course he threw in Sundance because YOLO. I’m pushing him to also submit to: TIFF, SxSW, and Palm Springs International Short Fest – these are pretty prestigious, but still affordable, so I think it’s worth going for it there.
This will be my first project going through the festival process, but I am optimistic about its acceptance, and excited to be learning a lot here in preparation for my next two!
What has your film festival experience been? What are your favorite festivals, how has the application process been, and which festivals do you think are “worth it” for short films?
