As a filmmaker, you become very opinionated quickly about submitting to and working with film festivals. There was a time when they were valid and even more so, a requirement to get your film seen and hopefully sold. But those days are gone and unless you’re politically connected or have a big name in your film, you’re pretty much spitting in the wind when it comes to forking out big bucks to get selected.

Because we live in a world of self-distribution,  film festivals are no longer the gatekeepers to your success. But that hasn’t stopped new ones from popping up every day in hopes that you’ll give them $40-80 in hopes for a pretty little laurel. But are they dead? Not really. It kinda depends on what you want to get out of them.

My newest film, God Dam, is on a festival run, and oddly it’s doing really well. I have submitted to a variety of small to medium size festivals and it’s having about a 70% success rate. Almost every other day I’m getting notifications that I’ve won, or been nominated for something. Festivals seem to like it. But also, I’m handpicking those who would. I mean, I’m aiming for weird, underground, cult-type festivals. Sundance will never see my film, nor would they want to. But Weirdfest, they ate it up. So what are those wins getting me?

Not much.

I mean, it’s nice to post on social. It’s nice to tell the cast and crew. I might walk a bit taller that day. And it’s nice. But it’s not getting a studio pounding my door down to buy it.

Well, not yet.

So why do it? Well, one of the main reasons to get to a local festival is to show up and market yourself. Take photos. Hype of the cast and crew. Meet other filmmakers. A year ago my film TV in Bed showed at Graumann’s Chinese Theater. A good part of the cast and crew were there and we made a big, expensive deal out of it. It wasn’t the only festival it was in, but it was the one we attended. I’ve used those photos for promotional whatnots and as well as for everyone to finally meet each other. The film was filmed for over a decade, so not everyone knew each other. So these types of festivals are worth it. Get everyone together and have fun.

What’s bad about festivals? The new ones popping up every day? The biggest thing is the cash grab for laurels. Many of the ones today are just online. If even that. They take your money and send you a laurel. You’re lucky if more than 5 people even watched it. Though many of these are overseas, the states are just as guilty. They don’t care about your film, they just want your money every 2 months for their crazy-fake festivals.

Since adding God Dam to FilmFreeway, twice a day I get a festival asking me to join their festival. I do a bit of research and saw a broken Wix website, a barely working Instagram profile, and almost zero contact info. But they’d like my money and tell me I can even pay a bit more and guarantee an “official selection” laurel.

Eat a dick.

So, be the change you want. I shot a feature film in Tulsa this year. It was a great experience. Oklahoma is working hard to be the next great film State and doing a pretty good job making it happen. I’ll be shooting most of my films there from now on. The film community there is amazing too. I’ve met quite a few great peeps. All are eager to create great things. So I decided to start my own film festival that lets me do all the things for filmmakers that I’d like done for me.

Free for locals to submit, and inexpensive for everyone else. Free to attend twice-a-year festivals. And the weirder the movie, the better.

So if you’re looking for a great new festival to showcase your film? The Tulsa Underground Film Festival is for you. Let’s do neat things.