Film Festivals

There are roughly 3,000 film festivals in the United States. The top rated film festivals, like Sundance,  do not have screenplay categories, which immediately eliminates some researching. However, narrowing down the rest of the list prior to submitting my screenplay requires endless hours of research. Many appeal to different groups, i.e. a particular race, nationality, gender, religion, etc. Do they actually promote independent film makers? What categories do they have for screenplays? I look for categories like Drama, Family, Inspirational, etc. Some have categories of only Horror, Comedy, Action, etc. What are their page  requirements for both short and feature length screenplays? Some accept only short and some are very, very short.  Sometimes, I submit my full screenplay (112 pages) as "Letters to Stephanie." Other times I submit the first one-third as a short screenplay (39 pages) as  "The Ultimate Gift". Short screenplays and films are the trend now.

I also research how long the festivals have been in the business? What kind of reviews do they have? What does Movie Maker Magazine say about them? Do they ask their winners to pay for their trophies?

I never in my wildest dream imagined myself as a screenwriter, but when the greatest miracle of my life presented itself to me in a matter of seconds, like a movie in fast forward, I knew without a doubt that I was meant to write "Letters to Stephanie" both as a book and a screenplay.