While checking out the Invisible Cinema blog, I found out that the American Black Film Festival has finally listed the films that will be screening this year. The film festival starts tomorrow on Thursday, October 25th and wraps up on Sunday, October 28th. Most of the films features on the website for this film festival are more Hollywood type “Indie” films. If you are looking for celebrities, they can be found in films on the page where the screening schedule is listed. This is both good and pretty sad because one has to click on a link in order to locate other independent films that may not have any celebrities in them.

It is understandable if film festivals want to feature films that can easily attract visitors and fill up seats at screenings. However, the other films are of the same importance as any other Star studded film and should also be a priority on a website. All film festivals have their own unique way of doing things, so hopefully the smaller films will still get a good amount of exposure. That will definitely be up to the filmmakers, as being in any film festival doesn’t automatically guarantee that people will show up to the screening. It seems that filmmakers have been waiting for the listing of films being screened at the American Black Film Festival for a few weeks and this list was put up at the last minute. This was mentioned in a previous post about Trouble with the American Black Film Festival.

The fact may be that if filmmakers were and are still waiting to hear something from the American Black Film Festival, chances are that it’s not going to happen. It can be frustrating for filmmakers to make plans to attend a film festival and not know whether their film is actually screening there or not. At the same time, a film submission does not mean that the film will play at a film festival for sure. Filmmakers who were waiting to find out about their film from organizers or staff at the American Black Film Festival up until now may have to just cut their losses and move on. The unfortunate reality is that all film festivals do not send filmmakers updates or notification about the status of their film submissions. This behavior is even more apparent if the film was not accepted and will not be screening at the festival. For those filmmakers who were waiting to hear from the American Black Film Festival, this may just be the case.

Not receiving notification is something that many of us despise. However, there is not much that can be done about it because every film festival is run by different people with varied objectives and processes. Many film festival programmers and organizers claim that it is almost impossible to notify all filmmakers whose films didn’t make it, due to the number of submissions that come in. While that may be a viable excuse for many film festivals (especially the more prestigious ones), it is still not one of the best practices to stand by. Until I win at Cannes or Toronto or Sundance or any of the top tier festivals, I will not act like I am some kind of major independent film expert. However, I have had my fair share of film festival submissions and not a lot of correspondence or notifications from film festivals.

For filmmakers who have waited to hear something only to find out from a film festival screening schedule or some third party informant that your film is not screening, I have a few recommendations. Do not send your film to any average Joe or film festival that you are not familiar with. If the entry fee must be made out to a person, there better be a damn good reason it is that way. In the case of the American Black Film Festival, some major film festivals just do not notify you and you have to take it for what it is and find other avenues to screen your film. If you are lucky, you will receive and acceptance letter along with further instructions or at the very least….a rejection letter. It is obvious that none of us want rejection letters, but they are better than nothing.

So, instead of being angry, just be happy to at least get some kind of notification as to where your film stands. More about the American Black Film Festival will be covered in Part 2 of this year’s event.

Shouts out to Invisible Woman of Black Cinema at Large

*This post is part of the Film Festival Wednesdays Series. Enjoy and Stay Tuned for more news on film screenings and awards. Make sure to check out independent films in your town and online! Support Independent filmmaking!

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