I am currently promoting a new short film, and among lots of other submissions of course - I submitted to two film festivals in a nearby city. One of the festivals is quite large and well known, not a top tier - but one where getting in looks good and most people here who have been doing this for a while would recognize the name. The other has only been around for a few years, it is very tiny and intimate.
Now here is the thing, I live in the middle of nowhere - with no film scene. This particular city is the closest place to me where film is being made in any sort of significant way. I have a great team already, but we are always expanding - and breaking into the scene of this particular city is a high priority for me right now.
Both festivals are happening in the fall, within a month of each other.
Now here is my dilemma. The smaller film festival gave me an ULTRA early acceptance, almost absurdly early. The bigger festival of course, has premiere considerations - and showing your film in the city the fest takes place in automatically disqualifies you.
It is so early out, I feel that is completely unreasonable to contact the larger festival and ask for any kind of special status check on my film being considered.
If I accept the smaller fest programming - I am automatically disqualifying myself for the larger fest. If I deny the smaller fest, I am gambling with the larger fest and run the risk of not showing my film at all in this particular city.
Getting accepted to any fest is a huge honor, and the smaller fest would be really cool. I have had films in most fest sizes, and sometimes smaller festivals are a really special experience. But disqualifying myself from what could be the best networking event for future collaborators in my area seems like a really difficult decision to make. The smaller fest has already reached out twice to confirm my acceptance.
What would you recommend in my situation?