I’ve finally completed Automatic and started submitting it to film festivals. There are thousands. Big prestigious festivals like Sundance, Cannes or Lucerne and tiny festivals in obscure towns which nobody has ever heard of. If your film gets shown in a big festival, you’re guaranteed attention but they do tend to be a bit snooty. If you look at their websites they seem to be more about flogging tickets and T-shirts than encouraging new filmmakers to submit films. The honourable exception is the Sundance Film Festival. Then there are lots lots of scam festivals that take your money and, if you’re lucky, they’ll screen your film online. Hmph! Online screening was all very well during COVID but otherwise I’d say it was a con.

My plan is to submit Automatic to a few top end festivals, more in hope than expectation, and then work my way down – I’ll probably ending up showing on a wet Wednesday in Mrs Miggins Pie Shop using her old paraffin lamp projector. I’ll keep you posted.