Chris Gore's Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide, 4th edition: The Essential Companion for Filmmakers and Festival-Goers (Chris Gore's Ultimate Flim Festival Survival Guide)

This book is invaluable to new film festivals as well as filmmakers. The Detroit Women of Color International Film Festival began in 2007. We are still a very new festival and open to bringing the best theater experience to our community showcasing underrepresented films. I was tired of wonderful films by or about women of color showing in other cities around the country and skipping Detroit. As I began to do research, I realized I was not alone. So I started the Detroit Women of Color International Film Festival. There is no film festival school. I am learning as I go. This is an experiment in love. Festival directors and curators at established film festivals like the Pan African Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival, Sundance, and many others have been generous and kind about sharing information. Filmmakers and festival goers have given wonderful feedback that we continue to incorporate into our programming.We are stretching ourselves to go beyond the formulaic film festival experience. There is always room to grow. Gore's Film Festival Survival Guide (4th Edition) gave wonderful insight into the film festival circuit through the lens of the filmmaker AND film festival director. We will expand the festival over the next few years to meet the needs of the shifting film industry. Gore's insider view gives realistic advice on ways to strengthen our festival. I highly recommend this to new filmmakers and festivals who want to work smarter, not harder.

An earlier edition of this book was my first introduction to film festivals from the perspective of the filmmaker. The author, Chris Gore, has included several interviews with filmmakers, film festival directors, and others to generate and share a number of perspectives. He also includes an entire section on marketing and promoting films to the festivals. BTW: Although not specific to film festivals, I also recommend reading and  Guerrilla Film Marketing: The Ultimate Guide to the Branding, Marketing and Promotion of Independent Films & Filmmakers ... another very helpful resource with dozens of helpful step-by-step instructions on how to incorporate branding, marketing and promotion into each stage of a film's production process and how to create marketing, promotional and distribution campaigns and highly-effective posters, key art, teaser and trailers, IMDb listings, electronic press kits (EPKs) and many other marketing and promotional materials that set your festival application apart from the competition. Both books are highly recommended. AAA+

As an independent filmmaker (among other things) I'm adopting this book as the official guide to pretty much everything. It is clearly written, packed with information, with trustworthy opinions and extremely comprehensive.

The book itself is funny and informative. I'd give it 5 stars for the book itself. However, the main reason for buying this book is for the access it is supposed to give you to the ultimatefilmfest.com website. Unfortunately the website doesn't work.The Ultimate Film Fest Twitter and Facebook pages are also completely inactive and have been for quite some time so I don't have high hopes that the website is going to be up and running anytime soon. If you're buying this for the book itself go for it, but if you're buying it for the festival listings which were moved to the website in this edition of the book them save your money.

I am so glad that I invested in this book! I took one idea from this book and used it to get myself booked on 10 TV shows to promote my movie in the American documentary film festival! Even though this book was written years ago, the concepts are just as valid today as they were then, and the examples that he uses in the book are timeless. Be smart, if you are a filmmaker with a film in a festival, you have a lot to learn from this book.

I am a 66-year-old filmmaker who teaches filmmaking at the Delphi Center of the University of Louisville. I work with a group of younger folks who are considering making a short film to enter in film festivals and I read Chris Gore's book to find out how to do this effectively and what to expect. The book was entertaining and highly informative. The interviews with other filmmakers about their experiences on the film festival circuit are invaluable. After reading this book, I feel like I have attended 100 film festivals just like Chris has. The documentary "Official Rejection" available from Netflix, is also a wonderful resource and well worth the hour and 47 minutes it takes to view it--you get to see, hear, and feel what life on the film festival circuit is like.

The book has wonderful insight and debunks some of the myths. Very useful for those filmmakers out there trying to get their film into a festival. I loved the interviews toward the end. As a filmmaker it's always reassuring to hear others sharing the same struggles. Get this book before you set out to make a festival film. You won't regret it!

I'm giving one star because I shouldn't have had to buy this version, but I did since the 5th edition put me in a bad spot. I bought the 5th version via my iPad, but the film festival directory switched to a website which would have been fine if the site was still up and running. I got my code, but it's now been a month and the site still isn't up--it's outright fraud--knowing this is a huge reason many by this book. The book is interesting enough and has some good stories, however, it's the reference for the film festival information why many people like myself buy the book. I ended up having to buy a paperback version of the 4th edition and have it overnighted to me.It's amazing Amazon hasn't stepped up and removed this item from the site until Chris Gore's company get the fundamental basics down of how to deliver the product as advertised.

The website associated with this book DOES NOT WORK. It appears not to have been up for a long time. (3 or 4 years?) Look on Chris Gore's Facebook page or Twitter profile. Something's up, but he's clearly currently off the scene. This book is very useful BUT if you bought the latest edition, as I did, solely for the internet database that accompanies it, don't buy it, because you will be sorely disappointed.It's a shame that he hasn't himself presented this information on amazon because you're not getting what you paid for with this purchase. Disappointing. Book - good. Database - down!Personally, I'd like my money back because I already owned a previous copy of this book. Additionally, it's worth taking some of the information with a pinch of salt. Top ten festivals outside the US include Oldenburg but not Venice. Clearly, complete nonsense.

thank you