Utah Film Festival

Filmmaker Bartley Taylor joins Filmmaker Spotlight to talk Kilter, proof-of-concept shorts, crowdfunding, film festivals, rejection, directing and why filmmakers need to stop waiting and make the movie.

Rodrigo Moreno-Fernandez explains how grief, Mexican comedy and personal experience shaped EL Lloron—and why filmmakers shouldn’t sacrifice their voice to please festivals.

How do I find the right film festival for my film? Great question.

Filmmaking tools can save time, money and entire shots. But when the tool starts making creative decisions for you, your short can lose the thing that makes it yours.

Your finished short film can do more than collect laurels. Turn the work, reactions and relationships you already earned into honest proof for your next movie.

Utah filmmaker Erick Lozano talks about learning through trial by fire, building the right collaborators and making the film before everything feels perfect.

Before you spend another submission fee, decide what you really want from your festival run. Then build a list—and a budget—that can actually get you there.

A short film script needs focus. Learn how to control the page count, start later, write visually and build a story that fits its runtime.

Your festival run is ending. Here’s how to choose between YouTube, Vimeo and curated platforms, protect your premiere options and plan an online release that reaches the right audience.

Your film may meet a festival’s runtime limit and still be difficult to program. Here’s the length that gives a short film its strongest chance.