Here’s what one of these looks like:

Dear Jason,

I have the unfortunate task of letting you know that we will not be able to include Forge at the Sundance Film Festival this year. You will be receiving the official notification soon but I wanted to personally let you know in advance since I truly admired your film and sincerely thank you for allowing us to consider it for our program.  This is always a difficult time because we see so many strong films but have so few slots to fill.

I wish you all the success for the future of Forge, and do hope you will come back to us with any future projects.

Best

Trevor Groth
Director of Programming
Sundance Film Festival

While I expected this the whole time, I had a little nag in the back of my head that said if we got in, we’d need a ton of money to properly polish the film in under two months.  Most festivals notify you three or four months in advance so you have time to get the movie into shape.  So a little positive mixed with the rejection.

It’s nice to think that maybe he actually did admire our film, but something tells me we got the PR dept’s form letter.  I love festivals, but filmmakers should keep in mind that they are for-profit operations and bulk of the money comes from the thousands of people who submit…. So letters like these are kinda like the stripper who tells you you’re different than the other guys.  Keeps you coming back.

I realize the above smacks of sour grapes, and I knew I was basically throwing my $75 entry fee in a hole, but it’s part of the process!  A rejection from Sundance is proof positive that we made a movie.  It’s like a verification document.

The next step is to finish the movie and screen it for cast and crew, family and friends.  Once that’s done, I’ll get back to festival submissions.  Feeling good!