After a slow period with few festival deadlines, it's heating up again. I've applied to Ojai, Palm Springs, Wine Country, Mill Valley, Silverlake, Malibu and San Diego because they're all within driving distance of Los Angeles and they'll give cast and crew an opportunity to attend. In addition, although we didn't get into the Santa Barbara festival, they've recommended us to The Yard, a monthly Los Angeles screening of short films at a restaurant. A friend has screened there and said it was pretty good. I'll apply, but wonder if I should wait to see if I get into one of the other area festivals for our L.A. premiere. I'll wait a little bit, but premieres don't seem to make much difference for festivals, and I don't want to lose an opportunity to screen. IFP West runs a similar program called Cinema Lounge that I'll apply for as well.

I've been staying in touch with many of the filmmakers from the Sedona and Durango film festivals. A few of us have met up, and many exchange screening announcements. I've found one of the best benefits of doing festivals is making filmmaker contacts.

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