NOT ALL FESTIVALS ARE CREATED EQUAL

After applying to numerous festivals and receiving all kinds of responses, I've learned quite a bit about which festivals are exceptional and which festivals are...less so.

Some send a form letter to accept or reject you, while others try to personalize it a bit. (SIDE NOTE: All rejection letters begin with "Thank you for your submission to...")

Some festivals make you pay a separate fee for every prize category you want your film considered for, while others allow one fee to cover everything.

And then, once you get into a festival, some fests may charge you to attend their awards ceremony, while a few will even dare to charge you for the trophy they've awarded you! (To clarify, I have not paid a penny for ANY of the awards that we have won.)

With all this said, I wanted to let you know that the Canadian International Comedy Film Festival has now become the gold standard of film festivals for me. In addition to holding an online awards ceremony where they called out our film (and me!) for some special attention, they sent me a lovely trophy with a super-personalized letter at no extra charge.

That's it. If I somehow ever make another comedy film, I'm heading to Winnipeg with it. I mean, where else could I get all this attention as well as a letter signed by Colonel Fartpants?