When it just touches on these really profound themes and it’s moving in a way that catches you off guard.
Matt Nothelfer is a Committee Member of the Borrego Springs Film Festival and working documentary filmmaker.
In this conversation, Matt talks:
Why small, community-driven festivals like Borrego Springs offer some of the best experiences for indie filmmakers.
How the festival creates a filmmaker-friendly environment: lounge, home-baked food, networking, and long Q&As.
The “secret weapon” of Borrego Springs: a local audience that fills a 180-seat theater from morning to night.
Why early-bird submissions matter—and when they don’t.
How to spot scammy or low-value festivals on FilmFreeway through community presence, transparency, and online footprint.
Why filmmakers should focus more on storytelling and theme than technical perfection.
The blind-submission, five-category review process Borrego uses to evaluate films fairly.
Why small festivals often have the highest acceptance chances—300 submissions, 70–80 selections.
How writing a thoughtful, festival-specific cover letter can move a film from “maybe” to “yes.”
Advice to emerging filmmakers: avoid chasing 100 meaningless laurels and instead pursue festivals aligned with your goals.
Here is an AI-generated transcript of our conversation. Don’t come for me.
BEN: Hi everyone. This is Ben Guest and this is The Creativity Education and Leadership Podcast. Today my guest is Matt Telfer, who is a committee member for the Borrego Springs Film Festival. In this interview, we talk all things film festival, how to run a filmmaker friendly festival, and tips and tricks for submitting to film festivals.
Enjoy.
Matt, thanks so much for joining the podcast today.
MATT: My pleasure. Happy to be here.
BEN: So, I always like to start with a fun question, senior year of high school, what music were you listening to
MATT: right off the bat with a curve ball? Alright, let’s lay it out. I got the Talking Heads,
BEN: the Cure,
MATT: Like, let’s see, what else?
BEN: New Wave.
MATT: Yeah, a little bit of the punk stuff. I mean, we got Pixies were, was I listening to the Pixies then? I can’t remember. Yeah, so, uh, the Dead Milkman, stuff like that. The pubs, um, yeah, I had some of their records. You know, it’s really frustrating ‘cause I had those records up until like five years ago and I left them at a colleague’s house and they scattered to the wind.
All that good stuff. Yeah. Anyway, I’m still a little bitter about that, but That’s okay. My colleagues, my colleague was a friend and he, he deserved them.
BEN: So you are a committee member at the Borrego Springs Film Festival. What? Yes, sir. And, and you’ve, you’ve held a variety of roles there and, and off air, you’re saying sort of lately you’ve been focused on.
You know, the pre-production of the festival, the website, getting the materials together. Correct? Correct. Reaching out to filmmakers, et cetera. Talk to me, talk to us about what are the fundamentals of running a good festival?
MATT: Well, our context is that we’re super small and modest. Uh, like we were saying before the interview, uh, officially started, we are literally a, a tiny little village in the middle of a giant state park.
Actually the biggest state park in the lower 48 states desert community. We’re actually just south of Palm Springs and, uh, there’s like 3000 full-time residents here and, uh. So running a film festival in a place where there’s literally. Not really a commercial market, it’s a different type of animal.
And um, so we kind of do everything on a very tight budget and we try to personalize stuff as much as we possibly can. We, since we can’t really throw a lot of money at stuff, we just do everything we can in other dimensions.
BEN: What’s an example of that?
MATT: Just trying to be considerate about stuff, uh, being friendly to filmmakers that are willing to submit and to get, and that also get accepted. So when they come here, it’s a personalized experience. We work pretty hard on creating a filmmaker’s lounge where folks can gather and network with each other throughout the entire uh.
Five days of our film festival and while they’re at the film festival and they’re talking to each other, we also have food available for ‘em. One of our great committee members, her name’s Pam, she literally will bake stuff in the evening and bring it in in the morning. So you have fresh pastries, cookies, coffee, like fruit vegetables, just everything laid out.
And you know, there’s really not a huge expense to do that, but you need like the right people to do that, so that’s the thing that kind of makes our festival a little bit. Different, I guess in a way is like there’s a personalized aspect to it and we spread that type of attitude across all our stuff.
So we’re gonna have like four parties during the entire festival, and all those parties have similar type of vibe.
BEN: The reviews that I read online, um, on film freeway filmmakers were saying that it is, it’s a film, it’s a filmmaker friendly. Festival.
MATT: Yeah. Because, you know, that’s what we can do. Mm-hmm. Like, you’re not gonna travel to a remote place in the desert and, you know, run into a bunch of industry folks.
Usually there are exceptions to that. And, uh, as our. Film festival has gotten a little more solid, and we occasionally have some industry people coming in. Most of the time it’s indie filmmakers. You know, we might have some elbow rubbing that this kind of neat. But for the most part, you know, these are just small independent filmmakers trying to do their thing and.
Wanting to share their films with an appreciative audience. And aside from, being very personable, uh, with the committee and with the staff that run the film festival, one of the great things about our particular film festival is that the community is a huge part of what we do. The event they show up, we have 180 seat theater and it’s full from 10:00 AM in the morning until eight o’clock at night.
Oh wow. Every block and wow. It’s been that way since the beginning, and it’s not because of anything that we do on the committee, it’s simply because the community wants to be a part of it. And so that’s kind of our secret weapon, is like you show up as a filmmaker and like, oh man, I got, I got scheduled for the 10:00 AM block.
They, and then they, they show up and like, what’s going on here? This is look back. And then at the end of it, you know, there’s an extended q and a. We don’t. Push our blocks back to back really tight and there’s plenty of time just to like relax and having interaction with folks and some q and as will go on for like a half an hour, if not more.
And it’s just, you know, so that’s a unique thing that just kind of emerged without effort. And we take credit for it and we’re excited that we can offer that. But you know, it wasn’t any, it wasn’t by design, it was just kind of like, cool. This is working.
BEN: As far as festivals go, it sounds like filmmaker heaven.
MATT: Well, you try to, we definitely try to be. And the dude that got this whole thing rolling, his name’s Fred G and he has lived in this little community for a really long time, and he’s a great guy and he’s one of the reasons why a lot of people show up because, you know, he’s just one of those kind of like community, uh, he’s, he’ll be really upset if I use this phrase, but he’s like a town elder. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So just having that type of guidance and having that type of person that can kind of unify the entire event, I. Is really great. And again, like I said before, it’s kind of our secret weapon is that we have like this great community that’s willing to be a part of a filmmaker’s storytelling in so much as like they’ll sit there, they’ll react to it, they’ll ask questions about it afterwards.
So yeah, if you’re. A filmmaker that wants your film to be seen by actual eyeballs and actual people that are engaged. Mm-hmm. Then film festivals like ours, which there are many around, around the world. You gotta search ‘em out. As a filmmaker, you’ve gotta. Start getting discriminating. You’ve gotta really pay attention to what films are film festivals are offering and try to be a part of those kinds of environments, if that’s what you want.
BEN: So this is great because you’re, um, you are part of the Bgo Springs Film Festival, you’re also a working filmmaker. What are some other festivals that you’ve attended or know about that have a similar sort of filmmaker friendly vibe?
MATT: Full Bloom film festival in North Carolina for sure. The WYO Film Festival in Wyoming, we enjoyed that a lot.
My wife and I who are documentary filmmakers, we’ve taken our film films there. And again, you know, it’s the exact same recipe basically, you have a core group of citizens that are willing and able to show up and be a part of an event. So when you sh, when you arrive as a filmmaker and you sit in the audience, you’re not alone with, or if you’re in the audience and you’re only with other filmmakers there to screen their movie, you know?
Yeah. You know that, you know that feeling. We’ve been there, right? We’ve been, we’ve all been there and, and we don’t. Film festival is like what we’re talking about right now. They don’t wanna offer that. They want it to be something, even if they sometimes fall short, which has happened with us, we’ve had blocks where, maybe there’s only 50 people in the audience and, you know, half of the audience might be filmmakers.
But that is such a rare thing anymore. You just wanna be offering something to filmmakers. Make them feel appreciated because we know how hard it is to make these things and even and to be willing to share that in front of other people and, ask and answer questions it’s a special thing and we wanna nurture that as much as possible and sort of those other film festivals.
Love it. Yeah.
BEN: Yeah. So we, I, I first came across you on Reddit on the film festival subreddit, and you were offering good advice and thoughts on, for filmmakers applying to festivals, how to think through strategy. So I guess for all, yeah. I mean, did you hear Yeah, help us out.
MATT: Yeah. Did you, when you were reading that stuff, I mean, what kind of hit you as like the most relevant?
BEN: I think it’s two things and since I, I just have a documentary. I finished and am submitted a film festivals. I’ve read a bunch of stuff. Seen a bunch of stuff, so I may conflate some of the things that you said versus something I saw elsewhere. But two things. That’s all right. I’ll
MATT: take credit for it.
BEN: One is know what your goal is ahead of time, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. To, be it the, be it a filmmaker friendly festival with good parties and events and networking. Is your goal to get exposure? Is your goal to meet people in the industry? Is your goal mm-hmm. To get laurels? Those are all different worthy goals, but they all will change your strategy and your approach for film festivals.
And the second is, you know, submit to, don’t submit to 50 festivals. Submit to 5, 6, 7, see what the results are and then adjust from there.
MATT: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So yeah, when we’re talking strategy, that’s so important and, and we can speak about it from the perspective of the Borrego Springs Film Festival because, you know, knowing the context of the type of festival we are now, if you were a filmmaker that was searching out, let’s say.
A bunch of like publicity for, you know, some type of, media push. It’s like, would you necessarily want to come to Bgo Springs? Maybe yes, maybe no. It depends on how you played it, but. The main reason you would be coming to Borrego Springs, we feel is because you want that personal interaction and you want feel special as a filmmaker and you want to share your stuff with us, and we want you to share your stuff with us, right?
So you’re absolutely right when you’re initial initiating your kind of film festival search as a filmmaker, you really gotta narrow down what your expectations are. And figure that out. I can speak as a filmmaker as well. It’s like if you’re gonna go someplace and spend money to do so, I mean, at the very minimum you squeak by on a budget of 500 bucks, then that’s kind of like dirt cheap to go someplace and then return home.
You know? That’s still a lot of money. Mm-hmm. And that’s, that’s probably like. The least amount that you would ever be able to spend and you would need help, like getting lodging, which we try to offer to our filmmakers. Um, you know, how are you gonna, what are you gonna do? What are you going to eat when you get there, which we try to offer to our filmmakers.
And, you know, all those things become part of the calculus, right? Mm-hmm. Especially when you’re independent, mm-hmm. I would ask you is like when you’re trying to submit, what are you aiming for right now?
BEN: So great question. So I’m aiming for trying to get multiple laurels and I’m in, in a little bit of a different situation, I think, than most filmmakers.
So I, I have an academic background, I have a PhD, and ideally I’d like to I’ve worked at various universities. In the ideal world, I’d like to go back overseas and teach film at a university. And so in the world, in the world of academia, you know, there’s this phrase, publish or perish, right? You have to publish academic journal articles, publish.
Mm-hmm. In film, in the world of filmmaking, academia, a film festival run. A film festival. Acceptance is like a journal article, right? Um, maybe if you do a feature film that’s like publishing a book, this is sort of, uh, roughly equivalent to getting a, a journal article published. So I want to sort of garner a number of laurels so that I can indicate, you know, this, this short plate at these 10 different film festivals.
MATT: Okay, so the credentials matter, right? Correct. It’s kind of like that kind of that’s
BEN: exactly right. Little
MATT: trophy on the mantle, as it were. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, um, I’m gonna ask you another question if that’s okay.
BEN: Yes. I feel like I’m getting a All right. Free film festival, um, consulting.
MATT: Perhaps, I don’t know about that, but when you are pursuing the laurels and, you know, everything’s kind of like filtering through film freeway these days. Mm-hmm. So what’s your strategy as far as like finding those types of film festivals that you think are going to, allow you to get those laurels on your poster or whatever?
BEN: Yeah. Another great question. So couple things. One is it’s a doc. My latest is a documentary short, and it’s, it takes place in the world of improv comedy. And the two subjects are two black women. So looking at festivals that either are geared towards comedy, towards documentary shorts or towards black themes and African American themes. One of those three or, or, um. Themes of uh, women in, in general. Sure. Well, if I could
MATT: interrupt real quick, please. Yeah. So it seems like you’re trying to basically still maintain some integrity as far as that goes. It’s like, yeah, I’m not relevant
BEN: all like the fly by night, if you submit, we’ll give you the, you know, the UP award.
Yeah, exactly. Well, that, that’s why I’m
MATT: asking because. Okay. Because that’s why I’m asking because, there are plenty of, you know, weird little festivals that are floating around the mill fly by night, that,
BEN: that
MATT: come, that come and go. And if you want to get a hundred laurels on your poster, if that’s, you know, what makes you feel good, then you could definitely do that.
But at least what you’re saying is like, okay, let’s make sure that what’s happening with my film has integrity, has, has a shape, and has, something that means something after, you get accepted.
BEN: Yes. Oh, a hundred percent.
MATT: And the reason I bring that up is because, you know, as a small film festival we struggle with getting we just struggle competing with what’s out there on film Freeway, let’s put it that way.
BEN: You know, because Talk about that. Break it
MATT: down. Yeah. You know, it’s just, as anyone knows that’s trying to do this thing, it’s like you hit film freeway and they’re a great platform. I’m not, complaining about them at all, but there’s just a lot of stuff on there that is more or less as a filmmaker or relevant.
I mean, would you agree with that?
BEN: Oh, a hundred percent.
MATT: Unless all you’re wanting to do is just get one laurel to put on your, on your poster, so you know. Maybe they offer a little bit of something. But as a filmmaker, I’ve been to the ones that don’t offer much anything aside from a screening and even, and it’s like I’m lucky enough to even go to ones that have physical screenings.
A lot these days are just like, oh, we’ll slap it online and call it good. So, you know, uh, let’s be honest, there’s a lot that are just out there and they’re just trying to churn. Make some money. So as a small film festival, we’re competing with that stuff and we’ve seen our, uh, submission rate decline, not necessarily a bad thing for us.
Mm-hmm. But for other film festivals, I imagine they might be getting frustrated with it. We are actually perfectly comfortable with where we’ve kind of landed and the groove we’ve been in since the pandemic. Even a little few years before then, and we haven’t tried to kind of like change our recipe much.
So we’re just happy with the amount that we’re getting. We’re happy with the amount that we’re accepting and we’re pleased with how we’re screening stuff and the opportunities we’re giving people. But I do feel, from what I’ve seen, it’s becoming. Uh, it’s just, it’s a bit, it’s a bit difficult to navigate the slop.
Let’s just break it down like that. Yeah. And I don’t know if you’re feeling if you’re experiencing the same thing or not. I’d be curious to, to see what you, what you say.
BEN: For a hundred percent, so I, I made a few documentaries in the late 20, 2011, 2012, and that was right when Without a box, which was filmed free, right without
MATT: a box.
BEN: Started and it was great because instead of having to burn a bunch of DVDs and physically mail them, you could just upload your film and then submit it to a bunch of festivals. Research a bunch of festivals. Great. Coming back to it now in 2025, it’s Scam Central and I think unfortunately one of the things you, you have to spend a bunch of time doing is trying to figure out which of these festivals.
First of all, which of these festivals are just legit in that they’re not trying to just mm-hmm. Get money from you. They’re gonna do a virtual screening and that’s it. And then once you even get that breakdown, kinda like you said, which are festivals that are legit, that, that have good people working hard, good intentions, you’re proud to show your film there versus they’re just churning through submissions and fees.
And chart, have a bunch of deadlines and a bunch of different slots you can apply for. They’re not the exact opposite of how you describe Borrego Springs.
MATT: Yeah. And you have to, as a film festival, at least in our opinion over here, it’s like you have to bring that value to the table or else why?
Why are you really doing it? And if that answer is like, you’re just some guy sitting in an apartment somewhere trying to make a lot of money or a living, I don’t know if you can make a lot of money doing this.
BEN: Mm-hmm.
MATT: Um, but. If you’re just doing a film festival that is literally fly by night because you want to cash in, it’s like, that’s really unfortunate.
Now the other side of that coin is like we see a lot of very earnest filmmakers submitting and, uh, they might not be the most technically adept. And they’re fresh out of the gate as far as like trying to be a filmmaker. So they’re very eager and you know, they just want to tackle everything all at once, and they end up you know, they’re not really exercising any discrimination about where their films are going and they end up, you know mm-hmm.
Kind of wasting a lot of money in that regard. Submitting, the, submitting, submitting without much, kind of emotional reward from it. And I think,
BEN: yeah.
MATT: Having some type of like positive feedback about what you’re doing is great, even if it’s whatever.
But. It really helps to have a place to land where you feel like super special and cared for and considered and not just like, oh, I showed up and, it cost me $10 to get into my own movie and it’s costing me $20 to, buy a cocktail over here and, you know, those kinds of things.
If you’re even lucky enough to get that, honestly.
BEN: Right. What’s your advice on spotting scams when you’re applying to festivals?
MATT: How to be discriminating as far as like submitting?
BEN: Yeah,
MATT: I mean I can only approach that from our, my wife and i’s own experience trying to get our films into festivals. And with the insight like working on a film festival, I think that helps.
But trying to spot ‘em is really, you got to. Try to get a sense if there’s any type of community involvement going on mm-hmm. With the festival. And you can usually track that online if you’re, you know, if you’re a bit sleuthy, and you can find out if it’s being supported by the community in some sort of way.
Mm-hmm. And it shouldn’t take you too long to figure that out with a couple of decent, online searches and follow in a few threads of information. Another thing is, is like if they’re kind of nurturing their online presence, you know, it doesn’t have to be super sophisticated. You just have to get a vibe that they’re trying.
And if, if you get that kind of sense, then it’s worth the effort. Typically the other thing is you gotta really know what type of film festival that you’re submitting to, right? If you’re making documentaries, you’re not submitting to, you know, a feature film, festival Right. In every festival.
So yeah. Core effects. So I, yeah. You know, it’s just being, making those obvious decisions. But when you dig beneath that superficial stuff and you get past like the obvious. Really try to get a sense about what you want yourself as a filmmaker when you go to a film festival. And for us it’s like getting appreciative eyeballs on the film and giving us fun feedback and having a good time and interacting and, and doing some networking, uh, basically having a party and celebrating your film.
Mm-hmm. And I think that we
BEN: think about, yeah, sorry, go ahead.
MATT: I think that this, that’s important for us, so I imagine, and I, I would think that it’s important for other people that are making movies as well. Yeah. If we, about, especially independently.
BEN: Yeah. Yeah. You know, there’s you were alluding to very little money in it, but, um, there are, there are rewards.
Yes. One of the biggest of which is seeing your film in a packed house with an engaged audience. What from a screener perspective, from a film festival perspective, what are some tips you would give up and coming filmmakers, young filmmakers on their short films in particular mistakes that you see et cetera, et cetera.
MATT: I would say the biggest mistake, especially as a, a young filmmaker, is concentrating so much on the technicalities of the craft and ignoring the storytelling. Um, you know, we, you mentioned, and we mentioned before about like when we started, uh. Kind of submitting to film festivals. This was basically what, like 15 years ago for both of us now, right?
2010s, 2012, whatever. Mm-hmm. The technical back then could elevate you above everything else back then. Like today. You know, look, anyone that has a, has a mobile telephone, essentially has the skillset it takes, or not the skillset, but the technical wherewithal.
An
BEN: outstanding camera.
MATT: Yeah. Yeah. And the point being is like you can go out and you can create something compelling without the gate of the technical getting in the way. Uh, you can capture it. And it doesn’t have to look like a million bucks. It’s nice if it looks like, you did a big budget thing on a small budget.
I’m not knocking the craft of anything. I’m just saying don’t be so intent. Or maybe even don’t even worry if like, it falls short technically a little bit. ‘cause I will. Guarantee you that a film is gonna get into a film festival based on if it’s a compelling story with a good theme or not. And theme is another thing that a lot of folks don’t necessarily appreciate, I don’t believe.
Just to give you a little bit of insight, our film festival. Is the selection committee are not industry professionals. They are regular citizens. They’re just watching movies to help out our film festival. Now, try to imagine what that means. It’s like folks don’t focus on the technical unless it’s an absolute train wreck.
They will literally sit down and say, is this something I’m interested in and am, am I engaged with the story? Full stop. So that’s where, that’s the thing you have to focus on. And if you’re not doing that as a filmmaker, okay, maybe you’re just, you know, maybe your thing is gonna be, you’re just a cinematographer, you’re just a sound guy.
You know, you’re more crafty than you are. You know, a storytellers you gotta find that. You gotta find that place. That would be the main thing, because I know we, we. This, I think this is a good thing about our particular film festival is that we have taken in some films that probably weren’t like technically as good as they should have been, but because they are just so.
Compelling. We don’t ignore it like we do pay attention to the craft, but if a story elevates beyond the craft, we’re more than happy to bring those folks in. And when those folks come in, they’re like, oh my gosh. You know, it was like we’re having a hard time getting accepted to film festivals and we’re so grateful that you took our film and we can’t believe the response that we’re getting.
Um, they tend to be the best. Most enthusiastic filmmakers and attendance of anybody. Mm-hmm. They’re not cynical, you know, they’re not burnt out, they’re just like over the moon.
BEN: They’re happy to be there.
MATT: Yeah. And it, and they should be. And they’re gonna spread the word ‘cause they, they’ve created something.
Yeah. Wonderful. Now, you know, maybe it’s underexposed, maybe it’s overexposed. Maybe the audio’s not great here and maybe the audio’s okay there, whatever. It’s compelling. That’s the main thing. And you and you as a filmmaker really need to start analyzing. My wife and I do this all the time. It’s like, what the heck are we making here?
Are we making something that is compelling to us personally? Mm-hmm. Are we making something that’s compelling to other people? Mm-hmm. It’s two different things.
BEN: Mm-hmm.
MATT: I mean, that’s right. So storytelling is hard.
BEN: Yeah. That’s the craft. It’s storytelling.
MATT: Yeah.
BEN: Yeah, yeah. What does your, so you’ve got screeners, not industry folks, people just who appreciate films and filmmaking.
What does your judging sheet or criteria sheet look like with your screeners, and what’s the process that a film goes through?
MATT: Here’s another thing about our particular film festival. We’re completely blind. Submissions. You know, we do not solicit anything. It’s like early days we were kind of like poking around and asking for some folks to kind of consider us, but we’ve kind of let that fall by the wayside.
Maybe that’s one of the reasons our submissions have declined a little bit over the years. One of the factors, but regardless completely blind submission. So. Stuff comes in. We have a bunch of people that are at the ready and they start watching it, and we basically have a five step process.
It’s like, consider this, consider this, consider this, consider this. And they do that. And they mark it from scale of one to 10. And, uh, from that we kind of start our, fundamentally
BEN: what are, what are the different, consider this. Like what are the categories?
MATT: Let’s see. I gotta look it up, but it, it basically breaks down to, okay.
Are you sentimentally engaged with this? Meaning, is it, is it a subject matter? I love that question
BEN: that,
MATT: yeah, it is a subject matter that you. Like just offhand, like, okay. It’s a, it’s a nature movie. See, I love nature movies. Oh, I see. Are you, you see what I’m saying?
BEN: Predispose, I thought, I thought you meant was the film engagement.
MATT: No, no. It, no, it’s, it’s, it becomes both. It becomes both, right? Yeah. Because your sentimental attraction to something is going to create an engagement. So we kind of wanna know if, uh, our regular folks are like just locking into something because they just love the subject matter.
BEN: They make the topic.
Yeah.
MATT: Yeah. Um. Then from there we do actually talk about craft, even though I was saying before, like, uh, don’t worry so much filmmakers about the craft anymore, but we wanna make sure that you can hear it. Okay. It’s not a total disaster with the audio and you can see everything. Okay. So we ask them to rate it on that scale.
And then, um, other, you know, just more nuancey things is like, okay, is the pacing cool? In other words. Did you find it like it was dragging a lot or it was, too fast? How’s the editing style? Those kinds of metrics. And there’s actually a few other ones in there as well. So all that is just kind of thrown into the pile.
Mm-hmm. And then from there we start to weed that out as we come to after like all the submissions come in and from. Once all the submissions come in and our, our deadline has passed, then the committee jumps in and starts doing a more nuanced type of an analytical thing to the films that have been submitted.
But I will say that regardless of how we kind of shuffle things, once the deadline is closed, the people that watch our films and the committee members are usually. Copacetic. There’s hardly anything that that changes. And, um. The nice thing about our particular film festival too, is like if you’re a filmmaker submitting, you know, I’ll just, I’ll give you the numbers.
We essentially get like 300 submissions, so it’s not a lot. Mm-hmm. Um, and out of that 300 we are running a sub, we’re running a screening rate anywhere between like 70 to 80 movies a season. Mm-hmm. So that’s a really good. That’s a really good, uh, opportunity to get accepted at a film festival, and that’s why small film festivals might be the best bet for a lot of independent filmmakers, I think.
Mm-hmm. You know, because you have that opportunity to get noticed. So I think I might have tangent, I went off tangentially a little bit there, so if you wanna pull me back in.
BEN: Yeah. You went off tangentially, but in a great way. I mean that I want to appreciate the transparency with the numbers. I interviewed, um, the director of the Wyoming International Film Festival, a guy named Rudy Womack, and he was the same.
He was like, here’s our numbers, we publish ‘em. He’s like, most festivals don’t, but it just demystifies the process. So it’s very helpful.
MATT: Yeah. And I’ll give film pre credit because they allow film festivals like ours to put those numbers online. Mm-hmm. And, and we’ve done that. If you hit our page on film Freeway, you can start to figure out what we’re about without too much trouble.
BEN: What are the, what are the different blocks you run?
MATT: As far as like thematically?
BEN: Yeah. Yeah. Like at a festival. What are the different categories and blocks.
MATT: Aha. See now you touched on something that’s kind of unique to us. Okay. So, you know, you go to a film festival and it’s like, oh, this is the, this is our dog block.
Every movie’s about dogs.
BEN: Right, right.
MATT: Or something like that. We don’t do that. At all. So we kind of grab bag, the whole thing. It becomes a very eclectic mix of stuff. Mm-hmm. And one of the reasons we’ve ended up doing that is because our community has kind of demanded it. Whoa.
Interestingly enough. Yeah, so they drove the decision to kind of like stop doing thematic blocks and they wanted a better mix of things because they, again, our folks here, they show up for every single block place is packed.
BEN: I just, and sorry to interrupt before you finish, like everything you’re saying, it just sounds like there’s an iter iterative feedback loop.
Between the community in the festival, the film? Absolutely in the festival. The volunteers in the festival. So I just wanna highlight that ‘cause I’m loving everything you’re saying.
MATT: Well, again, like I said, it’s the secret sauce. It’s our, it’s our weapon that we have our secret weapon that allows us to kind of like elevate beyond our like humble budget.
Right.
BEN: The community is, but community is letting you know, we don’t want thematic blocks.
MATT: Yeah. The community came in and said, we, we want mix. So when we sit down and we’re sitting through movies, it’s like. If we’re watching something that we’re not in tune with thematically, then you know, you would have to sit there for like an hour and a half and just kind of tolerate it.
Whereas now, if like a movie comes on about dogs and for some reason you’re just a weirdo and you don’t like dogs, that movie will come and go and now you’re onto something else, right? Mm-hmm. So. Yeah like you just mentioned, it, it really becomes a cooperative effort between the community, the film festival itself and, and even the filmmakers.
And we’re kind of proud that it is a little bit ramshackle in that way ‘cause it creates a very organic vibe and weirdly enough. Like at the end of it all because it, it’s a little bit random. It is like how folks get scheduled.
BEN: Mm-hmm.
MATT: Themes are emergent anyway.
BEN: Mm-hmm. It’s, people
MATT: start creating patterns that didn’t exist and then it sometimes that becomes really profound.
It’s like, didn’t even think of that. It’s brilliant. However oh, the other thing about programming too, that we do specifically for our film festival is that we. We ask our filmmakers, say like, Hey, are you planning on coming here? And if they, if they are planning on coming here, we try our, our level hardest to make sure that we program their films to match their schedule, right?
So we don’t lay out our program and say, okay, you were scheduled for, you know, Wednesday at 2:00 PM. It’s like, well, I’m only free on the weekend. You know, and you wouldn’t, you would never be able to attend. We ask first to say, do you think you’re gonna be able to be here? And if they say yes, then we try to accommodate as best we can.
So again, it’s, it’s collaboration across the board from filmmakers down to the, to the citizens of our small town.
BEN: One of the things I read somewhere, or heard somewhere, is that it’s much more advantageous to apply for the early bird deadline. What’s your take on that?
MATT: For our film festival, not so much, but I, I definitely adhere to that strategy as a filmmaker.
If nothing else, it’s budget conscious, you know? Yeah, yeah. It’s cheaper usually under the initial deadlines you know, you have to take advantage of that. The other thing I guess is like, I will say from our experience, uh, with our particular film festival, if you get it in under the early bird deadline, at least it’s there.
And you know, you’ve basically got like four or five, six months for the submission. Crew for that particular film festival to kind of think about it. Whereas if it comes in a last minute, you’re not really gonna get as much consideration. It’s just gonna have to be more like, uh, an initial one-off type of decision.
So
BEN: are there other, and I mean the, the most important advice right, is always make a good movie outside of the movie. Yeah. Are there other ancillary things that. Can move the needle at all. Cover letters, director statement, press kit, stuff like that, or it’s not, uh, it’s negligible.
MATT: Hmm. It’s neg negligible to an extent in so much, it depends on how you frame it as the filmmaker.
Mm. And let me, I’ll try to explain. So every year as a film festival, you just basically get cover letters. It’s like, oh, take my film please. It’s about this, it’s about that. But it’s a cover lever, co cover letter. It’s, uh, copy and pasted. You can tell. You can just, you just know. It’s like, okay, they’re making an overture to us, but they’re also making an overture to like a hundred other film festivals.
It’s like if you’re gonna write to a film festival and say you want in, just make sure that you actually acknowledge who you are sending your film to. Don’t just say, Hey, Borrego Springs, I wanna be in your film. I like Borrego Springs, mm-hmm. My parents went there once and I’ve always been com I’ve always been interested in the desert and how awesome would it be?
See, that tells us that you’re paying attention. Right?
BEN: Mm-hmm.
MATT: That you’re trying. We’re trying. We just want the filmmakers to try as well, as far as like trying to make any requests to get preferential treatment, and it’s totally cool to ask for preferential treatment. By the way. You can say, I see that you’re a small community.
I just made a film that’s, that takes place in a small community. We might be a really good fit. That kind of thing matters, right? An email overture works. Yes. An email overture doesn’t work. No. It’s both things at once, depending on, it really depends on how you write that letter. So if you wanna invest the time and effort to try to impress a film festival, just make sure that.
You understand what that film festival is and really think about if what you’re offering, the film festival is something that they might want. And if you can, if you see a, a common thread there, write about it in a letter. And even if it’s just one sentence, it’s like, then we know on our side that this person’s paying attention and that that kind of matters.
It does matter. So at the end of the day, when you’re take, when you’re kind of like really trying to figure out your cutoff, if your little film happens to be on the bubble, guess what? It might get into film festival, right? Mm-hmm. Because you said that you have a connection to this place, and I think that’s fair.
I mean, what, does that make sense?
BEN: Yeah, for sure. So the festival is coming up in January, is that correct?
MATT: Yeah, we’re in the middle of gearing up for it right now, as a matter of fact. Nice. I gotta run out to the, to town here in like a, like 15 minutes actually to do some stuff for the film festival.
So yeah, it’s, it’s, well, today we’re shooting, um, a little promo, uh, thing that we’re gonna run, run during. At the beginning of the blocks, and I’ll be doing that with Fred G the chairman of the board. Yeah, that’s nice, fun stuff. We try to have fun with things, so. Yeah.
BEN: We do little
MATT: skits and whatnot during the award ceremony.
It’s, it’s goofy. I love it. Cheesy as hell, but we like doing it, so
BEN: I love it. Oh, that’s actually something that I sort of, in, in, in my cover letters, which I try to. You know, write tailored to the festival. Especially the ones in California say, well, the film’s about this improv duo and mm-hmm. We accepted, we’ll come and we would love to do a little improv performance for the festival attendees.
Um,
MATT: I will say this too, because we’re such what you just mentioned. I just want to piggyback on that for a second. So you said in my cover letter I’ll say, we’re willing to attend. It’s like if you say that in a cover letter and you mean it, you, and you’re willing to do that. Yeah. That’s good. Especially for a festival like ours.
We want filmmakers to come here. We wanna treat ‘em to a good time. We want them to be part of something that’s. Big in the community and the community wants that as well. So if you’re here and you’re willing to be here, then that matters.
BEN: I love it. Well, I mean, everything I’m hearing about Borrego, like literally I just reached out ‘cause I wanted to just talk film festival submissions, but now I’m like, Ooh, next year I’m definitely gonna submit to, uh, to Borrego.
MATT: Yeah, I know this was supposed to be like a strategy session and here I am bragging about the film festival. That’s
BEN: No, no. It’s exactly what I, what I want. It’s great. Last question. What’s a, what’s a. Documentary that blew you away recently?
MATT: So, okay, so last year at our film festival, there was this really cool documentary called Dale. Have you seen it?
BEN: No. Tell me about it.
MATT: So Dale is like this older woman and she’s the first basic Asian American that was in the, um, uh, Los Angeles orchestra, the Los Angeles Phil Harmonic. Okay. And essentially all it is is.
I say all it is like, it’s a very profound kind of retrospective of what she did to get to that point and you know, her views on things and it’s just, and the music that was involved, just very beautiful, very poignant and simple. And. So when, when you have like movies like this and it’s, it’s not even a 10 minute long movie, it’s under 10 minutes.
Mm-hmm. When it just touches on these really profound themes and it’s moving in a way that catches you off guard. Those are the things that you can’t ignore, right? Mm-hmm. And this is actually, Dale’s a good example because, you know, it’s not always shot pristinely, it doesn’t have to look, perfect. But the story reaches kind of a transcendent level that is really, really nice. So if I would throw in Dale and let me see, uh, the the director of that, his name was Justin Strike. So if anyone, I think it’s still on the film festival circuit, so you have that opportunity. Go check it out.
BEN: Love it. Love it. Love it. Matt, thank you so much for taking the time. For people who are interested in Borrego Springs Film Festival, either to attend, to submit, et cetera, what where should they go and where can they find you?
MATT: Oh, online search, just, you know, Borrego Springs Film Festival. It’ll lead you to all the places you need to be.
And, uh, yeah, just track us down that way. Pretty straightforward. Take a peek at what we’re offering. We keep mm-hmm uh, we keep an archive of the stuff we’ve done online so you can pull back the curtain and look and say, okay, is this kind of something I’d be interested in?
Um, you can get a vibe for it that way. And, uh, that’s, yeah, that’s kind of it. That’s kind of it. I think we’ve tried hard to make sure that what we offered is pretty transparent, and if you take a look at it and you think it’s a good fit, and by all means, send us your stuff. Including you, by the way, so, you know.
Yeah, no, you have to submit as well now would definitely
BEN: be submitting early bird deadline next year. Perfect. I wish I, if I was still in LA I’d come down, uh, next month and, and just go to this upcoming festival. It sounds wonderful.
MATT: Well, I know. Why don’t you just do it anyway?
BEN: Yeah, I’ll give you a
MATT: VIP pass.
I that,
BEN: listen, I might take you up on it. I still all, well, if you do, it’s
MATT: we’ll be waiting for you.
BEN: You, you know, we’re, we’re documentary filmmakers. We always have a couple irons in the fire. So I do have one kind of idea of, uh, another doc I’d like to shoot out on la maybe I’ll combine it. I’ll let you know.
MATT: Perfect excuse.
BEN: Hey, this was fantastic. Thank you so much for taking the time. I’m so glad um, we connected and uh, just listen. Our pleasure be fantastic.
MATT: Yeah, we’re, we’re happy as a film festival to be asked to do this kind of thing, so thank you. And um, best of luck to your film too. I’m gonna check it out, so be sure to submit it straight away.
BEN: I will. Thank you so much, Matt. Alright man. Thanks.
BEN: That was my interview with Matt of the Borrego Springs Film Festival. Hope you enjoyed, please forward to at least one person. Have a great week.
