Short Film Festival Strategy: Why Your Online Premiere Could Suffer
Last year I took my short film, “The First Time I Never Met You”, onto the film festival circuit.
We got into a few festivals, had a handful of screenings, and while that was exciting, I was also trying to post regularly about the film — hoping that by the time it went online, there’d be an audience ready to watch it.
The first teaser did around 6,000 views, which felt great relative to the small following I had.
But when the actual film finally premiered online... in its first month, it barely reached a third of that.
That got me thinking: Did my festival run actually hurt my online premiere?
The truth is, a long festival run can sometimes kill momentum.
Here’s why:
By the time your film goes online, the hype is gone. People saw posts months ago and moved on.
Festivals limit where and when you can share your film. So your audience never really gets consistent access.
Algorithms don’t reward old content. By the time your film is public, your teaser’s engagement history doesn’t transfer.
If your goal is to build an audience online — not just collect laurels — you might need to rethink how you approach your release strategy.
Maybe that means shortening your festival window, or even planning your online release alongside your festival run with exclusives, behind-the-scenes content, or audience Q&As that keep people engaged.
Your film deserves to be seen, not shelved behind a strategy that worked five years ago but doesn’t fit the digital world today.
🎥 Watch my full video where I break down my experience, share what I learned, and offer practical advice on how to plan your short film festival strategy better:
