Why BEING SOLD wasn’t selected

I had an interesting email today from a film festival in the states. As you know my comedy/drama BEING SOLD is doing the festival rounds. We submitted it to quite a few festivals and we were selected for some (and won some nice awards!) and a few others rejected the film. This can be for a number of reasons… the film is shockingly awful, the film isn’t the right “type” or, in some cases, they didn’t even watch it (there are a few bad festivals out there!). Comedy is a hard sell for festivals. A lot of programmers like the hard hitting vomiting-babies-and-social-comment type dramas instead of films that entertain. Comedy is always seen as “less intelligent” as, say, a thriller or costume drama. The truth is that a good comedy is bloody hard to make.

So, the e-mail. Most festivals just reject you and send you the standard response but some actually send you the notes that the selection committee made when watching the film (which I think all festivals should do… I mean, you’ve paid your $10-$200 submission fee so why not?). I received one of these emails about the reasons why BEING SOLD wasn’t selected and I thought I’d publish it. I think this is from three different people. Brace yourselves…

1. I thought the film’s premise was interesting, “how much is a life worth?”. It did a good job capturing today’s media frenzy and everyone trying to capitalize by any means possible. There were some compelling issues about fame and it’s consequences raised.

2. This was a clever comedy that hit upon many relevant, contemporary themes—unemployment, instant Internet fame and the callousness of the media.  I thought the film was entertaining and the cast was very good. I think more character development and back-story on John would have added to the film’s impact.

3. A high energy British farce about the desperate times we live in, where a depressed unemployed man would try to sell himself on Ebay. I thought the film did a great job showing the power of the media to take what should be insignificant “news” and blow it out of proportion to generate better ratings. The actors did a good job of keeping this unrealistic situation believable as the story ranged from over the top comedy to the deeper question of what is a man worth and the price of fame.

…umm, answers on a postcard?! I just can’t handle all this negativity… ;)