Are Pitch Festivals Worth It?

At some point in every agent or manager’s career, we have attended a pitch festival. Then we decide to never attend again.

 I don’t know how much these pitch festivals charge writers. I imagine it’s a lot of money. I’ll tell you one thing, pay an agent a quarter of what you pay these festivals and I’m sure you will get us to read your script page by page!

 There are a lot of pitch festivals out there, and I have not attended all of them. I’ve attended a few in my career, and here is what is really interesting, and will probably help you writers out and probably NOT help the organizers of these festivals out. The further away you get from Hollywood to attend a pitch festival, the better agents, managers and producers you are going to be pitching to.

 There are several in Los Angeles. I believe the big one is the the Fade-In pitch festival. I remember going to this when I started off as an assistant. At this pitch festival, you are going to be pitching to assistants, or managers who are on their own and even to interns. Now, this is not a bad thing. Assistants really are the gate keepers in this town, and can push scripts up the ladder. All the other pitch festivals in LA, will mostly consist of assistants. The exception to this rule is the USC pitch festival and the UCLA one, but the USC pitch is the big one in Los Angeles, and the one agents and managers really pay attentino to.

So why is this? Well, I hate to break it to you writers, but when agents and managers go to these pitch festivals, it really isn’t about finding material, it’s about hanging out with other industry people. Pitch festivals that are far away, such as the Portland Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival, usually have a great list of agents, managers, producers and studio execs. The reason is because they fly us in and put us up in hotels. We go to these festivals to hang out with our buddies and go out at night in a town we aren’t familiar with… the pitches are secondary.

 Here is the good news. You DO have the agent and manager’s ear while you are there! Problem is, we hear so many bad pitches that we tend to fall asleep, but if you really have a great pitch, then this is a great opportunity to have a one on one with a professional.

Bottom line. You don’t have to be in LA to pitch to an agent or manager. In fact, pitch festivals that fly in the professionals are better than the pitch festivals in town that don’t offer legitimate agents or managers any incentive to come. Do you really think we need to attend to find material? We are bombarded each day with new scripts. Go to a festival like Portland or Austin, you will meet actual agents and managers, and not our assistants.