Rejections...

I know I keep posting the laurels my film is receiving but failing to mention the massive amount of rejection letters I receive almost weekly.... The acceptance/rejection ratio is smth like 1:10... All the rejection letters are the same... thank you very much for submitting... unfortunately due to a large number of submissions... we regret to inform you.... Sometimes it is genuinely hard to keep getting them in your mailbox especially from such fantastic festivals as Aspen and Palm Springs... which would be a dream to attend.... but you gotta move on, and work on your skills, and think up stories that would inspire the judges to eventually, one day... send you an acceptance letter instead...

Here's an example of such letter...

Dear Stanislava

Thank you for submitting your film to the Palm Springs International ShortFest and Film Market. We received over 4,200 films submitted for consideration this year, many of which were exceptional. The abundance of entries at such a high standard made our selection process very difficult. Unfortunately, we will not be able to give Self-Control SF16-274 a screening at ShortFest. While we are not able to offer the film a screening in the festival lineup, we would be happy to include the film in our adjacent Film Market. What is the ShortFest Film Market? Each year, hundreds of film industry professionals attend the Film Market in order to discover new films and talented filmmakers. They know that there are many excellent films not given a festival screening that are available to view in the Market. (Please note: there is no charge for your inclusion at the Film Market.) The Market runs concurrently with ShortFest (June 21-27) and consists of viewing stations open only to accredited sales agents, distributors, filmmakers and other industry representatives. The Market is not considered a public screening and does not affect a film's premiere status. If you would like to be in the Film Market, please ensure that your submission on Withoutabox or FilmFreeway is the most updated version of your film. Unfortunately, due to growing attendance numbers, we cannot provide a festival badge. For information on attending the festival, please visit our website at https://www.psfilmfest.org/ If you wish to opt out of the Market, please indicate so in a reply to this e-mail. Please note due to the high number of requests, we are unable to provide feedback on your film. Again, thank you for sharing your film with us and we truly wish you best of luck. Sincerely, Palm Springs ShortFest Programming Team