FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

•My movie has humorous moments, but is not strictly speaking a "comedy."  Do I still qualify?
•Do you accept documentaries?
•I am a female comic.  Can I send a tape of me doing my act?
•Will there be industry representatives at Broad Humor?
•My co-writer (or co-director) was male.  Does that disqualify my movie? 
•I wrote, produced, and acted in my movie, but a guy directed it.  Can I still submit to Broad Humor?
•What are my chances of getting in to the festival?
•What are the prizes for your festival?

My movie has humorous moments, but is not strictly speaking a "comedy."  Do I still qualify?

Absolutely.  We love the ways that women create humor. We have found that women prefer to create "blended genres."  They are not so black-and-white in their worldview and their movies reflect that richness of vision.  If your movie has lots of laughs or plenty of smile moments that are important to the story, then we want to see it.

Do you accept documentaries?

Not only do we accept documentaries, but a good number of our winners in the last four years have been docs.  Documentaries are one area of mainstream filmmaking where women have a decent shot at work, so they make up a significant portion of what's out there and we want to showcase it.

I am a female comic.  Can I send a tape of me doing my act?

The answer is maybe.  If you just set up a camera to record a live performance, then I would say no.  But if the way it is shot uses the medium of filmmaking to augment the performance experience, then I say definitely yes.

Will there be industry representatives at Broad Humor? 

The whole reason we started this festival was that support for women screenwriters and filmmakers in the mainstream entertainment biz is sadly lacking.  And support for comedy by women is exponentially worse. Because of that, although we try to get the doorkeepers to come, we have not yet been successful.  Someone is working on putting together some panels and possibly meet-ups again this year.  No promises, but we will try.  Meanwhile, we can support each other so that we keep working to create an audience for women's comedy that will at some point bring the studios knocking.

My co-writer (or co-director) was male.  Does that disqualify my movie?

I'm sorry to say it does.  Our goal in starting this festival was to find out if the comedy women tend to generate is substantially different from the comedy that men do.  And we have found that it is.  By putting a guy in one of the generative roles of writer and director, a film will shift its narrative and no longer be strictly a female sensibility.  We have seen that women's humor, while different, is just as pleasing to audiences, and we want to make room for it at the cultural banquet table.  If we compromise, we have not defined a new area, but only nudged an old one, and it will still imply that a man's input is needed for comedy to work.

I wrote, produced, and starred in my movie, but a guy directed it.  Can I still submit to Broad Humor?

Unfortunately, no.  See the answer above.

What are my chances of getting in to the festival?

We are a very inclusive festival and in the past we have accepted as many as 50% of the submissions for the festival.  That said, this year's numbers will be affected by how many submissions we get, but your odds are very good compared with other film festivals.

What are the prizes for your festival?

We are a grass-roots festival with some very generous sponsors given our relatively small size.  All our prizes are donated, and include software and gift items worth several hundred dollars.  That said, we are not about the prizes.  In a very real way, the prize is the festival itself.