Carolina Sucks!

Well, after repeated unanswered emails and phone calls to the Carolina Film and Video Festival, I've finally learned my status. Not through any kind of actual response to my queries, but through their now posted schedule. "NAKED" clearly isn't Carolina's cup of tea, and that's fine. What isn't fine is this kind of unprofessionalism. No where in the application process do they say that films not selected will not be notified. On the contrary, all their official literature on the web insinuates a notification date of February 7. When a filmmaker pays $100 to enter your festival (entry fee for both short film and feature script competitions, plus materials and shipping), I say he deserves the courtesy of some kind of personal word, or let him know up front that that's not going to happen. In fact, the feature script winner has not been posted yet, so as unlikely as it appears to be, I could still win. How would I know? All I know is I was told I'd be notified February 7 only to receive no word. Not even when I called and emailed the festival to request word as to my status. Well, I won't submit to this festival again in the future, and I think I might write a letter (which will no doubt go unanswered) letting them know that filmmakers don't appreciate this kind of treatment, especially not by a festival with less than 500 total submissions. SXSW received nearly 3,000, and even they managed to jet me a rejection email (a very polite and encouraging one at that!).