Was Deauville Worth the Trip? What one international festival gave our independent film

Deciding where to submit your film, and what you are prepared to invest if it is selected, should be part of a thoughtful festival strategy.

Submission fees are only the beginning. If you attend, there may be flights, hotels, transportation, meals and time away from your next project. For an independent filmmaker, those costs matter. So, was taking our small film, Like Dandelion Dust, to a major international festival in France worth it?

For us, the answer was a resounding yes.

That is not simply because we came home with a prestigious award. Awards are never guaranteed, and they should not be the only measure of whether a festival is worthwhile. Deauville gave our film something equally valuable: the opportunity to be seen and judged outside the environment in which it was made.

It placed our small independent film on an international stage, and the audience understood the film we had actually made.

A Story We Hoped Would Travel

Like Dandelion Dust is a family drama adapted from Karen Kingsbury’s New York Times bestselling novel. The screenplay was written by my friend, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Stephen J. Rivele. It starred Mira Sorvino, Barry Pepper, Cole Hauser and Kate Levering.

At the center of the story are two mothers: one who loved her son so much she had to give him up, and another who loved him so much she couldn't.

Although the film was made in the United States, its emotional questions were not uniquely American. Adoption, parenthood, love, sacrifice and the fear of losing a child cross borders and cultures. Taking the film to France felt like an opportunity to discover whether those emotions would travel.

They did.

At the end of the screening, the Deauville audience gave the film a ten-minute standing ovation.

I have been in many festival rooms over the course of my career, and a standing ovation is rare. Ten minutes is not a polite response. It is a room of people deciding, together, that a story has reached them.

Deauville later gave Like Dandelion Dust the Première Audience Award for Best Feature.

The award mattered. Festival recognition and laurels can help a film establish credibility, strengthen its marketing and attract the attention of distributors, audiences and future partners. But what has stayed with me most vividly is not the laurel. It is the feeling in that room.

I have received only two standing ovations in my filmmaking career. The other was for my documentary, Breaking Their Silence: Women on the Frontline of the Poaching War. Both were completely unexpected and brought me to tears. In those moments you reflect on all the challenges you and your teams overcame to bring the film to life, and they were cemented as worth it.

What the Festival Gave Me as a Filmmaker

Like Dandelion Dust had been a challenging film to make, as many independent films are. There was never enough money, never enough time and rarely the luxury of making every choice exactly as we might have wished.

But everyone involved gave the film everything they had. We had known it by end of week two that we had something special.

That night in Deauville, all of those efforts came together for an audience. The experience reconnected me to why I make films in the first place.

There is something profoundly moving about watching strangers respond to a story you helped bring to the screen. When many of those people do not share your language or your cultural reference points, their response can feel even more powerful. It tells you that something at the heart of the film has travelled intact.

What we experienced in Deauville was an audience with a deep respect for cinema as an art form. Their attention was not limited to celebrity or marketing. They appeared genuinely interested in the work itself and in the many people whose craft had contributed to it.

Sitting in that theatre reminded me that I do not make films to collect laurels. I make them to place a human story in a darkened room and discover whether it is honest enough to reach someone I have never met. Laurels are important to marketing, sales and distribution. It's an industry standard signal that an audience positively responded to the film and that it might have a shelf life.

Was It Worth the Expense?

Yes. But that does not mean every filmmaker should attend every festival that accepts their film. Especially if it's an international festival and their budget is tight.

International festivals can be expensive if you don't have friends to stay with! The money spent attending could go elsewhere for post-production needs. There are real trade-offs, particularly for independent filmmakers working with limited resources. But even had we not won, the experience of being a filmmaker at that festival was amazing. A lifetime of memories and joy celebrating it.

Before committing to a festival, consider:

• Does this festival genuinely program films like mine?
• Is its audience likely to connect with my subject or genre?
• Will the filmmakers have meaningful opportunities to participate in press?
• Could attending help the film reach distributors, programmers, press or future partners?
• Is there something valuable to gain even if the film does not win?
• Can the production reasonably afford the full cost of attending?

For Like Dandelion Dust, Deauville offered more than the possibility of an award. It gave us a respected international platform and an audience willing to engage deeply with the film.

It also gave us a test that would have been difficult to recreate at home: was this a specifically American story, or was it simply a human one?

Every culture understands the fierce and complicated love of a parent. Deauville was the first time I watched an audience far removed from where we had made the film recognize that love so completely. I still treasure the sound of a completely silent theatre engrossed with the screen, the few isolated sobs, unable to hold back, and the collective sigh of relief after dramatic moments are paid off - equal to the applause at the finale.

My advice is not to go everywhere. Few independent filmmakers can afford to do that, and not every festival will advance your film. But if you can afford it, even if you don't win, it's often worth it.

Go where your film has a genuine reason to be. Look for festivals whose programming, audiences and opportunities align with what you have made and where you might network with people who could be next in your journey. Other filmmakers, crew, actors, agents, distributors. Consider the possible value beyond prizes, because winning will always be the wild card.

Deauville gave our film an amazing award, international recognition and a beautiful moment with an audience. Personally, it gave me something every filmmaker occasionally needs: a reminder of why the difficult work is worth doing, and worth doing well.

That night in France - celebrating with my director and fellow producers - remains one of the reasons I love, and will keep making films.

Kerry David · IMDb