Festival season kicks into high gear soon, as the film world heads to Park City. What follows is a survival guide of sorts to help first-time filmmakers navigate their first fests. Full disclosure: I’ve had one film that I produced play in a festival—Robert Byington’s Olympia premiered at SXSW in 1998, when I was running it. (I promise I recused myself from the selection committee on that one.) My advice comes from nearly 20 years on the festival side, watching filmmakers make the most of their festival experiences.