With the Tribeca Film Festival a few days away, Anthony Kaufman has a great piece over at indieWIRE about the rivalry between Tribeca, SXSW and LAFF. As the three fests are scheduled so close to one another, most of the times they are fighting for the same films (and leaving regional fests like Sarasota, Florida Film Festival and Independent Film Festival Boston with little to choose from). This causes headaches for filmmakers who due to premiere-crazed programming aren’t choosing a festival that’s best for their film but what fest will give them the most exposure.

Here’s an excerpt:

“’Call me a wimp, but I wasn’t willing to take my chances and show it in Sarasota,’ says Jon Frankel, who withdrew from the Florida fest to premiere his Harlem football documentary Hellfighters at Tribeca because programmers ‘asked me not to show it at Sarasota,’ he says. ‘This is my first experience with festivals. I just didn’t want to piss them off.’”