Most Damaging (Avoidable) Festival Mistake for First-Timers?

Hey everyone,

I'm Amara Okafor, and I've just finished up my first feature documentary. It's a passion project, a deeply personal look at community activism in my hometown. I've spent literally years on this, from countless hours interviewing to refining the edit on my trusty old Mac Pro.

Now, I'm pivoting to festival strategy, and honestly, it feels like a whole new beast. I've been trying to research, but there's a lot of conflicting advice out there. I've read about avoiding 'spray and pray' tactics and making sure your sound is pristine (which, trust me, I'm all over). But these feel like obvious production quality issues.

What I'm trying to figure out is, beyond the obvious technical slip-ups, what's the single most damaging but avoidable mistake a first-time filmmaker makes in their festival strategy? I'm talking about the kind of strategic misstep that can sink even a good film.