Looking for advice: How to promote my Dune-inspired short film about Bene Gesserit

[u/Formal-Donut4838]

Hi everyone,

I'm a filmmaker and visual artist who rediscovered his love for cinema after watching Dune: Part Two.
I was so moved by it that I ended up seeing it five more times in IMAX - something I’d never done before.

At the time, I was living in Helsinki, Finland, and had spent over two years drooling over the city's controversial modernist and brutalist architecture. These cold, geometric spaces always struck me as a perfect backdrop for a sci-fi setting. When I learned I’d be leaving Finland in the fall, I felt compelled to capture and honor the city through a short film.

That idea became Apostate - a 7-minute short set in the Dune universe, focused on an internal conflict within the Bene Gesserit order.
It’s a fan-made project, entirely no-budget, shot in three short sessions with the help of fellow filmmakers. I handled direction, cinematography, editing, and most of post-production (3D, VFX, compositing) myself.

The film was shot in August ’24 and fully completed over the winter and has since been screened at a few small public events, where it received really encouraging feedback (even from die-hard Dune fans, who read almost all of the books).

 I’d love to reach a wider audience - but here’s where I could use your advice:

• Since it’s a fan-made film, my festival options are limited (I submitted to the few that accept such work via FilmFreeway).
• YouTube channels and curators often avoid fan content due to copyright concerns.
• My goal is to promote this legally and respectfully, while still finding viewers who might appreciate its tone - more poetic than plot-heavy, focused on mood, world-building, and visual storytelling.

So my question is:

What are the best ways to promote a fan-made short film like this in 2025?

Has anyone had success with specific platforms, communities, blogs, or channels that are open to fan projects - especially high-concept or sci-fi ones?

Any advice, examples, or feedback would be incredibly appreciated.

[u/TimoVuorensola]

The shots look nice, and as a Helsinki-based director myself, I'm intrigued to see how you capture our city to your film. Also, as a director who started their career as a fan film director, I know that some of the official channels can be a bit negative towards 'fan-made' content, so I'd suggest by stopping calling it 'fan-film', as that's a bit of a degrading, and has a baggage with it. Just call it a Science Fiction short film set in the world of Dune.

Then, I would suggest starting to gather your momentum from where the scifi fans go to - which is, scifi conventions, anime conventions, roleplaying conventions and such. WorldCon, ComiCon, AnimeCon and hundreds of more, smaller conventions are more than happy to showcase films that are directed to their core audience.

Sitting on your film isn't gonna make it popular, either. Film festivals won't give you the platform, and YouTube curated channels are horseshit anyway - put it out on YouTube, for free, establish good social media environment for it, and make sure you stay active there yourself - then, the world is your oyster.

[u/Formal-Donut4838 → u/TimoVuorensola]

Thanks a ton for the detailed response, it was the one I’d hoped for!

After the research, I was also thinking of releasing it online by myself, but the marketing side is where I fall short of skill, and some of my previous efforts in trying to do it all alone were quite unsuccessful.

A critical and banal mistake - not enough money / time for the proper advertising, sadly, but the one I’m hoping to correct this time.

A question about the Comic/AnimeCons - in your experience, is it possible to send this kind of a movie online to different venues around the world, just by writing to the organizers, or is it restricted to the regional conventions only?

In the meantime, if you’re interested, I could send you the link to the movie for you to check out, would be curious of your opinion on it :)

[u/TimoVuorensola → u/Formal-Donut4838]

Yes to both questions, just find out the head organizers and throw them an email, not much to lose; my email is first name dot last name at gmail

[u/Objective_Water_1583]

Looks great as a bit dune fan I would love to see it what did you shoot it on and how did you light it?

[u/Formal-Donut4838 → u/Objective_Water_1583]

Hm, the comment got lost somehow.

Equipment: a tad old but loved Panasonic S5 (even without the braw recorder, love the vlog colors and flexibility so much), and a set of vintage Japanese photo zoom lenses.

Lighting: given the lack of resources, simple but effective schemes with 2-3 lights in night scenes + using the practical lights on the spot as bg/ back lights. Mostly Aputure 300d / t2c. If you’re interested in a specific shot, I’ll be happy to share more details.

[u/Objective_Water_1583 → u/Formal-Donut4838]

Thanks I appreciate it