The University of Texas at El Paso's student paper, interviewing communications professor Roberto Avant-Mier:
According to Avant-Mier, festivals look for good screenwriting, and value theoretical concepts and depth, although he admits the assumption that independent films carry depth is not always true.
The article itself is probably of limited interest to anyone outside El Paso, but if you've ever watched a number of films submitted to festivals, you're nodding your head at that sentence. The article's headline is a bit misleading since the piece is more about the state of local filmmaking in El Paso than about festivals, but still worth a quick skim.
