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The crushing majority of film festivals are not in fact the least bit interested in “helping” filmmakers: they have agendas that they do not disclose and that in any case change from year to year.
Their imperative is to attract as many submissions as possible, because submitting a film to film festivals requires the payment of quite a substantial fee.
In return for your money they will watch your film and decide whether to include it in the festival, but I have the unshakable and well-founded suspicion that not all submissions are actually watched by film festivals. They do not, however, ever fail to collect the submission fee, which they do with great alacrity.
Film festival officials would pretend to take umbrage at my assertion, but there is simply no way of being sure that they actually watched your film from beginning to end – they can simply claim that they did, and you have no way to prove otherwise. It is the perfect crime for them. I cannot imagine anyone with a shred of life experience really believing a word these guys say.
If you think that film festivals are pro bono organizations that want to nurture filmmakers, you are naïve and you fit the perfect profile of the needy, compliant filmmaker who is easily seduced into parting with hard-earned money in return for a glimpse of promised opportunities.
 
http://www.lavideofilmmaker.com/business/the-true-motivations-of-those-who-can-make-a-difference-to-your-directing-career.html#festivals