About a year ago, I wrote a series of articles for filmmakers bound for South by Southwest -- I thought it was time to revisit the last-minute preparation tips and to make them a little more universally applicable to film festivals as a whole. So out go the references to favorite taco joints and in comes some updated info on how to manage your time and promote your film at a film festival -- whichever one you happen to be visiting.

Part one covers some general festival travel and basic marketing ground.

Part two encourages you to cover the basics online.

Part three makes sure you take care of a few things before you leave home.

Part four highlights the things you should be sure to do once you get to the festival.

For dessert, here's an article on the 6 essential things to do after attending a film festival.