Find a main sponsor to fund your festival. Good places to start are high schools, colleges and universities. Other places to look are libraries or associations who are dedicated to film and its history.
Start a raffle so people can buy tickets to help fund your festival. Raffle prizes can include popular movies or classic film DVDs, editing software, cameras, tripods or anything pertaining to the art of film. Appealing to film buffs through prizes like these will get people excited about helping you fund your film festival.
Create an advertisement booklet or banners telling film goers about surrounding companies who support the festival and asking companies to pay for the advertisement.
Charge an entry fee to each film director who wants to show their work at your festival.
Ask for donations from people attending the festival or set a price for each day or sell passes for the duration of the festival. This works well if you are having a weekend or week-long festival.