Elliot Tuttle knew that “ Blue Film ,” the fictional story of a camboy who reconnects with a former high school teacher who was fired for sexually assaulting a student, was going to be divisive. After all, it features an empathetic portrait of a pedophile. But he thought some festival would have the courage to screen the incendiary drama. Instead, Tuttle suffered 10 rejections in a row, including hard passes from indie bastions like Sundance and SXSW.

“A lot of the feedback that we got behind the scenes was that it was very polarizing, and it seemed like the powers that be were scared of the movie,” Tuttle says. “It was unbelievable to me. I believe in the quality of the film, and I also had a hard time believing American festivals were this risk-averse.”

Salvation came from the Edinbu

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