Can I make a short film and break into the film industry?

 One roadblock I have run into while making my films is that many of the scenes I have created involve music that is copyrighted - this may restrict my ability to enter it into a film festival if I cannot acquire the rights, this gives me two options. 1. Find the rights and still submit to a film festival 2. Scrap the idea of using the songs and remake the scenes 3. Scrap the idea of submitting to a film festival While considering these issues I have researched a few sites regarding music rights: https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html https://www.quora.com/Can-I-use-copyrighted-music-for-my-non-profit-short-film https://beverlyboy.com/filmmaking/music-licensing-for-film-festivals-rules-every-independent-filmmaker-must-know/#:~:text=But%20this%20is%20not%20to,a%20film%20festival%20or%20not. Overall I would say that these sources are quite reliable as they offer advice made by professionals and experts in the field. However as a lot of them are unverified\not well known it...

Here I have composed a monthly report for how the project has gone as of April 2022. So far I have: Completed the scripting Sent a scout to find my locations Got my cast together Assembled a crew Researched all parts of production from choreography to writing Finished half of the storyboarding From here I will need to: choreograph the fight scenes Finish the storyboard Film the movie Edit the movie Send it to the film festival Overall I would say I have made very good progress on it thus far - being about three quarters of the way through my production but only half of my time has been spent: which will give me a lot of useful wiggle room in case I ever need it