Sujewa Ekanayake discusses the very relevant question posed by Bob Alexander over at Indiepix of whether or not film festivals represent the collective judement of the indie Film Community. I have to agree with Sujewa

There is no fixed, universal standard of "good" or "bad" in art/entertainment. There are only tastes; for example, I like the Jarmusch movie Down By Law, a friend of mine hates it, does that mean the movie is good or bad? No, it means that two people with two different tastes in movies disagree on the value of one movie.

I think festival programming represents the taste of the programmers; influenced by other factors such as films available for the fest, focus of the fest, etc.

Pop over to his site and weigh in on this debate.