Keith Aiken wrote:
Not necessarily, because many, many Japanese films that didn't (and, in some cases, still don't) have a US distributor were screened at North American film festivals such as NYAFF, Japan Cuts, Fantasia, Japan Film Festival- Los Angeles, Anime Expo, etc. etc. Heck, I'm still waiting for some of the movies I've seen via fests to get a US buyer. 
Yeah, I've always thought the reason (or one of, anyway) films were screened at festivals was to find a distributor(?).