Festivals to Submit to

DC Independent Film Festival (FREE)

http://dciff-indie.org/

This festival attracted us because it welcomes work from student filmmakers. It offers free submissions for students (who submit before the early bird deadline), which is awesome, and it welcomes short docs (like ours!). It also helps that it’s not too far from us (Washington, DC), so shipping expenses for our film—and potentially future travel expenses (; —wouldn’t be unreasonable.

Indie Grits Film Festival ( REGIONAL)

http://www.indiegrits.com/submit/film-submissions/

This regional festival seeks films that reflect an element of the Southeast. Since Kevin and I live in the Southeast and our film takes place in the Southeast, we figured this could be a good outlet for us. The fest welcomes doc shorts and student films, so it’s great for us. Located in Columbia, SC, this fest is one of the closest ones to us that we’ve found.

The Winnipeg Real to Reel Film Festival

http://www.winnipegfilmfestival.com/

This festival is located in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada), which sounded interesting to us. It welcomes doc shorts, and seeks films that don’t depict nudity, sex, profanity, or violence. A headline from one of their festival posters read, “Cool. Clean. Compelling.” Our short doc is definitely family friendly and is an example of depicting “real life through reel stories,” in accordance with the motto on their website.

 

DIY Film Festival

http://diyfilmfestival.blogspot.com/

The DIY fest takes place year round—which means there is no deadline for submissions—so it’s definitely one to bookmark. They take student submissions, and follow the “do it yourself” philosophy, asserting on their website that “great art can be created without large expenditures.” We definitely didn’t have much of a budget for our film, so I’d say we fit this model. They screen their films year-round in LA, which sounds pretty cool.

Documentary Edge Festival

http://documentaryedge.org.nz/

This fest takes place in New Zealand—which, of course, is appealing on its own. Just by the title alone, we can see that it seeks docs (and, according to their website, doc shorts). Even better is that they are open to student submissions.

Rooftop Films

http://www.rooftopfilms.com/

This fest screens their selections on the rooftops of buildings in NY—how awesome is that?! They seem like a pretty progressive festival that is looking for all types of films. They take doc shorts, and their submission fee is a very reasonable $13.

 

Mini Cinema: Short Film Experience

http://minicinema.tv/submit-film/

This festival runs from January to September, “with a different screening of films every 2 months,” according to their website.  They take all types of shorts, including docs, so that’s good for us. The submission fee is low and they take .MOV files, so a bonus is that we would save on shipping! The fest is in LA, so our film could get a lot of good exposure with audiences there.