FILM FESTIVALS
Festival Organizers: Post calls for entries on our Event Calendar and give us the info to let us share the news on social media! Want your festival included here? Email mail@film.org with your festival’s information.
SPRING 2024
Opine Dance Film Festival is an annual event that celebrates dance film makers locally, nationally, and internationally who are creating work with meaning.
We are interested in short dance films which speak to wider themes of identity, defying conventions, crossing borders, and pushing boundaries. The program prioritizes both inclusion and diversity through the marriage of dance and film, while also emphasizing the democratization of socioeconomic, political, and identity driven conversations across cultures, contexts and locations.
We are excited to officially be back for our 9th season, hosted by Bryn Mawr Film Institute on Saturday, April 6, 2024! A post-screening talk back will take place for any filmmakers who are able to join the event in person.
All submissions go through a curation process by a panel of jurors. The jury is comprised of local choreographers, filmmakers, and performing artists. This season, we will award an Audience Choice Award to each category, through audience voting.
An exhibition supporting new work by talented up-and-coming local filmmakers of all ages, levels, and backgrounds complete with post-screening Q&As with the filmmakers and talent.
Celebrate our talented local filmmakers each month during the Philly Film Showcase. PFS turns the Philadelphia Film Greenfield Screening Room into a venue for up-and-coming filmmakers of all ages, levels, and backgrounds. Each Showcase is followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and talent to elicit feedback from the audience.
Submitting to the program is FREE! We support our local filmmakers enthusiastically and encourage our community to do the same.
Tickets are FREE thanks to our free ticketing program PFS On Us, though donations to Philly Film Showcase are welcome.
The Philadelphia Latino Film Festival (PHLAFF) was established in 2012 and has become the Greater Philadelphia region’s only festival showcasing the extraordinary and innovative work of emerging and established Latine/x/a/o filmmakers.
PHLAFF’s programming focuses on the diverse experiences and realities of our people. PHLAFF has evolved into an international film festival that brings the best of Latine/x/a/o stories to a wide audience.
PHLAFF attracts a diverse audience, developing a new space in the Philadelphia region where filmmakers, actors, producers and creatives can meet with other artists, engage with audiences and present and discuss innovative work.
Summer 2024
BlackStar Film Festival
“BlackStar creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown and Indigenous artists working outside of the confines of genre. We do this by producing year-round programs including film screenings, exhibitions, an annual film festival, a filmmaker seminar, a film production lab, and a journal of visual culture. These programs provide artists opportunities for viable strategies for collaborations with other artists, audiences, funders, and distributors.
We prioritize visionary work that is experimental in its aesthetics, content, and form and builds on the work of elders and ancestors to imagine a new world. We elevate artists who are overlooked, invisibilized or misunderstood and celebrate the wide spectrum of aesthetics, storytelling and experiences that they bring. We bring that work to new audiences as well as place it in dialog with other past and contemporary work. And, we curate every aspect of our events to be intentional community building efforts, connecting diverse audiences in a Black-led space centered on joy and thriving.”
Submission Deadline: March 1
Dates: August 1-4
Playhouse West Film Festival
PWFF-Philadelphia, is an off-shoot of the Playhouse West Film Festival in Los Angeles, established in 1997. In 2012, long-time Artistic Director/Instructor, and PWFF Director, Tony Savant, moved to Philadelphia and founded a branch of the world-renown school, Playhouse West-Philadelphia. The following year, in 2013, the school hosted it’s first annual film festival in the City of Brotherly Love and plans to continue this event annually, just like it’s been held on Los Angeles, where he was the director for 19 years.
The Playhouse West Film Festival screens films which involve their current or former members. All films must either have a Playhouse West member in a leading or primary supporting acting role, or as the director, writer or producer.
Submission Deadline: May 5
Dates: August 16-18
https://www.playhousewest.com/philly-film-festival
FALL 2024
First Glance Film Festival
Since our inception in 1996, we have become one of the fastest growing truly independent film fests in Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
Named one the Top Rated Film Festivals on Film Freeway, named five times as one of the “Best Film Festival Investments” and “50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee” by Movie Maker Magazine and “One of the Festivals for the Rest of Us” by Time Magazine.
FirstGlance has become a leader in mid-sized film festivals.
Submission Deadline: March 27
Date: October 10-13
The 33rd Philadelphia Film Festival
Every October, the Philadelphia Film Society hosts the Philadelphia Film Festival which gathers more than 25,000 dedicated film lovers and scores of talented filmmakers for eleven exceptional days of cinematic splendor. Throughout the year, PFS’s artistic team scours the world’s most prestigious film festivals – from Sundance to Berlin, Cannes to Toronto – for the year’s most highly anticipated, critically acclaimed, and thought provoking films. The Festival presents these films alongside exclusive events with actors, directors, and industry guests; VIP receptions; and much more that highlights Philadelphia as a place where film is flourishing.
As a world-class film festival, PFF represents a major contribution to the cultural life of the city and region. It presents, on average, more than 100 films and draws industry guests and panelists and fosters an interactive community of film professionals and supporters. By presenting and designing programs with a variety of partners, PFS is able to create opportunities that reduce barriers to interacting with film attracting new audiences to PFS and the film community at large.
Submission Deadline: June 16
Date: October 17-27
Locations: Various Philadelphia venues, see website for details.
Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival
“Philadelphia Asian American Film & Filmmakers was founded in 2008 by a passionate group of Asian Americans who felt a need for a festival space that was focused on supporting the growing Asian filmmaking community. The Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival (PAAFF) is the showcase event of this non-profit organization and is dedicated to supporting and highlighting the experiences of Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora through creative community-focused programs. PAAFF is currently the third-largest film festival of its kind in the United States. In addition to our film programs, our volunteer-run organization also presents supporting programming such as live performances, chef demonstrations, panels and lectures, and educational workshops during the festival and throughout the year.”
Submission Deadline: June 1
Dates: November 7-14, 2024
Location: Philadelphia
More festivals to come!
PREVIOUS FESTIVALS
Off Page Film Festival
The Off Page Film Festival is accepting short films and trailers, as well as scripts for short films and feature screenplays for their film festival at the Venice Island Performing Arts Center in Manayunk.
Submissions are through Film Freeway.
There will be awards and cash prizes. Finalists will be notified by Oct. 1, 2023.
The mission of the festival is designed as a platform for talented artists to be recognized for their projects and more importantly, get them the industry exposure to help sustain their craft.
Date: November 4, 2023
Website: https://www.offpagefilmfestival.com/
Philadelphia Jewish Film and Media Fall Fest
Philadelphia Jewish Film and Media’s (PJFM) annual festival, Fall Fest 2023¸returns for its 43rd year, a weekend-long celebration of the best in Jewish international film and digital media! Screenings and events will take place in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs. PJFM creates connection and community through Jewish cinema and digital storytelling. PJFM welcomes everyone to engage with Jewish culture and values through its educational and entertaining year-round programs.
November 11-18, 2023
Website: https://phillyjfm.org/
48 Hour Film Festival
Filmmakers from all over the Philadelphia, PA area will compete to see who can make the best short film in only 48 hours. The winning film will go up against films from around the world at Filmapalooza 2023 for a chance at the grand prize and an opportunity to screen at the Cannes Film Festival 2023 Short Film Corner.
Winners yet to be announced.
Date: July 7-9, 2023
Location: Philadelphia
Web: http://www.48hourfilm.com/philadelphia-pa