We are StarLight Film Festival - the US's premier online short film festival dedicated to celebrating bold, original, provocative and thought-provoking shorts. We showcase a diverse programme of international short films and music videos to audiences across the globe during our quarterly online film festival.

We are dedicated to uplifting the boundless creativity and talent of new and emerging short filmmakers — and heartily encourage students and first-time filmmakers to submit — as well as established filmmakers.

StarLight Film Festival is open to short films and music videos of all genres, budgets, narratives and themes - from horror to comedy, experimental to documentaries, we welcome bold submissions of all kinds and filmmakers from all backgrounds.

We are a festival run by filmmakers. Having done the festival circuit a few times, we know what makes a good festival. Our aim is to bring brilliant films to enthusiastic audiences and to help filmmakers reach new people and build their careers.

We invest in marketing to promote the selected films to as wide an audience of engaged short film fans as possible. We encourage and aim to facilitate constructive conversation between filmmakers and audiences because, as filmmakers ourselves, we know that this is one of the most useful and important aspects of attending any film festival — whether it’s in a cinema or online.

Every short film or music video selected will receive a bespoke festival laurel and compete for either the Best Short Film or Best Music Video award — as well as the Audience Award, voted for by the public.

Don't hesitate to email if you have any questions about StarLight Film Festival or submissions.

A) Eligibility Requirements

1. Films completed on or after 1 Jan 2023, are eligible for consideration
2. All short films must be either in English or subtitled in English. Dialogue lists are not accepted. Music videos do not need subtitles.
3. Entrant confirms and warrants required legal authority to submit the entry to the Festival and to use all music, images, and content in the entry.
4. The undersigned shall indemnify and hold harmless Boundless Film Festival from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney's fees, and costs of the court) that may be incurred by reason of any claim involving copyright, trademark, credits, publicity, screening, and loss of or damage to the screening videos entered.
5. There is no premiere policy for short films and music videos. Qualifying films and music videos are permitted to have already been screened at other festivals and be freely available online.

B) Submission Guidelines
1. Only complete entries (including fee payment and screener) will be considered.
2. Entrants are permitted to submit works-in-progress (i.e., without final colour correction or sound mixing), but please note that the programming committee will only consider the version submitted. Subsequent cuts or replacement copies will only be accepted at the request of the programming committee.

The submission categories are:
- Short film (7 minutes and under) - runtime must be 7 minutes or under
- Short film - runtime must be between 7 and 36 minutes. Films over 36 minutes long will not be considered
- Music video - runtime must be 7 minutes or under

C) Judging & Selection
Films are selected for Festival presentation by the StarLight Film Festival programming committee. If a film is selected, the Festival office will contact the entrant by email. We will aim to notify selected filmmakers at least two weeks before the first day of the festival edition.

The Festival does not provide feedback or screening notes to entries that are not selected.

Submissions are reviewed and selected under the following criteria:
- quality of narrative and production values
- independent nature of the production

Selected films must provide:
- a public or private, non-password protected Vimeo or YouTube link of the full, completed film, which can be embedded on the StarLight Film Festival website for the full one week duration of the festival edition
- a film poster or still for promotional and website use

All selected films are judged during the Festival. The Festival does not provide feedback or screening notes to entries that are not selected.

D) Entry Fees
1. All submissions for the StarLight Film Festival are to be paid through FilmFreeway.
2. The submission fee is non-refundable.
3. Entry fees are not refundable. Fees cover registration, registration notification, consideration by the programming department, and notification of the results.
4. There are no fee waivers.

E) Promotion
1. Selected films must acknowledge that StarLight Film Festival reserves the right to promote the films on the StarLight Film Festival website and social media using both images and video that you provide.
2. StarLight Film Festival is hereby granted the right to utilise an excerpt from any film submitted and accepted for exhibition at the Festival for promotional purposes, including future editions of the festival.