The Slamdance Film Festival is a showcase for raw and innovative filmmaking that lives and bleeds by its mantra: By Filmmakers, For Filmmakers. Thirty years strong, Slamdance has created a track record for showcasing breakthrough artists that is beyond dispute. Filmmakers who first presented their work at the festival are now amongst the biggest names in the entertainment industry. Alumni who have shown their early short films and debut features at Slamdance include Rian Johnson (Knives Out), Ari Aster (Midsommar), Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Old Guard), The Russo Brothers (Avengers: Endgame), Bong Joon Ho (Parasite), Lena Dunham (Girls), Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians), Lynn Shelton (Little Fires Everywhere) and Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk).

Grand Jury Award for Narrative Feature
Grand Jury Award for Documentary Feature
Grand Jury Award for Narrative Short
Grand Jury Award for Documentary Short
Grand Jury Award for Animation Short
Grand Jury Award for Experimental Short
Grand Jury Award for Breakouts
Unstoppable Grand Jury Award
Audience Award for Narrative Feature
Audience Award for Documentary Feature
Audience Award for Best Episode
Audience Award for Unstoppable
Outstanding Acting Award
George Starks Spirit of Slamdance Award

By entering the Slamdance Film Festival, you agree to follow its rules and guidelines.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

• We consider films in any language, from anywhere in the world. If your film is not in English, make sure it has English subtitles where necessary.
• We consider work in progress. Please include a title card describing what is unfinished at the beginning of the submission screener.
• We consider films regardless of their premiere status. Even if your film has already premiered at another festival, whether it screened at a physical venue or online, it’s still eligible for consideration.
• We consider films regardless of their completion date. You can submit any film no matter when it was made.
• Features previously or currently being released in the US by a third party distributor are not eligible for consideration.
• Features previously self-distributed by the filmmakers online are not eligible for consideration in Feature categories.
• Only directors' debut features with a budget under 1 million USD are accepted to the Narrative and Documentary First Feature competition. If your work is not your first feature film, submit it to our Breakouts competition.
• Only independently produced episodes completed in 2020 or later are accepted to the Episodes category.
• There's no additional eligibility criteria for short film categories. All shorts are eligible!
• Films made by or about people with disabilities of any genre/format/runtime are eligible for the Slamdance Unstoppable Program.

UNSTOPPABLE

• For Unstoppable submissions on FilmFreeway all prompts must be fully completed to avoid disqualification
• Films made by or about people with disabilities of any genre/format/runtime are eligible for the Slamdance Unstoppable Program
• Any disabled role(s) must be portrayed by disabled actors. Films that feature able-bodied actors portraying disabled people will NOT be eligible for Unstoppable.
• Unstoppable submissions MUST have captioning.
• Any questions or concerns regarding Unstoppable eligibility can be sent to: [email protected] AND [email protected]

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• All screeners must be uploaded by the appropriate deadline.
• Deadlines close at 11:59 PM PST.
• We will contact entrants if there's anything wrong with the submission. If this occurs, you will need to fix the submission issue by the requested deadline, otherwise we can't guarantee that your film will be watched in time.
• We don't provide refunds for festival entries.
• Entrants can update their screener by uploading a new video file provided your original link url does not change. The link must stay the same after you have submitted your entry. If it is replaced programmers will lose access to your screener and it may not be watched in time for consideration.
• We strongly recommend that ALL submitted films regardless of category include English subtitles (whether the film is in English or another language) so that they may be accessible to all of our Programmers. Films in a language other than English MUST have English subtitles.
HOW WE PROGRAM

• Deliberating programmers determine a festival selection through discussion and voting.
• Each participating programmer has an equal vote and no festival competition selections are made outside of this process.
• Our programmers are not required to read submission cover letters and other supporting materials, but we encourage you to submit them in case they want to learn more about you and your work.
• We generally don't share programming feedback with entrants.
• The Slamdance programmers' decisions are final.

IF ACCEPTED

• Accepted filmmakers will be notified via email, phone or text. Filmmakers must confirm their participation by the given deadline, otherwise they might lose their spot in the line-up. (Heads up: we will be reaching out to some of you over Thanksgiving, but you can't use the holidays as an excuse to delay your confirmation).
• Accepted filmmakers must be the authors of their submitted work and be ready to sign an agreement stating that they own all rights to their film and its components ahead of screening at Slamdance.
• If accepted, entrants are responsible for delivering their festival exhibition copy, trailer, screener link, press stills and press-kit on time.
• All accepted films must have Closed Captioning in English ready in time for their festival screening. We highly recommend you work on this while you wait for your festival acceptance since it will make your film more accessible to audiences wherever it may be shown.
• If accepted, filmmakers are expected to attend the festival.
• If accepted to both Sundance and Slamdance, filmmakers can not screen at both. We notify filmmakers around the same time, so you will have a chance to make an informed decision and commit to one festival.
• We don't cover filmmakers' travel expenses.
• We don't cover shipping expenses for screening copies and other materials.
• We don't provide screening fees.

*****And filmmakers Please note! Submission to the Slamdance Film Festival comes with a one year free subscription to the Slamdance Channel (slamdancechannel.com)!