Rules
By entering Santa Monica 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 currently being released in the US by a third party distributor are eligible for consideration.
• Features previously self-distributed by the filmmakers online are eligible for consideration in Feature categories.
• Only independently produced episodes completed in 2019 or later are accepted to the Episodes category.
• There's no additional eligibility criteria for short films. All shorts are eligible!
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
• 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.
• 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.
HOW WE PROGRAM
• Each film will be watched by at least two different programmers. If you are using Vimeo stats, you can track the watches most of the time. However, we've had many cases in which watches weren't recorded correctly, including for some of the accepted films. Please note that they are not always reliable.
• If a film gets two or more recommendations after the first round of watches, it will be watched by more programmers and discussed at deliberations sessions.
• Deliberating programmers determine a festival selection through discussion and voting. • Each participating programmer has an equal vote. Some festival selections are made outside of this process.
• Our programmers read submission cover letters and other supporting materials, so 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 Santa Monica Film Festival 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.
• 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 Santa Monica Film Festival.
• If accepted, entrants are responsible for delivering their festival exhibition copy, trailer, screener link, press stills and press-kit on time.
• If accepted, filmmakers are expected to attend the 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.
VOTING:
Submissions will be reviewed by members of the Programming Team, who will use a
preferential voting system to produce a shortlist of films. Nominees will then be
chosen by a second round of balloting, again using a preferential voting system.
Final voting shall be restricted to programmers who have reviewed all of the nominated submissions.
PROGRAMMERS
The 2025 Santa Monica Film Festival programmers consist of Emmy Nominated, award winning indy and union filmmakers, artists, technicians and Director Members of the Director's Guild.
ONLINE CONTENT DELIVERY:
If selected for an online screening, filmmaker will have no more than (5) business days from date of notification to upload the required materials to the festival designated dropbox including but not limited to:
1. Video File
Max file size: 30G
File name: title.mov
2. Trailer (if available)
Max file size: 30G
File Name: title-trailer.mov
3. Poster
Recommended dimensions: 4000 x 6000 pixels, (2:3) aspect ratio
File size: Under 25MB
File name: title-poster.png
4. Primary Thumbnail
This will appear in emails, trailers, Facebook, Twitter, and your site.
Recommended dimensions: 3840 x 2160 pixels, (16:9) aspect ratio
File size: Under 25MB
File name: title-thumbnail.png
The festival does not accept content from links that require download.
The festival does not accept content via email.
IN-PERSON CONTENT (DCP) DELIVERY:
If selected for an in-person screening, filmmaker will have no more than (5) business days to deliver a DCP file to the festival designated DCP service provider SimpleDCP. DCP must meet AMC theaters DCP specifications and pass quality control by SimpleDCP.
PRINT SUBMISSION PORTAL:
If selected for an in-person screening, filmmaker will have no more than (3) business days from notification date to fill out the required information on festival's SimpleDCP print submission portal for filmmakers.
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