The Adoptee Film Fest (AFF) is a global, hybrid, volunteer-run film festival spotlighting films by adoptees that explore the adoptee experience. AFF strives for inclusive and nuanced representation across the global adoptee diaspora, validates the adoptee experience, empowers and creates community for adoptee filmmakers, and educates the broader adoptee mosaic, and beyond, about the adoptee experience.

Following a successful inaugural year, we’re expanding our shorts submissions category and introducing a features category to our 2025 lineup. We’re seeking short and feature films by adoptees that honor the rich complexity of adoptee life, identity, and imagination.

Awards & Prizes

Shorts:
- Best Film (highest regarded/scored film by our selection committee)
- Audience Award (our 2025 audience's favorite film - outside of the Best Film recipient)

Features:
- None as we will only be selecting one feature film this year.

Rules & Terms

All submissions:

Material
- The filmmaker submitting (director, writer, producer, or lead actor) must be an **adoptee.**(Including but not limited to domestic, international, transracial, foster care, informal or kinship adoptees.)*
- The film must explore or touch on some aspect of the **adoptee experience** — directly or thematically.
- Premiere status and a set completion date are not requirements.
- All genres are welcome: narrative, documentary, experimental, hybrid, animation, etc.
- We livestream and provide video on demand playback for an entire year of our shorts lineup to our global audience. While we are a US based festival, we encourage global entries!

**Shorts Duration:**

- Film must be under 20 minutes, including captions.

**Features Duration:**

- Films must be between 40 minutes and 120 minutes in duration, including captions.

**Accessibility Requirement:**
Closed captions are required for all films selected for the 2025 festival lineup.

If you already have a captioned version, please submit that version.

If you do not, you will need to provide an .srt caption file along with your film file. Please email srt file to adopteefilmfest@gmail.com titled "[FILM NAME] SRT File"

If you are unable to provide captions yourself, you must consent to having our Accessibility Coordinator create captions for your film, and agree that the captioned version will be the one screened.

Please do not submit if you are unable to meet or agree to these accessibility requirements.

We encourage submissions from adoptees of all backgrounds and experiences. Show us your vision—whether personal, political, poetic, messy, tender, joyful, or rebellious. We can’t wait to see what you’ve created!
2 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Ashley Brim

    I LOVE this festival. I'm so grateful that this festival exists. The programming spoke to the wide range of experiences adoptees have and the community the festival provided was powerful.

    I wrote more about my experience here: https://thismovieisacancer.substack.com/p/adoptee-film-fest-is-everything

    December 2025
    Helpful
  • Santo Marabella

    A wonderful festival! Warm, friendly staff! Engaging audience! Great venue! Can't wait to see how this newer festival grows and develops!

    November 2025
    Helpful