Aspiring Minds Film Festival presents a showcase of student work from Diablo Valley College and other films from the California Bay Area!

This semester we are celebrating our 28th Festival as an IN-PERSON EVENT!

The screening will be held at Diablo Valley College (321 Golf Club Rd, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523), in the Forum (under the library, near parking lot 3).

The event will be held Thursday, May 18th, 7–9:30 pm.

* Films are due by Friday, May 12th @ 11:59 pm
* As long as you make the deadline with a mostly finished version, and if your film is accepted into the Festival, you can still resubmit a final version by Monday, May 15th. However, judges will be viewing your original submission.
* Accepted Filmmakers will be Notified by Sunday, May 14th
* A Live Q&A and Awards Ceremony will take place following the Screening.

Awards & Prizes

In a continued effort to celebrate the filmmakers, trophies will be presented for...

*Best Comedic Performance
*Best Dramatic Performance
*Best Writing
*Best Cinematography
*Best Sound Design
*Best Editing
*Best Directing
*Best in Festival
*Special Achievement Award
*Audience Choice Award

Considering this is a California Bay Area Student Festival designed for Community College Students or High School students, awards will only be presented to students in the bay area at that level.

Non-student films or University students are still eligible to screen at the event, but can not compete for awards. They will still receive an Official Selection Laurel.

Trophies will NOT be mailed at the expense of the festival.

Rules & Terms

1) Submissions may be no longer than 12 minutes.

2) Any genre will be considered for screening.

3) Submitting a film does not guarantee acceptance into the screening. All submitting filmmakers will be notified of their status by Sunday, May 14th.

4) Submissions must be suitable for a general audience: no extreme gore or sexual content.

5) Submission fee is $10 - this price pays for the awards.

6) To enter as a student, the submission must have been created while attending school (college or high school.) It does not need to have been made for a school assignment. The filmmaker can currently be graduated, as long as the film was created while they were a student.

7) Filmmakers can submit multiple projects, but only one film per director will be selected to screen. Projects can share producers, cast, or other crew.

9) There will be no refunds on submission fees.

10) Our judges will vote on the Awards for each category before the event, except for the Audience Choice, which the festival attendees will choose.
9 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Victor Vasquez

    A wonderfully welcoming and inviting festival for student filmmakers. The collection of films and filmmakers was great, and the chance to meet others was well worth it. Simply wonderful.

    May 2023
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  • Ryan Gallagher

    This festival was great. it was a fun festival to be part of.

    September 2020
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  • Andy Chen

    Super stoked that they selected our film to screen at this festival! The whole process was smooth and communication was great! We even won the audience choice award!! Great experience!

    January 2020
    Helpful
  • Connor Reid Cooper

    Awesome festival with an awesome venue and an even more awesome group of filmmakers. Quality festival that showcases a ton of great films.

    June 2019
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  • Juliet Lucas

    This is a wonderfully manageable film festival for those in the area. It’s great for DVC students hoping to get their work out onto the screen, and good for anyone in the community who wants to see some locally-made shorts. Lots of diversity in the film projects being produced. It’s large enough that there are a lot of good and vastly different films and directors to hear from, but small enough that it doesn’t get overwhelming.

    June 2019
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