For more information visit:
www.bolinasfilmfestival.com
Submissions are now open.
The Bolinas Film Festival is a four-day, live celebration of cinema in the Bay Area and the communities of Bolinas and West Marin, showcasing feature films, documentaries, and shorts that prioritize storytelling, imagination, and emotional resonance.
Bolinas has a long history of performative arts, literature, and a legacy of storytellers. It has been the birthplace and home to avant-garde circus troupes, significant writers and poets that helped shape the American literary landscape, and numerous esteemed and highly awarded filmmakers.
Founded in 2022 and launched in 2023, the festival was created to spotlight films with a strong narrative voice, including works that embrace the human experience in its many dimensions. We appreciate realism in voice, and magical realism, subtle surrealism, folklore, and poetic approaches to storytelling. We are drawn to films that feel experimental and intimate, mythical, and/or humanly transformative, and that embrace story innovation over formula.
Beyond screenings, Bolinas Film Festival weaves together educational programming, filmmaker conversations, culinary experiences, and local immersion, creating a festival atmosphere that is communal, sensory, and deeply rooted in place.
Selected filmmakers can expect well-attended screenings, engaging post-film Q&As, panel discussions, networking opportunities, and a close connection to the festival team and the audience. We are committed to creating a welcoming, filmmaker-centered experience where stories, and the people who tell them, are truly valued as an essential voice for the community.
Our primary theater is a reimagined historical church building originally built in the late 1800s, around the time the moving picture in film was first invented. We have put in place a state-of-the-art Meyer Sound system and a solid screen and projection infrastructure. The capacity is approximately 100 and most screenings are full, or close to full attendance.
Our advisory team includes Oscar, Sundance, and Emmy award-winning filmmakers and our programming team is committed to viewing all submissions with careful consideration for selection.
Have a question that we did not answer?
email us at programming@boilinasfilmfestival.com
