“Best fest ever and we've been to many. These folks really appreciate the filmmaker. If you only enter one festival this year, make it BSFF. — Ronn Kilby, Director, “Dog Star”
The BSFF is part of a 501(c)(3) organization with the goal to celebrate the cinematic arts in our community. We love the atmosphere of an old-fashioned film festival, and do our best to create that traditional community experience.
We feature single-venue-screenings, great local attendance, a catered opening gala (free for filmmakers), a filmmaker networking event (free for filmmakers), our catered Saturday party (free for filmmakers), panel discussions, workshops, hang-outs, (yes, free for filmmakers) and a catered grand award ceremony. (Did we mention, free for filmmakers?)
We also offer the $1,000 cash prize "Laara Award" for most inspirational film.
Numerous local Borregans will consider your film upon submission. Since we're a non-profit independent film festival run by citizen volunteers, films that also embrace that indy-attitude have a great chance at being programmed!
Our festival week will showcase 80-90 films and we typically receive around 400 submissions.
Even more encouraging, the BSFF takes place in one of the most beautiful locations in the world, Borrego Springs, CA. Our vibe is desert eclectic. Vintage trailers, refined mid-century modern neighborhoods, primitive pup-tent camping, or even world class resort living, it's all here.
If you're making your first film or your twentieth, come and be a part of our celebration. Our selection committee embraces a wide scope of productions. Everything from highly crafted films to sentimental favorites are part of our programming.
We excel simply because we truly offer a great time, remarkable local attendance, and we go out of our way to accommodate our filmmaker guests.
You’ll meet and greet your audience, lounge with other filmmakers, and interact with everyone. We even have homemade cookies. Do you know about our homemade cookies? You need to find out about Pam's homemade cookies. Cookies!
Our submission categories are also our main competition for awards.
Best Short Under 20 Minutes
Best Short 20 to 50 Minutes
Best Feature Film
Best Animation
Best Documentary Over 30 Minutes
Best Documentary Under 30 Minutes
Best International Film
Best Youth Film Under 18
Best Student Film 18+
Various sub categories of competition are also awarded:
Best Comedy
Best Director Feature
Best Director Short
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Music Score
Best Performance Comedy
Best Performance Drama
Additionally, top audience votes for will win the BSFF "PEOPLE'S CHOICE" award(s).
The BSFF committee will also offer "THE GOLDEN COOKIE" awards for films we believe resonate with the attitudes and sentiments of the Borrego Springs audience.