In Spring 2025, we are celebrating the hard work and talent of media creators at the College of Staten Island.

Awards- including the coveted Audience Choice Award- will be announced following the second screening. $400 worth of prizes will be awarded.

Awards will be given for Outstanding work in the following areas: (Writing, Directing, Cinematography, Sound, and Editing).

To be considered for awards, please be sure to include credits in the film submission and to fill out the credits section of your project page. Awards are granted appropriately based on the credits, not the submitter. Only CSI students may accept awards.

Submissions can be any video completed in the past 2 years. Submissions must not have been screened at any previous iteration of the CSI Film Festival.

No limit is placed on filmmakers for number of entries.

Films should be under 12 minutes for consideration. It is highly recommended to submit tightly edited works. Longer works may be submitted under the Thesis category. Ask your thesis advisor or contact the festival director for a passcode to this category.

Selection Process
A committee of students select the films that are to be included. The Festival Committee hosts open forums during which the selection process takes place. To join the committee please contact Mitchell.Lovell@csi.cuny.edu.

Being selected for the Film Festival is pretty simple. If your project ranks satisfactory in technical merit, artistic merit, and appropriateness for intended audience it will be considered for the festival. Our festival has a no-firearms policy. This means that films must not substantially feature visual representations of fire arms in materials produced by the submitter or their crew.

Before submitting, please read the category descriptions by clicking the "Category and Fees" to the right. Spoiler alert: the fee is $0.

Submissions should be made to only one category per project. Categories are for organization purposes and do not represent award categories.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Michael Kelly

    It was such an honor to be part of this festival! Everyone who submitted created some amazing work and gave it their all!

    May 2022
  • Finn Hughes

    It was virtual so I hope we can return to in-person screenings

    April 2022