Submissions for the FIFTH ANNUAL Cayuga Film Festival will open for submissions on NOVEMBER 10, 2024!

🔥 FILMS MUST HAVE BEEN MADE IN NEW YORK OR BY NEW YORK RESIDENTS! 🔥

Whether it’s your first festival, or your 30th, there’s something really special about having your work screened and celebrated in a community excited about film.

Films must have been completed between July 2024-July-2025. 


✨MAIN CATEGORIES✨
High School: Filmmakers currently in high school.
College: Filmmakers currently enrolled in a college or university.
Emerging: Filmmakers out of college and under 30. (aka baby seasoned filmmakers)
Open category: Filmmakers over the age of 30 (aka seasoned filmmakers)

In association with Cayuga Community College and Auburn Public Theater, CFF provides a space for narrative, documentary, experimental and animated short films to be screened and seen by filmmakers of all ages

Awards & Prizes

Winners + Award of Distinction recipients receive plaques, a certificate and a swag bag and have their work screened at the event. Honorable Mentions will receive a certificate and a swag bag.

All films accepted will be provided with festival laurels.

AWARDS AND PRIZES:
- Audience Choice Award
- Best Open Documentary (both categories), Animation, Narrative and Experimental
- Best Emerging Documentary (both categories), Animation, Narrative and Experimental
- Best College Documentary (both categories), Animation, Narrative and Experimental
- Best High School Documentary (both categories), Animation, Narrative and Experimental

Films that specialize in areas of human rights will be considered for the Human Rights Award!

Rules & Terms

Categories:
- High school and college students must submit within the high school and college categories (thesis films are included as student films)
- Emerging Filmmakers must be 30 years old or younger, and projects must have been made independently.
- Open category is for filmmakers 30 years of age or older. Projects must have been made independently.


Eligibility:
- Films must have been made in New York or by New York residents
- Films must have been completed between July 2023-July-2024. 

- Filmmakers can submit as many projects as they like within the completion time.
- No entry may be submitted into more than one category.

- All submissions must be 100% original.
- 
All student submissions must be 100% student produced (faculty supervision is allowed).

Rules:
- 
By submitting to Cayuga Film Festival, entrants understand they have the legal right to submit their works.

- Filmmakers are legally responsible for for their intellectual property, and by submitting to Cayuga Film Festival, filmmakers must have all necessary rights secured, including but not limited to, music, content, and images. 

- Cayuga Film Festival, its' partners, judges, sponsors or organizers are not responsible for losses, damages, etc. etc.

By submitting to this festival, you agree to the following:

- If accepted, Cayuga Film Festival may use video excerpts and film stills from accepted film for marketing purposes (print, web and television). 

- Cayuga Film Festival may also use filmmakers names, photos, contact information, publicity stills, and film logline for print, social media, and the website.

- Winning entries may be shown, but time restrictions may require only excerpts be shown.

- The judges reserve the right to combine or move entries into different categories. 

- The judges reserve the right to make no award in a category in any given year.

9 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Inna Ivanovskaya

    Fantastic film festival! I attended it in person and could not have a better experience. Very well organized, great communication, lots of perks, warm welcoming, safe space to share your work and feel included in a film community. You can feel how much these people love, value and care about what they do. I will definitely share my films in the future with them! I had a blast!

    November 2023
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  • B Gray

    A wonderful festival run by wonderful people. Will be sumitting next year!

    December 2022
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  • Adrienne Peltz

    This was a fantastic festival!!!! Loved the large variety of categories that they offered!!! They did a great job with the showing of the films and had an amazing reception afterwards with the winners so we could talk to the other film makers!!!

    November 2022
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  • Thomas Miller

    Unfortunately, I was unable to attend to festival because I moved to Honolulu this past spring. However, the online communication about the festival was fantastic and it looked terrific. Very thankful that my short was selected for "Best Emerging Narrative." I really hope to attend in the future.

    November 2022
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  • Wayne Landreth

    Great!

    Everyone working at the festival were all super nice and friendly. Communication from the festival in emails were all prompt and timely. The venue was nice and in general I had a very nice time and look forward to coming again:)

    It was absolutely worth the 1 and half hour drive:)

    November 2022
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