Our film festival is dedicated to solely evaluating work-in-progress cuts of documentary films and providing written feedback to all submitters. All submissions are thoroughly evaluated and detailed written feedback is sent to filmmakers. Our goal is to get you feedback within 10 days of submission and give you an absolute minimum of 250 words per 30 minutes of film. However, we will always give you as much feedback as you need.

The best films will be showcased at our festival in Pikeville, KY, a beautiful Appalachian mountain college town. All screenings will take place at the University of Pikeville (UPIKE), where our festival director oversees a Film and Media Arts program. The screenings will be free and open to the general public. We anticipate attendance by University film students as well as the rest of the campus community. Take a look below to learn about the current program for Doc Drafts Film Festival. Specific times for the events will be finalized a month prior to the event date.

Film Screenings with Q&A Sessions
We will be screening the best work-in-progress cuts at our festival and hold Q&A sessions with all filmmakers at the end of each screening block. There will be plenty of opportunities to solicit feedback from the audience members.

Filmmaker Panels
Come participate in a panel discussion with other filmmakers as we share documentary production tips.

Crowdfunding Workshop
Participate in a crowdfunding workshop, and find out the best tips for using crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Seed & Spark to finance the release of your own film. The workshop is hosted by a filmmaker that raised over $26,000 to fund the release of his first feature-length documentary.

If you have any questions about our festival please don’t hesitate to get in touch - we’ll be happy to help.

After receiving feedback on your film, we can help you further if you want to hire us for additional consulting services. We are available to meet and discuss further over zoom/facetime for a small fee. We can also be hired to evaluate additional further cuts of your work. Contact us at docdraftsfest@gmail.com for more information on that.

Why submit to us? Here's a letter from the founder of our festival:

"​Hey, my name is Andrew Reed and I started Doc Drafts because I am extremely passionate about documentary filmmaking and want to help others mold and refine their projects.

I have personally had over 70+ film festival/conference screenings and have completed two feature-length docs including one narrated by Mike Rowe of TV’s Deadliest Catch and Dirty Jobs.

I have served as the Festival Director of the UPIKE Film and Media Arts since 2015, where I have personally judged over a thousand submissions there. I have also served as a judge for other festivals and competitions including the Kodak Film Student Scholarship program.

I have been helping film students across three different universities create and refine their projects since 2010. Currently, I serve as the Professor of Film and Media Arts at the University of Pikeville where I am the Program Coordinator."

We hope that through submitting your work to our festival we can provide you with the feedback you need to construct an even more powerful story and take it to an even larger audience.

Awards & Prizes

The following awards will be given:

Best Documentary Feature
Best Documentary Short
Best Student Film
Audience Choice Award
Best of Show

We will be offering a minimum of $250 in cash prizes (with the possibility of this increasing depending on the number of submissions).

Rules & Terms

All films submitted to our festival must be documentary / non-fiction projects. Documentary films with reenactment segments are permissible. We do not accept mockumentaries.

We accept documentary films up to 180 minutes for evaluation and consideration. Due to the time-consuming nature of providing detailed feedback, our categories and submission fees vary depending on the length of your work.

We are a work-in-progress festival dedicated to providing you with high-quality feedback. You may submit your film at any stage - string-out, rough cut, fine cut, etc.

Filmmakers whose work is selected for screening at our festival will have the opportunity to submit an updated cut for screening after receiving feedback from us.

We provide detailed written feedback for each submission. Our goal is to provide this feedback within 10 days of receiving your film, but in some situations, it may take us longer to get back to you.

All submissions are watched in full before feedback is given to submitters.

For every 30 minutes of your film, we aim to provide a bare minimum of 250 words of feedback. So a 120-minute film will get 1000 words of feedback. Please be aware these are just minimum word counts though and if a film needs more feedback it will get it.