The Downtown Phoenix Documentary Film Festival will take place May 5-8, 2022. Our festival originally began in 2019 as the Arcosanti International Film Carnivale (see pictures above) but we have now changed names and moved to historic Downtown Phoenix where we will be celebrating year 2 of Arizona's only ALL documentary film festival.

Our mission is to celebrate international documentary cinema and enrich Arizona with a world-class film festival held in the beautiful, historic heart of its desert capitol city.

While the Downtown Phoenix Documentary Film Festival accepts documentary short and feature films on every topic, the festival has special wings for films about Arizona, Native American culture, organic living, food, music, wine, art, design, architecture, fashion, sustainability, social change and the human condition. Come and help us celebrate Phx, Philm, Phood, Phine Art, Phasion & AZ Wine of course at our event!

We pride ourselves on presenting the winning filmmakers with one of a kind designer trophies created by local artisans that will be forever treasured for their beauty and uniqueness.

Screening submissions must be on DVD, region 1 or 0 in NTSC format.

Please do not send any promotional materials with your submission. We’ll let you know what we need when your film is accepted.

Please be sure to enter under the correct category. Less than 50 minutes will be considered a short, more than 50 minutes will be considered a feature. If you are not sure which category to submit to, please contact us.

Films may have distribution. There are no restrictions on premiere status.
The festival does not accept works in progress.
The exhibition formats for the festival are DVD, HDCam, and Blu Ray.

All entered films grant the Festival a non exclusive limited use agreement to use film promotional materials to promote the festival and selected films to the industry and general public. Filmmakers fully retain all rights, title and interest in their films and all intellectual Property.

Please complete a release form that can be found on the website and send it to:

Downtown Phoenix Documentary Film Festival
PO Box 442
Jerome, Arizona 86331

We wholeheartedly thank you for your interest in the Downtown Phoenix Documentary Film Festival.