The Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital (DCEFF) is the world’s premier showcase of environmental films. Through our annual festival, year-round programs, and online resources, we seek to advance public understanding of the environment through the power of film. The 31st Annual Festival will be held March 16-26, 2023.

Submission Categories

Short Films
This category includes films with a running time of 40 minutes or less, including credits.

Feature Films
This category includes films with a running time greater than 40 minutes.
Please carefully read the following rules and guidelines for submission requirements.

If you have specific questions about submitting a film to DCEFF, contact samantha@dceff.org.

Awards & Prizes

All submissions are eligible for award consideration.

Shared Earth Foundation Award for Advocacy
Established for the 2014 Festival, this award recognizes a feature film that inspires advocacy in response to a compelling environmental challenge. The award includes a $10,000 cash prize.

William W. Warner Beautiful Swimmers Award
Established by the Warner/Kaempfer family for the 2015 Festival in memory of William W. Warner - author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay - this award for feature films includes a $10,000 cash prize.

Eric Moe Award for Best Short on Sustainability
Established for the 2014 Festival by Julia and Richard Moe in memory of their son Eric, to honor his strong interest in film and his commitment to sustainability, this award recognizes an innovative short film that best captures efforts to balance the needs of humans and nature. The award includes a $5,000 cash prize.

The Flo Stone & Roger D. Stone Award For Outstanding Artistry in Filmmaking
Established for DCEFF's 30th Anniversary Festival with generous support from the Farvue Foundation and Wallace Genetic Foundation, this award honors DCEFF Founder Flo Stone, as well as both Flo and Roger's enthusiasm and passion for originality and innovation in filmmaking and to support an emerging filmmaker in career advancement. This award comes with a $25,000 cash prize.

The DCEFF Virtual Audience Award (Feature + Short)
The DCEFF Audience Awards for best feature and best short were established for the 2021 Virtual Festival and allow our audience to make their voices heard by voting on which films they enjoyed the most. $3,000 is awarded each year to the winner of our Best Feature category, and $2,000 is awarded to the winner of our Best Short category.

**All Award details are still subject to change**

Rules & Terms

Eligibility:
DCEFF accepts films in any genre with themes related to the natural and built environment.
While the Festival does not exclude films with prior screenings, premieres are strongly encouraged.
DCEFF accepts unfinished films with a completion date of January 2023.
Non-English language film submissions must include embedded English subtitles. Virtual screenings require closed captions.

Screener Format:
DCEFF requires an online screener submitted through FilmFreeway for consideration. Passwords for private links must not expire before February 2023.

Selection Status:
Filmmakers will be contacted about selection status in February 2023 through FilmFreeway.

Rights & Releases:
-By entering a film for consideration to DCEFF, the submitter understands that they own or control the film's copyright and are duly authorized to submit the film to DCEFF.
-DCEFF reserves the right to copy and use any publicity materials (photographs, film stills, trailers, and film segments up to 3 minutes) for non-commercial promotional purposes and for archival material, at no additional cost.
-DCEFF and its partners are harmless from any claims connected with the film.
12 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Sébastien Pins

    Having organised a festival myself a few years ago, I know quite well how much the "Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital" had to show tenacity, be it for the production or the event communication, or the technical work around it.
    Besides the considerable human mobilization behind the festival, it distinguishes itself through its excellent program, for which the Jury put hundreds of hours so that the spectators could discover, for every new edition, the most beautiful nature films of the year!
    Films that move you, and will certainly leave a huge imprint in your heart... ;-)

    April 2022
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  • Think 100% FILMS

    We love you all over there! Apologies for the delayed review. Thank you for the awesome communication, support, and collaboration to promote the film and the need for climate justice.

    August 2021
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  • Olivia Ahnemann

    DCEFF is an amazing festival! I've had the honour of screening a few films here and each year the festival does a fantastic job welcoming filmmakers, celebrating films, making connections, and creating great events. Thank you!

    April 2021
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  • Jesse Alk

    The pandemic unfortunately threw a wrench in our plans to play the festival this year (2020), and we weren't ready to transition to online at the time, but this is a great festival to work with, and one of the top Environmental Film Festivals in the world. Submit with confidence.

    June 2020
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  • Ton Van Zantvoort

    Great, big and important festival and perfect communication. Despite the Corona crisis , the festival managed to continue the edition partly online, so that was very good as many festivals were just cancelled. I can't say anything about the physical festival or networking.

    March 2020
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