CATEGORY RULES
Twelfth Annual Flathead Lake International Cinemafest (FLIC) February 23-25, 2024.
**If you want to email us to ask for a waiver, please include a link to the trailer or film. Queries for waiver requests will not be considered without appropriate links.**
• By submitting, the entrant/s agrees they have read and accepted all FLIC rules, terms and conditions.
• NOTE: Upon notification that their film is an official selection, filmmakers have seven (7) calendar days to notify FLIC if they wish to pull their film from the festival. If FLIC does not hear otherwise, we will assume the filmmaker wants their film to screen at FLIC and it will be scheduled for presentation at a day and time of FLIC's choosing. After the aforementioned seven days, the filmmaker will not be permitted to remove the film from the festival, even if another festival requires exclusivity. This is non-negotiable. If you have any doubts about your ability to follow through and participate in screenings, please be advised of this policy. Thank you for your understanding.
• Entrants confirm they have full legal right and authority to submit for use all images, content, talent, music/sounds in their entry, and that the film will not violate any copyright, trademark, service mark, privacy right, publicity right, patent, or any other intellectual property right of any person or entity. If consent of other parties is required, all of them are also agreeing.
• Submitted films should not convey a defamation of any person or entity and not be subject to or threatened by litigation.
• Films can be any language, but foreign language films MUST have captions burned into the film.
• Entrant grants FLIC permission to screen the entry at the FLIC festival, and agrees to hold harmless FLIC, its sponsors, entities, venues, committee members, volunteers, attorneys and advisers from any and all claims, damages, costs, losses, liabilities or attorneys’ fees that may be held against any of them in association with the film entry or the festival’s use.
• If selected, feature length MP4 films are not to exceed 10GB file size and must be received by FLIC within 7 days of official selection notification. There are many MP4 compression codecs that permit quality film presentation in limited file size. Visit Vimeo.com for compression suggestions and guidelines. Submissions may be sent via web in HD formats, or via mail on a thumb drive. (Downloads from Vimeo are common and films are also sent via WeTranfer.com, ftp, etc.). All video files are due by January 1st.
• DCP, DVD, and Bluray submissions are NOT accepted or screened. ALL submissions must also come through FilmFreeway. There is no screening fee compensation. No exceptions or considerations will be made to any of these noted items.
• Programs may be up to 100 minutes in length. We don’t discriminate: shorts, features, documentaries, animation, and experimental—all are welcome submissions.
• In an effort to expand FLIC viewership and allow “snowbird” residents of Polson to experience FLIC and the importance of independent cinema, FLIC reserves the right and option to run a Summer Encore Week. Not all Official Selections will screen during the Encore Week (immediately following FLIC) or the aforementioned optional Summer Encore Week. Nominated and winning films may re-screen during both weeks, all at FLIC's discretion. By submitting your film to, and being accepted to screen at FLIC, you grant permission to FLIC to screen your film during FLIC weekend, and, at the FLIC Producers' discretion, to screen again during Encore Week and Summer Encore Week.
• Official selection filmmakers are welcome to send any film promotional materials (i.e. posters, flyers, publicity stills). At its sole discretion, FLIC will gladly display such materials as space and circumstance permit. Often, a complete FilmFreeway submission will contain all the necessary promotional materials, including photos.
• Official selection filmmakers *must also submit three (3) stills/screenshots from their film to be included in promotional material and the printed screening program. FLIC reserves the right to choose from among submitted photos for publicity release, or, if none are suitable, to select our choice of screenshots to promote the film in our marketing and print products. *If your FilmFreeway submission includes photos, they will most likely suffice.
• Please take note: Primarily G, PG, and PG-13 approximate-rating films will be reviewed for consideration. Occasional exceptions to this guideline are made on a film-by-film basis at the judges' and festival director's discretion. Hard R content will not be selected.
• FLIC is a celebration of the cinema arts, and, as such, reserves the right not to select films which in the opinion of FLIC's judges are abrasively controversial and/or politically divisive. The judging panel includes representatives from the filmmaking, educational, and business communities. All judging is confidential and all decisions and film scores are final.
• If you prefer your official selection film to screen without being judged or awarded, you may elect to do so. By default, selected films are adjudicated and eligible for awards.
• If selected, the version of the film that was submitted will be screened. FLIC does not accept changes or edits to films after official selections have been made. Work-in-progress films should not be submitted. This is non-negotiable.
• All submission fees go to the Flathead Lake International Cinemafest, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
