Festival Mission & Theme: Fashion Film Festival Chicago is dedicated to celebrating the intersection of fashion, art, cinema, and commerce. We showcase highly stylized, visually compelling stories that prioritize garment design, textile movement, brand identity, and avant-garde aesthetic expression. We seek submissions from independent directors, fashion designers, luxury brands, agencies, and students. Our final curation will be screened in a theater/gallery setting at the Evanston Art Center and the Chicago History Museum. Submission Eligibility & Guidelines: 1. Core Theme & Content Requirements: Fashion Focus: All submissions must have fashion, garment design, beauty, wearable art, or brand storytelling as a central element of the film. Genre Boundaries: Purely narrative short films, standard music videos, or documentaries that do not feature a distinct focus on fashion, styling, or textile art will be disqualified without a refund. Content Restrictions: We do not accept pornographic material, extreme graphic violence, or content that promotes hate speech or discrimination. 2. Technical Specifications: Runtime: Short films, experimental works, commercial campaigns, and music videos must be between 1 and 10 minutes in length. Documentaries or designer profiles may be up to 20 minutes max. Language: Films in languages other than English must include hardcoded English subtitles or an attached SRT file. Exhibition Format: If selected, filmmakers must supply a high-quality digital file (MP4 or MOV, H.264 or ProRes, 1080p minimum, 23.98 or 24 fps) for the festival screening. Audio: Audio tracks must be properly mixed and leveled. 3. Deadlines, Fees, & Waivers Submission Fees: All submission fees are non-refundable. Please read the guidelines carefully before submitting. Waivers: Fee waivers are granted at the festival management's discretion and must be requested and approved prior to the Final Deadline. Multiple Entries: Filmmakers may submit more than one film, but each entry requires its own separate submission form and fee. 4. Rights, Clearances, & Legal Copyrights: The submitting filmmaker/production company guarantees they hold all necessary rights, licenses, and clearances for the music, visuals, actors, and branded items featured in the film. The festival is not liable for any copyright infringement or legal disputes regarding the content of submitted films. Promotional Use: By submitting, you grant Fashion Film Festival Chicago the right to use up to 30 seconds of your film, your poster, production stills, and director biography for promotional and marketing purposes (including social media, website, and press releases). Screening Rights: If selected, the filmmaker grants the festival the right to screen the film live at the Evanston Art Center or Chicago History Museum during the 2027 festival block. 5. Disqualification Policy: The festival reserves the right to disqualify any submission that does not meet our technical standards, fails to fit the fashion film theme, or violates any of the rules listed above. Automated bot entries or spam submissions will be immediately disqualified and reported to FilmFreeway.
6. Each submission will be attributed to one applicant. In the event of a group submission, the submission will be managed under the name of the name on the registration form. If a group submission is declared the winner, it is the responsibility of the applicant to distribute the prize.
7. The submission must be your own original work, created by you solely (or with your group); it must not infringe the copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other personal or proprietary rights of any person or entity.
8. Music used in the submission must be original and/or not require any additional clearances for the Sponsor to use or post on public websites or to use in public forums of any kind.
9. If any persons appearing in or referred to in the submission require clearance, the entrant is responsible for obtaining consent prior to submitting the video. Submission of your video will imply that the required clearances have been secured.
10. Submissions that are lewd, obscene, sexually explicit, pornographic, disparaging, defamatory, libelous, or otherwise inappropriate in nature/content may be removed from consideration by the Sponsor in his/her sole discretion.
11. Submissions may not use the image of any person under contract with a talent agent/manager if such agency would prohibit the Sponsor's ability to display the submission in any media form; or if it would violate any media agreement or any third party rights; or if it may prevent Sponsor from using or displaying the submission in any and all media into perpetuity on a royalty-free basis, without any payment or fee obligations.
12. Entrants agree to indemnify and hold Sponsor harmless from and against any lawsuits, claims, losses, damages, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees that may arise from or in connection with any Entrant's submission and the use and or display of the Entrant's submission.
13. Entrants must retain a copy of their submission in its original format after uploading it to the sponsor's website. If selected as a winner or finalist, Entrant shall provide Sponsor with the submission in its original format. Failure to do so may result in disqualification. By entering this competition, Entrant agrees and acknowledges that all submissions may be posted on the sponsor's website for viewing by the public. Entrant grants Sponsor, into perpetuity, a non-exclusive license to publish, reproduce, or otherwise use the submission for the Sponsor's use and that of its agents, and assigns, without further notice and without the requirement of compensation.
FINALIST SELECTION:
Jurors will select finalists by September 1, 2027, based in part on the following criteria: aestheticism, originality, composition, framing, and consistency with any theme as it pertains to the fashion industry. All criteria will be judged equally. Odds of winning depend on the total number and caliber of eligible entries received during the competition period.
Winners will be notified via email. Notifications will be sent to the email address provided by the entrant on the registration form.
GRANT OF RIGHTS
All Entrants grant Sponsors the right to screen their submissions at the Sponsors' venue or website for purposes of this competition although this will have no impact on determining the eligible winners in this competition. Entrants further grant Sponsors the right to display and screen their submissions on third party sites such as YouTube.com, Facebook.com, Twitter.com, Vimeo.com for promotional purposes. Entrant's hereby grant Sponsors a royalty free license, without geographic or time limit, to screen his or her submission for entertainment, promotional or advertising purposes and in any and all media into perpetuity. Except where prohibited, Entrant's hereby grant Sponsor the right to use their names, likenesses, voices, opinions and biographical information for publicity or promotional purposes.
Sponsor is not responsible for lost, late, incomplete, damaged, invalid, unintelligible or misdirected submissions.
GOVERNING LAW:
All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforcebility of these Official Rules shall be governed by the laws of the state of Illinois. If any provision of these Official Rules are held to be invalid or unenforceable, all remaining provisions hereof will remain in full force and effect.
