The Feminist Border Arts Film Festival celebrates the power of cinema as a creative tool to reflect upon urgent social issues and thought-provoking representations of identity and difference. The festival defines “feminist border arts” as a practice that challenges the limits of conventional representation through telling stories from the edge; threshold visions from the margins that create new ways of seeing, that visualize underrepresented ways of knowing. Selected films revive the promise of cinema, the possibility of film to open minds, create new vistas, and challenge dehumanizing forms of representation.

The festival emphasizes artistic vision in telling these stories through short film, including live-action narrative, documentary, essay film, video art, experimental film, new media, and animation. FBAFF showcases student, indie, and professional filmmakers, domestic and international. The festival specializes in films 15 minutes and under. 

Feminist Borders Arts Film Festival features a special category called "Borders/Lands" for NMSU, Las Cruces, El Paso, Ciudad Juárez, Southwest, & Chihuahua films and filmmakers. New Mexico State University is Located in southern New Mexico—a state that includes nineteen sovereign Pueblo nations and is situated less than 50 miles from the U.S./Mexico border.

This is a special category to highlight socially conscious and creative short film and video, as well as microcinemas, of these areas, including NMSU (students, faculty, & staff), community films and filmmakers in the area, region, within internal borders (like Pueblos) and beyond (U.S./Mexico border).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YV4729Npc8

The 2023 season will be an all day event at the NMSU Art Museum on June 28th, in honor of the Stonewall Riots. As always, we seek to create a festival space of creativity and solidarity between feminist, queer, trans, LGBTQIA+, global, and national/transnational socially conscious, creative filmmaking and viewing.

More information about venue, times, merchandise, and other connected events to come. 

FBAFF is free and open to the public. We do not charge artists fees to enter the festival. Festival programing is curated in conversation with the teaching, outreach, research, & creativity missions of Feminist Border Arts and NMSU's Gender & Sexuality Studies academic program, which features a special concentration of courses in the humanities called MACS: Media Arts and Cultural Studies that connects the study of society with textual analysis and contemporary feminist pedagogies.

Awards & Prizes

FBAFF is a highly selective film festival. Each season fewer than 1% of submitted films are accepted. Films curated by FBAFF signify important and emergent creations for viewer consideration through digital and public humanities efforts.

Festival programing is curated in conversation with the teaching, outreach, and research & creative activity missions of Feminist Border Arts and NMSU's Gender & Sexuality Studies academic program.

Honors are offered by category and certain films are selected as Director Awards for valued achievement in artistic and social expression in the field. Audiences also participate in selecting honors.

Rules & Terms

Before submitting your film to the festival, review these conditions:

1. Film directly addresses topics associated with women, gender, LGBTQIA+, social justice and transformation, transnational and global understanding and awareness.

2. Film is an original work by submitter(s) and can be legally shown by FBA and NMSU Gender and Sexuality Studies at the festival. As a note, make especially sure you are licensed to use all music in your film.

3. Accepted lengths are 60 seconds to 15 minutes and accepted production timeframe is post 2021 (one film per director).

4. If your film is selected for the festival, you retain your rights and give us permission to use it in festival programing and archiving as well as use images and very small clips from it for promotional reasons. NOTE, if your film is selected we will need to download a copy ASAP (MP4 or MOV).

5. All selected films must include hardcoded English language captions/subtitles (i.e. Captions need to be embedded in the film. We will not add them.).

6. We welcome films in any language, but films must include hardcoded English language captions (i.e. captions need to be downloaded in the film. We will not add them.).

7. One film per director. While films are not screened using the MPA rating system, please be sure that submitted films are acceptable for circulation to wide, diverse, and social aware audiences.

8. Acceptance of your film does not automatically mean it will be exhibited. However, it remains an official selection of the festival. Our festival is one day only which means we have limited ability to screen all films. Thank you for your patience. FBAFF is a one day event.