Awarded MovieMaker Magazine's "20 Coolest Film Festivals In the World"
MovieMaker Magazine's "Top 25 Film Festivals Worth the Fee"

The San Francisco Frozen Film Festival (SFFFF) is a Nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2006 that is dedicated to creating avenues for independent filmmakers, youth, filmmakers of conscience, and artists from underserved communities to come together and exhibit their work to the widest possible audience.

The San Francisco Frozen Film Festival is held every summer in the heart of the Mission district in San Francisco at the Roxie Theatre. Filmmakers whose work is accepted into the festival are invited to come to the city by the bay in the dead of summer to take part in the festival and discuss their work.

In addition to our annual international film festival, the SFFFF Youth Program is specifically focused on demonstrating to underserved youth that existing pathways do exist to help them find a career in the film arts. SFFFF holds annual music and art performances, as well as youth programming and awards presentations.

Awards & Prizes

Festival Awards winners in the following categories:

Skate/Surf Film
Feature Film
Filmstock Film
Dramatic Short Film
Comedic Short Film
LGBTQ+ Film
Feature Documentary
Short Documentary
Feature Animation
Short Animation
Sci-fi/Horror
Music Videos
Music Documentary
Environmental Film
International Film
Student Director
First Time Director
Virtual Reality
Video Game (Footage & Themed)
Experimental Film

Rules & Terms

Applicants agree that 'Frozen Film Festival' reserves the right to choose all films to be shown and awarded prizes. By Submitting to Frozen Film Festival, you agree to have your film shown during the festival dates, and to have your film promoted in accordance with the rules. You agree that you are in possession of all rights to images, likenesses, and music in your film. Your fee paid to Frozen Film Festival is in consideration of acceptance to the festival, and you are not selling any rights to your film, and Frozen Film Festival does not own any permanent rights to your film. Frozen Film Festival has the right to use images from your film on its website and in promotional materials for the festival.
64 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Carmela Marie Murphy

    We are so thankful to San Francisco Frozen Film Festival for screening our stop motion film, "A Bird Hit My Window and Now I'm a Lesbian." We were honored to be a part of the "LGBTQ+ Short Films Collection" program. Katie Rose, Sophie, and the team were super communicative, supportive, and kind!

    xoxo,
    Carmela and AJ

    November 2025
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  • Chris Schwab

    A really fun festival in beautiful San Francisco! Honored to have won Best Comedic Film for my short film S******!

    September 2025
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  • Ben Smith

    The SFFFF team was very professional and welcoming, and responded quickly to my various emails. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to screen my film, Yearn, in this unique setting. I sadly wasn't able to attend but plan to next year!

    August 2025
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  • MADAKTO PICTURES

    On behalf of Madakto Pictures, we are honored to be a part of this prestigious film festival. It is truly inspiring to see so much talent and creativity gathered in one place. Thank you to the organizers and everyone involved for providing such a wonderful platform to share our work and connect with fellow filmmakers. We wish all participants the best and look forward to celebrating the art of cinema together.

    August 2025
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  • Scott Smith

    Asked reasonable questions to my contact Ritesh. Received no answers and was told to go visit the website (which I did, questions were not answered there). Received an email about a Q&A session after the festival: "every film will have a separate 15-20 min zoom call Q&A session on the week following the festival". I replied to the email saying I was interested and never heard anything back about it, basically completely ignored. The festival was completely useless to our film and was essentially a waste of submission money.

    August 2025
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