Join us for the Thirteenth Anniversary Season Event of the Green Bay International Film Festival.

The Green Bay International Film Festival now takes place over the course of a year with 5 distinct curated events showcased at our new festival home, The Tarlton Theatre, in the heart of downtown Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The 2023 festival season will utilize an exciting new format. Events will be on February 11th, April 15th, June 10th, August 12th, and October 14th, each with its own distinct film theme paired with a unique event to support it. This allows for a festival presence year-round, to fully celebrate independent and individual films and filmmakers as well as provide an entertaining and educational experience. We connect filmmakers and audiences in a community setting! We include “talkbacks” between our filmmakers and audiences and bring in specialists from various fields for particularly hot topics. We delight in giving our Filmmakers extraordinary welcomes in traditional Midwest fashion.

GBFF will introduce 5 distinct themes from which we will select the best to exhibit.

This Year's Categories Are:

Romantic Adventure- Films that ‘couple’ romance and adventure (pun intended). Think ‘Romancing the Stone;’ chemistry, action, faraway places, fantastic scenarios, all with a tilt towards finding and keeping love.
Playing with Sound - Sounds, music, silence. Let’s play with sound or the lack of it. Perhaps your film is about music. Perhaps your film plays with sound experimentally. All genres are welcome but music or sound must be the main event.
With Pride - LGBTQIA+ focused films for pride month.
Wisconsin's Own- the only requirement here is WISCONSIN. Films about Wisconsin, shot in Wisconsin, or made by filmmakers from WISCONSIN.
Good Old Fashioned Scares- Horror, thriller, zombies, vampires, spooky forests and jump scares.

JURIED AWARDS will be determined in advance. Winning filmmakers will be awarded with airfare and lodging to attend the event containing their film, and asked to participate in a talkback with the audience in attendance. Filmmakers that are unable to attend or send a representative of the film may still be selected for screening, but will be ineligible for an award. Participation is vital to ensure that we can create an experience that goes beyond "watching a movie"!

Selected films will have the added opportunity of winning AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS in real-time during the festival event.

As one filmmaker said, “Green Bay is the perfect place to host a film festival. The talent is real and everyone’s doors are open.” We couldn’t agree more!

Awards & Prizes

Awards and Prizes

JURIED AWARDS will be determined in advance. We will host the winning filmmakers, this includes airfare and lodging, thus we require that winning filmmakers are able to attend their event. We hope you will attend and help us create an experience that goes beyond "watching a movie"!

Selected films will have the added opportunity of winning AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS in real-time during the festival event. All films submitted will compete in noted categories
Juried Awards:

GBFF 2023 Jury's Choice Award Best of the Fest
GBFF 2023 Jury's Choice Award for Best Romantic Adventure
GBFF 2023 Jury's Choice Award for Best Playing With Sound
GBFF 2023 Jury's Choice Award for Best With Pride
GBFF 2023 Jury's Choice Award for Best Wisconsin's Own
GBFF 2023 Jury's Choice for Best Best Good Old Fashioned Scares

GBFF 2023 Audience Choice Award for Best Romantic Adventure
GBFF 2023 Audience Choice Award for Best Playing With Sound
GBFF 2023 Audience Choice Award for Best With Pride
GBFF 2023 Audience Choice Award for Best Wisconsin’s Own
GBFF 2023 Audience Choice Award for Best Good Old Fashioned Scares

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Green Bay International Film Festival does not select the category you are competing in. Your category selection when submitting your film determines which category you compete in.

Note: if Green Bay International Film Festival feels that your film fits into a different category, you may be notified with an option to change. Please review the categories to ensure your film fits the selected category.

**NOTE: ANY film that receives a fee waiver or is invited by the festival will not be considered in competition.

Special Note: Awards! All filmmakers will be notified via the email address submitted on FilmFreeway. Awards will be sent to the address listed on FilmFreeway. Please make sure this information is correct and updated. Should an address not be provided, your response to award notification should be immediate.

Rules & Terms

TERMS AND CONDITIONS
BY SUBMITTING YOUR FILM, YOU AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS:
Terms and Conditions are written such that; I or my represents the (Filmmaker) and that Film Green Bay/ Green Bay International Film Festival may also be represented by (Festival, FGB/GBIFF).
1. I have read, understood and complied with all eligibility requirements of the categories for which I would like this film to be considered.
2. To the best of my knowledge, all of the statements in this document are true.
3. This film is not subject to litigation nor is threatened by any litigation.
4. I am duly authorized to submit this film to the Festival and its Competition and understand if selected, the Festival holds the right to screen my film.
5. Should my film be selected, a trailer will be requested for non-commercial promotional purposes. The festival may extract clips from my film or use submitted images for festival promotional purposes only, during the sales and promotional period in which the festival plays my film.
6. Should my film be selected, I will notify GBFF of all screenings and distribution that will be taking place prior to my film playing at the festival. I understand that should the festival determine that some screenings and distribution interfere with the festivals ability to draw an audience, they will request that my film will be withdrawn.I understand that the festival does not pay screening fees and that should I submit my film and it is selected to play that I will provide an exhibition copy to be shown for one screening without fees.
7. While the festival does not require a printed disc of my film, I understand that should I send GBFF or FGB a disc, the Green BayInternational Film Festival and Film Green Bay are not responsible for any type of damage to or loss of the print during screenings, at any other time during the course of the Festival, while the film is in the Festival's possession or while en route to or from the Festival, and I release Green Bay International Film Festival and Film Green Bay from any and all liabilities regarding damage to or loss of the print while en route to/from the Festival or while it is in their possession.
8. In the event the designated party is unable to attend the awards ceremony; I understand that any party representing the film as listed in the credits of the film shall accept any and all awards in their stead.
9. I must clear all copyrighted material included in my film before it can be publicly screened. The Green Bay Film Festival does not check to make sure that I have cleared these materials at any point during the application process, nor will GBIFF or FGB be held responsible for any inclusion of un-cleared materials in my film. It is the sole responsibility of the entity submitting the project to secure permission from the copyright holder of the material in question, whether it is music, stock footage, or any other elements that could violate an existing copyright. Quite often, rights holders offer reduced rates for festival films, so I should contact them directly to avoid any possible rights infringements.
10. I am aware Festival may provide critics an opportunity to review films prior to the Festival.
11. I understand that should I send a disc to the festival that the Festival will not return my film to me.
12. I understand that if a exhibition copy of the film has not been delivered by the deadline, the version of the film submitted for selection purposes may be played for an audience.
13. I understand that once I agree to accept my selection to the festival, the festival has an irrevocable license to exhibit the film one time.

FILM FORMATS:
Submissions: FilmFreeway’s high-quality digital online submission platform. Our jury screens online films only. Please make sure your uploaded file works correctly. If you have any problems with FilmFreeway secure online screener, please contact FilmFreeway; the festival cannot help you with this.

Exhibition Copies to show at Festival:
All films will be shown as an electronic file via a projector in mp4. Please be sure you read the technical specifications on how to submit your exhibition copy should you be selected.

Trailers: If you are selected we encourage you to send your trailer. (Please, no longer than One minute.) Trailers should be submitted as an electronic file in mp4 format.

24 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Peyman Shahmohamadi Movie Distribution

    I have a lot of respect for this festival. This festival shines every
    year. Green Bay Film Festival is a leader and valuable in all
    aspects: public relations, support, special jury.
    the festival team and most importantly the esteemed director of the
    festival!!

    April 2022
    Helpful
  • Navid Nikkhah Azad

    Thank you, Green Bay Film Festival, for having 'The Recess' at your film festival, wonderful experience.

    March 2022
    Helpful
  • Ahmad Seyedkeshmiri

    We have had the pleasure of being selected in this festival .Thank you the festival's team for their support and well organization. I'll apply for future festival editions and hope to attend the festival in person.

    March 2022
    Helpful
  • Theodore Adams

    Excellent communications! A very nice leadership team. I was humbled to screen among great films. They pushed through a pandemic and still made it a great event for filmmakers and viewers.

    March 2022
    Helpful
  • Robert Husted

    GBFF was an absolute BLAST!!!! Caitlin and the entire festival team really know how to make filmmakers feel like they're a part of something truly special - from the actual festival site (which is incredible), to the amazing level of communication, to the seriously wonderful films we were lucky enough to play alongside, to the amount of input filmmakers are invited to share in terms of all of their creative assets, it honestly feels like you've been invited to a Sundance-level fest. We were so proud and honored that such a great fest selected our film, and were even luckier to be presented with an award, which we're incredibly grateful for (and even that was done so beautifully and so beyond what most fests normally do - we even received an incredibly sweet letter, along with a cash reward and a hard copy of our certificate!), but we were honestly thrilled to have even been just picked to be exhibited by a fest so great. Walk, don't run to submit to this one - you won't regret it! THANK YOU GBFF!!

    April 2021
    Helpful