#GLCFF2023 is an IN-PERSON EVENT, with a possible supplemental virtual event planned. Submit your film TODAY!

The Great Lakes Christian Film Festival is the LARGEST faith-based film festival in New York State! Our plan since the beginning was to travel throughout the Great Lakes region, and we finally are doing it for 2023. We will celebrate our ninth annual festival in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the center of the Great Lakes.

Situated along the Grand River approximately 25 miles (40 km) east of Lake Michigan, it is the economic and cultural hub of West Michigan, as well as one of the fastest-growing cities in the Midwest.[6] A historic furniture manufacturing center, Grand Rapids is home to five of the world's leading office furniture companies and is nicknamed "Furniture City".

We've confirmed the venue and dates for
#GLCFF2023, Grand Rapids, Michigan,
August 3 - 5, 2023.
Grace Christian University,
1011 Aldon St SW, Wyoming, MI 49509

Looking forward to seeing you!

Plans for #GLCFF2024 is already underway!

We are giving several awards and cash prizes for winners and nominees. Prize amounts will depend on participation. $500 will be awarded to the top film of the festival. Trophies will be given to the top categories, as well as medallions for other awards. Vouchers and discounts will also be redeemable for future entries and attendances for all nominees.

See all of our past nominees and winners on our website: https://glcff.com/films/

First of all I want to thank you for taking the time to create wonderful art and submitting it to our festival. Our team looks at every project critically and intently. We love what we do and enjoy the reviewing process just as much as the event itself. As we have done in the past, we will be selecting many of the projects as official selections, but not every project meets our criteria.

The biggest thing is this is a CHRISTIAN Film Festival. What does that mean? For starters, this is a festival for Christian Filmmakers or anyone looking to submit a Christian-themed film. The target audience is for the whole family. Some projects, such as Passion of the Christ, might be graphic or unsuitable for children under 14 years old. We suggest you please give us warning as to the content of the film so we can categorize it differently than a general audience rating. Adult situations like Nudity and Strong Language is NOT allowed for screening the film at the festival, though there may be nominations and awards given for a project. The idea is to provide indie Christian Filmmakers an outlet and possible success full-time, as well as, opportunities for veteran movie industry folks to network, mentor, and inspire the next generation film stars and moguls.

Submissions will be accepted via digital formats and prefer all entrees on Vimeo if possible. Films can also be uploaded to FilmFreeway. YouTube should be the last option for submitting, but will not disqualify. All YouTube and Vimeo links should not be accessible to the public (unlisted/password protected). Screening preference is given to films not already distributed (DVD, Amazon, Pureflix, etc). Films older than three years as of the event date would less likely to be screened. This festival is intended to spotlight the newest projects possible.

Some Official Selections may be nominated and possibly win, but not all will be screened at our event. We will do everything we can to give all Official Selections screen time, but priority scheduling will go to those submissions that are represented by the Producer, Director, Actors, etc. a the event. We want to serve our audience better by having someone available for inquiries. Passes for you and your team are available at a discount. Please let us know if you are attending as soon as possible, so we can plan for your arrival.

Thanks again for allowing us to be a part of your history.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Ted Barnette

    I'm honored my short, The Devil's Tromping Ground,screened at the Great Lakes Christian Film Festival. Truly honored.

    August 2023
  • I’m a little late in sharing this review because I had mixed feelings about posting anything negative because Shawn is a nice guy, but……there were nine of us in attendance (New York in September 2022) and most of our team members were very disappointed in this festival. While Shawn is a nice guy, this festival had so many issues.

    Upon returning from GLCFF, I sat down and carefully addressed all the reasons why we were not satisfied with our experience. Shawn replied to my e-mail to let me know he had received it and told me he was going to take about a week to carefully “consume” all my issues and that he would then write me back and address all of our concerns. They were very legitimate concerns, BTW. And here it is now March and I have never heard from him again.

    While there were many issues addressed, I believe these two were the most concerning and disappointing:
    (1)Shawn made it way too easy for another team to steal the “audience choice awards” by providing everyone with a CR code so that they could go “online” to vote for audience choice…… BAD IDEA!!! Audience choice means that the audience in attendance actually are the only ones who are supposed to vote for audience choice. It does not mean that he should open up this voting to anyone with a phone or computer!! This is how the unethical “winners” were able to solicit all their family and friends (who BTW were NOT in NY attending this festival!) and then when their name / movie was called for ALL of the audience choice wins, they pretended to be in shock and so honored. It was sickening to say the least. It was very unprofessional and unethical. But again, Shawn made it all too easy for this to happen.
    (2)We felt it was wrong to charge admission to attend the awards ceremony for those of us who had nominations in the festival. Our team had six nominations. But, ahead of time, we all paid money to be able to attend the ceremony and then the morning of the day in which awards were to be happening, he sent out a mass e-mail telling everyone they could attend the awards regardless of whether or not they had bought tickets. My point here is that all award ceremonies should be free to attend, especially if you bought tickets to attend the screenings, etc. etc. Even non- nominated filmmakers should be able to attend for free if they purchased festival tickets.

    I could say more, but I’m going to leave my review here. I don’t say these things for spite or to embarrass the festival, but only to warn other filmmakers to be careful how they spend their film festival budget. We did appreciate Shawn’s hard work and I believe he had the best of intentions. We also appreciated the six nominations and the two wins.

    March 2023
  • Katie Del Rocco

    This is in intimate, full-of-heart festival, backed by hard working volunteers and a deep desire to spread the good news. I enjoyed the intimate environment as it provided opportunities to have more in depth conversations with those in attendance. Those chosen to speak were excellent and generous. I certainly recommend attending!

    November 2022
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    Response from festival:

    It was an honor to have you. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to get to know you more.

  • Jess Thomas

    We so enjoyed our experience at GLCFF!

    October 2022
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    Response from festival:

    It was an honor to have you there!

  • Michelle Pierce-Mobley

    Shawn did an outstanding job pulling together this festival after so many unforeseen circumstances. The venue's Pastor and Spouse were gracious and showed strong support for the festival. I hope additional artists submit work to this festival. I learned alot.

    September 2022
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    Response from festival:

    It was a pleasure to meet you and your team. Looking forward to seeing you again.