Welcome to our 13th Annual Edition of the pioneer International Mobile Film Festival for only movies shot with mobile phone cameras for the big screen, launched in the Spring 2009.

We are an IMDb qualifying film festival. We launched in 2009 as a film festival for only films shot with only mobile phones with a live venue screening of all accepted films. We created a respectable traditional film festival for only mobile films.

We've been listed on FilmFreeway.com since February 17, 2014.

FIRST AND FOREMOST: ONLY FILMS SHOT WITH SMARTPHONE / MOBILE PHONE CAMERAS QUALIFY. NO OTHER MOBILE DEVICE QUALIFIES.

Not more than 10% of total footage may be aerial footage shot with drones (Max. 10% of total film). No other mobile devices qualify.

We provide all these rules and criteria in detail for clarification on our website’s Rules page.
Note: All films selected may, or may not, be selected to stream online. All official film selections from feature, short and selected Rookie Films, will screen during the in-person festival. See details about Screenplay and smartphone photo contest.

We do not accept direct email submissions.

We have two separate official competitions for films: Short Films and Narrative Feature Films.

Feature Film Competition this year is for films between 60 minutes and 2 hours in length. Read details in our website’s Rules page.

Our Short Film Competition is for films 3-10 minutes total length.

Our festival is now geared for high quality professional mobile films, therefore, we created The Rookie Award contest, with a handful of films (1-5 minutes) to screen in a separate session during the festival. We’ll present the Rookie Award to the best film by a less experienced mobile filmmaker in this contest. All genres from our short film categories qualify.

The entries in this new category will not be included in the short film competition and the short film competition films will not be included in the Rookie Award competition.
We urge youth of all ages to submit to this new competition. The films selected in the Rookie Award competition will screen in another session of the festival. The Rookie Award will be presented during the awards ceremony for all competitions and all attending filmmakers will take part in the Red Carpet Extravaganza. More in the rules, below and our website.

Filmmakers who attend our event in San Diego will receive special recognition and unique attention during our festival's live event during the last weekend in April. Filmmakers will be part of Q&A Panel, participate in our red carpet show, interviewed, and much more. We also promote selected films and filmmakers online. All officially selected films, screenplays and photos receive customized unique laurels from our film festival.

All selected films in all categories will receive laurels noting their official selection. Awarded contestants may will receive promotions including announcements and press release with winners listed on our official awards annual listing on our website.

Each category will select a winner and the winners from each category (excluding The Rookie Award) will be in the running for the First, Second and Third Place trophy awards and prizes. Each category winner will receive laurels.

The feature film winner will receive the Best Feature Film Award trophy and laurels.

*Please make an effort to be in attendance to receive free engraved trophy with your name if you win the feature or short film competition top awards. Festival cannot cover the cost of shipping and handling of trophies.

Some filmmakers may be selected to be guests in the "SBP Podcast Mobile Filmmaking" hosted by festival founder Susy Botello. Podcast episodes include a written article with links and photos of each guest. 

"The red carpet is in your pocket!™"

2024 Rules: Deadlines are listed in each category for short and feature films. 

FEATURE FILM COMPETITION: We are looking for exceptional quality films with higher production quality and story driven narrative.

All contests and competitions must abide by these rules: Vulgar, porn, or demeaning and offensive films will be disqualified.

Respect other artists by not using media of any kind without proper licenses, permissions and clearance. Proof may be required to qualify.

We have extended deadlines and beyond those deadlines we offer no exceptions. It takes a lot of work to process and prepare films for screening in an event. We reserve the right to refuse all films beyond the deadlines set by our festival.

All films must be submitted through FilmFreeway. After the deadline has passed, and your film is selected, you will receive official selection laurels and a letter welcoming you to the 2024 edition. We urge you to keep checking for emails from us so you don’t miss requests from us.

All Films must be shot with smartphone cameras only. Horizontal films only with high resolution. Must be formatted to play on large wide screens and look good.

Not more than 10% aerial footage from drones is acceptable. See RULES page on our website for more specifics on requirements.

Short Films must be exceptional quality films. If you are not experienced as a filmmaker, you can enter films that fall within the categories listed below into "The Rookie Award" category for new or non experienced filmmakers.

We still require a level of quality with video and audio to be selected. Please find details about this special category on our website and in the category before you submit.

All Short Films must be between 3 & 10 minutes and Not One Second Shorter or Longer, including intro and end credits and/or video black at beginning or end.

Feature Film Competition: all films must be high quality production narrative story based films between 60 and 120 minutes total length. Only three films will be selected to screen in the festival and online.
Rookie Award Films must be between 1 & 5 minutes.

REQUIRED FOR ALL COMPETITIONS: English embedded captions/subtitles for all foreign, non-English spoken, or hard to understand or hard to hear dialogue and narration/voiceovers in all films is required.

For All Film Competitions: We require filmmakers to communicate with us directly for the approval process. Any agents representing filmmakers must be verified prior to selection by filmmaker. We do not pay or offer screening fees.

We will contact all filmmakers whose films are selected prior to the official selection, via email only, to ensure all qualifications have been met and verified.

Our email correspondence includes a release form to sign, that gives us permission to include your film in our festival with a statement from the festival that they have the non-exclusive right to distribute your film in our film festival; and that all information and licenses required are genuine.

Without returning the signed form we cannot screen your film in our festival. The form protects both, filmmakers and our festival.

You will only be required to sign the separate form if your film is selected, in order to complete the selection process. You may also be required to submit licenses, proofs and other items such as talent release forms; upon request.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

We also have more specifics which may answer some of your questions on our website’s RULES page.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Maria Mihaylova

    Great communication, exciting festival events!

    June 2023
  • Megan Landry

    I've participated in dozens of film festivals, but this one was one of my top favourites. The staff were super friendly, easy to work with, and very communicative at every step of the way. They are truly passionate about film and dedicated to their filmmakers. I look forward to submitting against next year!

    May 2023
  • Levi Morris

    Susy Botello was SO communicative from the start about the festival. I never had a question of where or when things were happening. She also fostered an incredibly playful, fun atmosphere and created an environment that allowed all of the filmmakers to genuinely bond. We ate lunches together and we chatted about our experiences. This made for an even more amazing viewing experience of the films as everyone knew who was involved with each project and cheered each other on. Having special guest Jed Brophy there was absolutely a once in a lifetime experience for us as we were able to chat so openly with him about his experiences with his own mobile made film but also his experiences working with Peter Jackson which was exciting to hear about. My team and I were lucky enough to WIN Best Feature Film with our film PARALYSIS and we could not be more grateful. I highly recommend this festival for any mobile filmmaker. It's intimate, eclectic, and it has SO much heart for the filmmakers. A true testament to Susy and what she puts together each year.

    May 2023
  • Aaron Lindenthaler

    A smaller yet intimate festival where you get to know everyone and the other film makers feel like family :)

    May 2023
  • Jasper Capalad

    The event was so much fun! It was quite the experience seeing your film on the big screen but ALSO other talented artists' projects! It's truly amazing seeing what people can do with just your phone, but it was also a fantastic event seeing a feature film shot on an iPhone, reacting with everyone, and meeting the brains behind it all. Not to mention, meeting INCREDIBLE the artists! Truly a one of a kind experience and I cannot wait for next year! I'm very sad that it's over. Thank you Susy!

    May 2023