Welcome to our 14th 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. All films and projects should be original works created by the submitting filmmaker(s). Plagiarism or unauthorized use of others’ work is prohibited.
We do not accept direct email submissions.
We have two separate official competitions for films: Short Films and Narrative Feature Films.
Feature Film Competition is for films between 60 minutes and 2 hours in length.
Our Short Film Competition is for films 3-10 minutes total length.
Please read details of rules and criteria on our website.
Our festival is 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 Rookie Award will be presented during the awards ceremony for all competitions. All attending filmmakers, including "the rookies" will take part in the Red Carpet Extravaganza.
Filmmakers who attend our event in San Diego will receive special recognition and unique attention during our festival's live in-person 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.
BONUS: We’ve partnered with Videomaker! Our partnership offers a free one-year digital subscription to Videomaker magazine when you submit your project to IMFF 2025. Details on website.
All selected films in all categories, contests and competitions will receive laurels noting their official selection. Awarded contestants may receive promotions including announcements and press release mention 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 award 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!™"