1- To submit a film, you must own all intellectual property rights (including copyrights, trademarks, rights of publicity) to the film and everything contained within the film, or have signed permission from the rights holder to use the intellectual property in the film and publicly screen the film at film festivals and markets.
2- You grant LIIFE the non-exclusive right to screen the film as part of LIIFE, and perpetual non-exclusive right to use, distribute, and share the film poster art, trailer, synopsis, movie stills, and clips from the film to promote the film festival and its screenings and events.
3- The Long Island Film-TV Foundation has the right to reject any films or withdraw any acceptance letter issued to any film, at any time prior to the commencement of that year’s festival, at the foundation's absolute discretion.
4- All fees are non-refundable.
5- Only submit ONE film per submission to ONE category - duplicate entries will not be refunded! You may submit multiple films, each with its own submission form and paid submission fee.
6- For films 59 minutes or less please submit as a short, 60 to 120 minutes, please submit as a feature. No films over 2 hours, please.
7- Digital Screeners only! We do not accept physical submissions.
8- All films submitted are eligible for awards in all applicable award categories (with the exception of student film submissions and awards).
9- Students must present valid Student ID to submit in the Student Filmmaker category. *NOTE: If submitting as a student film, your film will only be eligible for awards in the Student Filmmaker awards categories. Student awards will be presented at one of the student film blocks.
10- Films that are made available to the public via streaming, theatrical, or home video before the festival will be disqualified from judging and pulled from programming, INCLUDING the “Episodic Pilot” and music video categories. NO EXCEPTIONS, and no refunds.
11- LIIFE Alumni (Directors/Producers/Writers only): please email LongIslandFilmExpo@gmail.com for a discount code. (Subject: “Alumni Discount” and, in the body, tell us the title and year of the film you had in the fest)
12- Any film that is not in English must have accurate English subtitles (non-electronic subtitles).
13- NO FEE WAIVERS – NO EXCEPTIONS!
14- You hereby release the County of Nassau, Nassau County Film Commission, The Nassau County Department of Recreation and Parks, The Nassau County Planning Commission, The Long Island Film-TV Foundation and any participating festival directors, judges, venues, agents and volunteers from any liability related to your film or script. You also hereby agree to testify under oath, upon request of any of the aforesaid entities or people, to the validity of the release, in the event that there is litigation related to your film or script.
15- WE DO NOT PAY SCREENING FEES
Upon Acceptance:
1- You will receive a survey to complete which will give us all pertinent information about your film, and provides you the information needed to send us your film, trailer, stills, press kit, and other promotional items you may have. This information is vital to us being able to promote the films in the festival.
2- You must provide a digital submission copy in MP4 ONLY (no MOV, AVI, WMV, FLV, etc). All films must be formatted to 16:9. If your ratio is different, you must pillar box or letterbox to 16:9. We can also accept DCPs (Feature Films only).
3- We recommend mailing a physical backup to the theater (DVD, Blu-ray, flash drive, etc - just in case!). We cannot mail them back, but we can return them if you are in-person at the festival after your film has screened.
4- Each accepted film receives one Filmmaker badge which gets you and a guest access to all film screenings, panels, and events throughout the festival. Your badge is one comp (for shorts 59 and under) you get two additional comps for your film block. For films 60 minutes and above, your badge is one comp, and you get three additional comps for your screening.
5- Any accepted film that is publicly available before their screening will be pulled from programming, NO EXCEPTIONS and no refunds (including the episodic and music video categories)
6- Films or scripts may not be withdrawn once they are accepted and programmed into the program. Films are scheduled at the discretion of the Long Island International Film Expo.
Scriptwriting Contest:
LIIFE is looking for the next generation of screenwriters. To be eligible, the script cannot have been optioned or produced, nor can the writer and/or the screenplay be represented by a manager or agent. Final scripts must also be between 75 - 110 pages. The contest will consist of two rounds:
1- For the first submission round, writers submit a Single-Page treatment of a feature-length screenplay. A treatment covers the specifics of the story, including descriptive paragraphs telling the story from beginning, including character descriptions, development, conflicts, with relevant plot points including twists and turns. These treatments will each be read by our panel of judges and 3-5 finalists will be chosen and Selected for LIIFE. Please do not submit unless your script is completed.
2- Selected treatments will be asked to submit their full-length screenplays (75-110 pages) which will then be read by our Screenplay judges and one winner will be selected.
One (1) Best Screenplay Winner will have their screenplay read by actors in a live table read (in-person or virtually, dependent upon on location availability, and time and capacity restrictions), and Winners Certificate & Laurel. If the winner is not available for the live read, the festival reserves the right to pass along the live read to a finalist who will be in attendance.
Award Categories (categories may change from year to year without notice):
Best Short
Best Feature
Best Director
Best International Film
Best Story
Best Animation
Best Long Island Film
Best Horror Film
Best Documentary
Best Student Film
Best Episodic
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Art Direction
Audience Choice Award
Alan Fortunoff Humanitarian Award
The Marc Stein Comedy Award
Based upon the content of the submissions received, we reserve the right to add or remove awards categories. (ie: if we do not receive enough submissions in one award category, we may combine award categories, or if we receive many submissions of a particular genre, we may add another award category to accommodate)
Thank you, and we hope to see you at LIIFE 2027!
