The Chabot Theater cares about local filmmakers and want to put your work on the big screen! "Locals Only" is our red carpet event hosting the best short films from the San Francisco & East Bay Area.

Our goal is to encourage, feature, and introduce local filmmakers to the work that is being made in The Bay. Depending on how many submissions we get, we might expand out to multiple nights and include panel discussions and Q&As with filmmakers.

WE PAY FILMMAKERS!
We don't offer waivers because we offer filmmakers a split of the money from the festival! We give you a better split that the major studios get when we show their films. All the short filmmakers who get programmed with split 40% of the tickets sales for the event. The theater seats 300+ people... Let's pack it out with great films and local film fans.

Also, the event sponsor is People People Media Foundation, who uses this event to meet filmmakers to whom they offer Artist in Residency stays on their 95-acre art farm, and also provide micro-grants to your future film projects.

We believe in local filmmakers.

The GRAND PRIZE is free movies for a YEAR at The Chabot!*

Everyone chosen gets CASH from the split of tickets sales.

Every film selected also receives two (2) free tickets to the event, plus a discount code for friends and family to attend. Get dressed up, takes pics on the red carpet, and see your films in a 300+ seat movie theater.

Every film that pays to submit and is not chosen will get one free ticket to attend the event.

*GRAND PRIZE is chosen by a combination of the audience choice votes and the judges scores.

Pay to submit your film. We keep the cost down as low as possible and PAY short filmmakers to show their work, so we do not provide fee waivers.

We will review your work with a programming team.
We will chose who plays on the big screen this year.

If you're not chosen, you can resubmit next year, or make new work and submit that.