Lost River Film Fest – chiefly hosted in the magical, spring-fed river town of San Marcos, in Austin's outskirts – spotlights independent cinema from Oct 12-15, 2022, for our seventh year running!

Soaked in a youthful, progressive, small-town-Texas vibe, Lost River intends to prove a splendid cocktail of compelling cinema, live music, poetry performances & much more.

We're also hosting a pair of one-day Best of the Fest exhibitions in adjacent counties: tentatively Sun, Nov 5 in Lockhart's historic Gaslight Baker Theatre ("Endora Film Fest" in Caldwell County) & Sat, Nov 4 in Seguin's historic Palace Theatre ("Scrambled Genius Film Fest" in Guadalupe County)!

The film fest is presented by San Marcos Cinema Club, the 501c3 film society of the nation’s fastest growing town of its size — whom the San Marcos Arts Commission selected for its prestigious 2016 SMarts Award.

Lost River — titled for our town’s fictional name in the campy, locally shot, 1978 horror film PIRANHA — exhibits short films & features, yielded from an international open call for submissions.

Juried awards for the winners in each category.

We are accepting submissions for the following categories:

Feature Narrative - All Genres (40 min. TRT minimum)
Feature Non-Fiction Documentary (40 min. TRT minimum)
Short Narrative - All Genres (40 min. TRT maximum)
Short Non-Fiction Documentary (40 min. TRT maximum)
Web Series (30 min. TRT maximum per episode - may submit up to 3 episodes)
Music Videos - All Genres (9 min TRT maximum)

Films must be completed AFTER January 1st, 2019 to be eligible for selection. Submitted projects that are commercially available are not eligible for juried consideration. We request that your content not be available for viewing online by general public until after November 9th, 2020.

ALL OF THE FOLLOWING MUST ACCOMPANY YOUR ENTRY:

-- Entry fee (must be paid online).

-- -- Film Synopsis: Three-line synopsis for Shorts; 250-word synopsis for Features (These may be used for Festival Program & website)

-- Upload Official Poster

Do not send any discs, online materials are sufficient for submission. No porn content is accepted. Lost River Film Fest (LRFF) is hereby granted the right to utilize an excerpt from any film submitted and accepted for exhibition at the Festival for promotional purposes. The individual or corporation submitting the film hereby warrants that it is authorized to commit the film for screening (including but not limited to multiple screenings in multiple U.S. and International locations), and understands and accepts these requirements and regulations. The undersigned shall indemnify and hold harmless LRFF from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney's fees, and costs of the court) which may be incurred by reason of any claim involving copyright, trademark, credits, publicity, screening, and loss of or damage to the screening videos entered.

Please note: Films must be submitted as an online streaming video via a participating submission platform or via a password-protected streaming Vimeo URL. LRFF will be screening films as digital files during the Festival and does NOT screen films on Blu-Ray, HD-CAM, or DCP. Please DO NOT SUBMIT your film if you are unable to deliver your project as a digital file.

Requirements.
a. Submission of foreign language films is accepted, English subtitles are encouraged but not required.
b. Films must be submitted to at least one Genre.
c. Entry fees are non-refundable.
d. In the event of a password change or link change after submitting, you must email the Festival immediately with that change so we may update your record.
e. All submissions must include your: physical address, contact phone # and email address.

LRFF highly suggests that you submit only completed projects for consideration. Because of the limited time we will judge each submission as a completed projects for consideration. Because of limited time, we will judge each submission as a completed project regardless of level of completion. If your project is selected to screen at the Festival you will have the opportunity to deliver the most recent version of the film/TV/web content.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • William Windle

    Exceeded expectations! The team at Lost River has a knowledge of film and the challenges faced by new filmmakers. They treat you and your work very specifically and make sure the best audience for your piece gets to view it. It also helps that they provided a slew of refreshments from locally brewed craft beer, to locally sourced cannabis products that help benefit veterans. Our team walked away with several new connections because of the care taken by this festival team, and I will ABSOLUTELY be attending in the future, regardless of whether or not I have a film in the festival.

    November 2022
  • First time attending for a screening (attended before as a Moderator and had a screening which I couldn't attend). The festival is on the more small/local side, but intense! Lots of arts/culture as well. San Marcos is a great little town with the best people. :)

    November 2022
  • Víctor Augusto Mendívil

    Many thanks to the Lost River Film Festival for programming our short film 299.00 (F84.0) in its 2022 edition. It is very important to us and we value good communication. Thank you!

    October 2022
  • Hannah C Martinez

    Great local festival to see other filmmakers in the area. Also has great hospitality and kind people.

    October 2022
  • OZ Producer

    Fantastic festival! I’m still sad I couldn’t stay for the entirety of it, but I am extremely grateful for the selection and the opportunity to attend this amazing festival!

    - Bruno B

    October 2022