The Maine Outdoor Film Festival (MOFF) is an international film festival featuring outdoor adventure and conservation films - documentary, narrative, and beyond - which relate to topics and experiences surrounding the beauty, vastness, interactivity and volatility of our planet; and how its power influences human experience.
MOFF’s flagship festival is a multi-day event held in Portland, Maine each summer, featuring a variety of outdoor screenings, indoor screenings, panel discussions, and networking opportunities for the outdoor, and filmmaking communities. Group volunteering events, outdoor gear sales, dance parties, youth-focused programming, group paddles/bikes/runs are examples of other activities occurring during the festival.
After the Portland flagship festival, MOFF produces a late-summer tour (called MOFF Selects) of northeast venues, connecting community and the outdoors through film.

WHAT WE VALUE
An unwavering focus on top-notch storytelling and its profound potential to strengthen communities and relationships to the natural world.
The opportunity to celebrate and to think, to inspire and be inspired, to educate and to learn, to dance and to be still.
The festival is proud to elevate Maine-made and Maine-themed films, while also connecting our audience with films from across the world. Last year’s festival featured films from 13 countries, 21 states, including 20 from Maine.
MOFF invites and encourages work from new, emerging, and veteran filmmakers working in short and feature length.

ABOUT PORTLAND
The flagship festival takes place in late July in Portland, Maine's cultural and culinary capital. Two hours from Boston and with major air, train, and ground transportation hubs; Portland is also ideally located as a base camp for the outdoor adventurer: as the central city of Maine’s Casco Bay, the area is home to hundreds of miles of walking, running and biking trails; over a dozen state parks are within a 60-minute drive (beaches, mountain biking, birding, hiking); paddling and rock climbing in The White Mountains are less than two hours away, with Acadia National Park and Baxter State Park just a bit further.
The city is also well-known for its wide array of lodging options and world-class food, beer and art.

Awards & Prizes

Best Feature (50 minutes of longer)
Best Short Feature
Best Short
Best Maine Film - $500 prize
Emerging Filmmaker
Conservation Award
Best Maine Student Film

Rules & Terms

No Umbrella Media LLC (a Portland, Maine video agency) owns Maine Outdoor Film Festival LLC, so the agreement is between you (the filmmaker) and No Umbrella Media LLC.
1. If your film is accepted to the 2023 Maine Outdoor Film Festival, you agree to give No Umbrella Media/MOFF a nonexclusive license to use, publicly perform, publicly display, copy, distribute, and create derivative works of your submission in connection with the “Maine Outdoor Film Festival”. Here is where your film will/could be shown:
1 to 3 times in-person at the Portland Festival 2023 (July 22 to July 30, 2023)
0 to 5 times in-person on the MOFF Selects Tour 2023 (August 15 to December 12, 2023)
0 to 1 time in-person at the Maine Audubon Earth Day Screening (April 2024)
0 to 1 time as part of the Maine Public Television MOFF 60-minute special (June 2024)

2. If preference or previous agreements exist and you wish to opt-out or discuss the arrangement of any of these screenings, please do so in writing/email prior to submitting your film.

3. You agree that no screening fees will be paid to the filmmaker. MOFF does reserve the right to pay filmmakers a stipend. We agree that No Umbrella will give all credits that we practicably can, given case-by-case circumstances.

4. You warrant that all copyrighted material–music, pictures, web content, videos, art, graphic design, etc. (this is not an exhaustive list, rather it is exemplary)—is either owned by you, or that you have express written permission to use any copyrighted material found in your submission. No exceptions.

5. You agree, that in the event that the previous bullet point turns out to be not true (you have infringed someone else’s copyrights), to indemnify and hold harmless No Umbrella Media/MOFF for any claims or threat of claim against the same, and that you will pay for (first), or reimburse (last resort), all costs associated with defending any such claims against No Umbrella Media/MOFF for violation of another’s copyright as a result of your submission.

6. You warrant that you have full consent and permission from all people who appear in any identifiable manner in your submission to use their persona in your submission, their knowing and understanding that their image or likeness may be used commercially.

7. You agree to hereby release, indemnify, and hold harmless No Umbrella Media/MOFF from any and all claims, including, without limitation, claims for damages for libel, infringement of rights of publicity, invasion of privacy, portrayal in a false light, or any other claim from any person based on use of your submission.

7 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Eric Braker

    My brother and I have been lucky enough to have two films in the MOFF for the past two years, and we absolutely love being a part of it! The hospitality and communication are among the best we've experienced across any festivals we've been a part of. Unfortunately, it has never timed up where we can attend in person, but fingers crossed for future years!

    December 2022
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  • Vera Neverkevich Hill

    A super friendly festival, excellent clear communications, and the organizers keep promoting your work even after the festival, if there are fitting opportunities. Would love to come visit next time!

    August 2022
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  • Marty Pottenger

    So good to have such a welcoming, big-hearted festival here in Portland and southern Maine. A variety of films and filmmakers made it feel like the community event MOFF is. And being outside made it all feel more rooted to place and to the planet. My collaborator, Passamaquoddy Vera Francis and I both noted that as Blessing of the Creatures was being screened, the seagulls, ants, the humans, and the waves on Casco Bay were getting to hear Passamaquoddy spoken again after many many years.

    August 2022
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  • Bailey Beltramo

    I'm a first time filmmaker and festival attendee, and I couldn't have been more pleased to have MOFF be my introductory experience. The communication from Nick and his team from the onset was amazing. The venue in Portland was awesome, the selection of work was phenomenal and inspiring... it was just an all-around great experience. Due to distance from the event, I didn't get to take advantage of the networking opportunities that were offered, but that was a great thing for MOFF to include in the experience! Hope to be back again!

    August 2021
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    Response from festival:

    Thanks Bailey. It was wonderful to have you!

  • Bob Krist

    Excellent communication and willingness to adapt in terms of the pandemic. They pulled off a wonderful festival in tough, ever-changing conditions!

    August 2021
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    Response from festival:

    Thanks a lot for being a part Bob!