Ours is a community-based, human-scale, family-friendly festival. We show all types of films in a family-oriented festival. This festival has grit: no pandemic is going to put us off.

Marcellus is a village in a wonderful setting along Nine-Mile Creek, with a limestone gorge, woods, valleys and the Finger Lakes nearby. We've grown in size and sophistication as a festival, but hopefully maintained our small-town values: bucolic, broad minded and surprisingly worldly. This is a village film festival: the Coen brothers will not be there, nor will Netflix executives, and we don't expect any industry panels and seminars. But there will be many fun submissions, and some quirkiness. In fact, lots of quirkiness. We take the time to view and comment on all submissions, and even more on the Official Selections. And we think there will be some hidden jewels in the screenings, with new film-makers to watch out for. We sometimes shorten the name to M3F3!

Features:
Youth (18 yrs old or less) are free to submit! Use the coupon 'Youth' at submission time
Student movies are 50% off! Use the coupon 'M3F3Student2022' at submission time
Mini-Movies of 15 minutes or less.
Special Category 2022: "What do you Live For?"
Special category 2022: "Ukraine"

Awards & Prizes

Prizes will be given to the winners in each category, with an overall prize awarded by the audience and Festival Director to the most outstanding film submitted. We anticipate the awards in each category to be around $50, with the overall prize in the region of $100. There will also be local prizes for local submissions.

Rules & Terms

Thanks for considering submitting to our festival! We appreciate it. We know how many other festivals there are out there. Follow these simple rules for a trouble-free experience...

Films must be submitted as an online screener and be available for screening as a digital file in MP4 format at HD720p definition. You must be the copyrightholder to submit the film. You agree that by submitting the film, the organizers of M3F3 are at liberty to download before the festival and exhibit the film during the festival. Films must be 15 minutes or less.

Films must have been completed after June 1 2021. Films must be available for screening during the M3F3, 12 November 2022.

We do not accept works-in-progress and will not update a submission with a more recent cut. Please do not submit your film until it is complete.

Submit to only one category. M3F3 reserves the right to change submission category at the discretion of the Festival Director.

Once an entry payment has been processed we cannot provide a refund. If a payment is disputed, the account holder may be subject to any fees. Films submitted using improper fee waivers (e.g. youth or student fee waiver with no supporting documentation uploaded) will be disqualified with no refund.

No films with inappropriate content (likely to be rated as R-Restricted) should be submitted to the M3F3 - all films are pre-screened and any films with inappropriate content (such as use of significant swearing) may be rejected from the competition. Use your judgement for PG-13 rated content.

Judges may not grade entries for which they are the submitter, know the submitter or are related to the submitter, nor may they grade entries in the same category as their own film.

Please Note: M3F3 does not waive entry fees. M3F3 believes waiving entry fees hurts the integrity of the competition. The same rules and entry fees should apply to all applicants so no one film is favored over another. In a similar respect, M3F3 does not invite films to be in competition. Only films that are submitted will be considered for competition.
22 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Manos Triantafillakis

    One of Best Festival in the World 🐬 I highly recommend it to every Family Filmmaker 🎥

    January 2022
    Helpful
  • Jim Zounis

    It was such a great honor to have our Short Film selected to participate in the 'Marcellus Mini Movie Family Film Festival'. Thank you all so much.

    November 2021
    Helpful
  • manishw55 None

    Outstanding festival nice to be part

    November 2021
    Helpful
  • Randy Boyum

    I was delighted that my short film The Extinction of Up was selected to be a part of this festival. They friendly staff provided excellent communication. I wish I could have attended - especially when I learned that the film received the honor of the Marcellus Grand Prize. It was very thrilling, and I look forward to submitting more films in the future to this lovely, family event. Thank you so much!

    November 2021
    Helpful
  • Tim McNulty

    We are truly honored to be a winner in the Horror category! We began making these films with/for our kids to help them overcome their fears of scary movies. Now it's a holiday tradition! See you next year!

    November 2021
    Helpful