Ours is a community-based, human-scale, family-friendly festival. We show all types of films in a family-oriented festival. We sometimes shorten the name to M3F3!

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 some 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!

This festival has grit - the 2020 festival took place on 14th November 2020 in a Drive-in format, in the middle of the COVID-19 Pandemic! It was so successful we may repeat the format in 2021.

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 'M3F3Student2021' at submission time
Mini-Movies of 15 minutes or less.
Cheap snacks (popcorn 25c a bag!)
Special Category for 2021: Black Lives Matter

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 $25 to $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 2020. Films must be available for screening during the M3F3, 18th September 2021.

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.

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.
17 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
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Networking
  • Kai Song

    It's amazing what this film festival is doing to promote family films and filmmakers! It was such an honour and privilege to, firstly, have our short film, Rocket Girl screened at this festival, but then to find out that we won the Family and Home category and then to find out that we were the winners of the Marcellus Grand Prize - was truly incredible! So sad we couldn't make the journey across the pond to the festival itself this year, but hopefully we can attend next year and submit a new adventure. Thanks again to Lewis and the team!

    November 2020
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  • Adam Bigum

    Honoured to pick up an award at this festival. Shame we couldn't been there. Sounds like it was a great event. Communication with festival was great. Can recommend for future entrants.

    November 2020
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  • Javier Guillot

    I have really enjoyed this festival. A shame not being able to go to the festival, but rest assured that you can count on my projects in the next editions. Thank you very much for voting my short film as a finalist.

    November 2020
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  • Sorin Pavelesco

    I had a terrific experience with this festival, the communication was warm and on point. I was honoured to be a finalist! I regret not being able to attend but I think we all are in the same boat this year! I will definitely return and recommend this one. Cheers from Montreal, Quebec.

    November 2020
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    Response from festival:

    "Message to Future Generations" was a great fit for our festival. Let's hope we can have visitors to New York soon.

  • AVA BOUNDS

    Thankyou for screening my film PLAYERS. A lovely festival that has films and filmmakers at its centre. I’d definitely submit again.

    November 2020
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    Response from festival:

    Ava, it was a pleasure to screen your film, which was captivating and unusual. Keep up the good work.