Are you ready for the Merced Queer Film Festival?! Unfortunately, due to the tragic floods and events that have impacted Merced and California over the past few months, we have had to reschedule our event. But don't worry, the 2nd year of the MQFF is still happening and it's going to be even better than before! π
Thanks to the partnership of Central Valley Pride and Workshop 44, and the amazing work of Robert Jerome Pagan and Jennifer McQueen, we're bringing the magic of QUEER CINEMA to Merced once again! ππ¬
The festival will be held in September 2023, and we're kicking off with a week-long event including the opening night bash, award show, and screening of the top films for our 2023 festival. We are currently accepting submissions, so if you have a queer film that you'd like to showcase, please email submission.mercedqfest@gmail.com. π₯ποΈπ§
But that's not all! The 2nd year event will also be a part of the Merced Pride Fest, which will be held as a street party to celebrate pride! ππ And we're excited to announce the official Merced Queer Battle of the Musicians! πΆπ€
Mark your calendars for September 2023 and get ready for an amazing week of queer films, music, events, and community! β€οΈπ§‘ππππ
Categories for award consideration include Best Queer Feature Film (45 mins,) Best Queer Long-Short Film (10-40 minutes,) Best Central Valley Queer Film, Best International Queer Feature (45 minutes+) Best International Queer Long Short, Best Queer Animated Feature and Short, Best Queer Family Film, Best Queer Microshort, Best Queer Documentary, Best Queer Music Video and Best Queer TV Series/Pilot, amongst others.
By bringing the art of modern cinema to Merced in such a dynamic way, event planners intend to impact local culture by increasing visibility and awareness of the queer community while providing a rich foundation for future queer artists and filmmakers to thrive.
Judging
All submissions will be viewed in their entirety. Submissions will be judged and scored based on criteria including: quality of screenplay, acting, production quality, originality, technical proficiency, cinematography, sound design, editing and set design. We support indie filmmaking and will award additional points to shorts produced on a micro budget and/or minimal crew.
Awards in all major categories and many special awards including technical and performance awards.
All awards will be nominated in categories based on the Festival director and nomination committee choose.