Since 2001, the Nevada City Film Festival (NCFF) has brought top independent film, music and comedy, along with attracting thousands of attendees, international filmmakers, and industry guests to the beautiful historic town of Nevada City, California.

Nevada City is known for its supportive arts and cultural scene, and makes screening a film here a positive, encouraging and exciting experience.

NCFF is often referred to as the “Sundance of the Sierra” for its emphasis on fiercely independent cinema that showcases innovative, progressive and exciting new voices in film. Our festival focuses on shorts and short filmmakers, with features peppered throughout. We love supporting first time or mid career filmmakers.

In 2023, NCFF was named "One of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals" by Moviemaker Magazine, and voted the #9 film festival in the USA by 10Best USA Today. In 2024, NCFF was named for the fourth time by Moviemaker Magazine as one of the top 50 film festivals in the world worth the submission fee for filmmakers.

This year’s festival kicks off June 19-22, 2025 in historic downtown Nevada City. This year's festival features film screenings, panels and workshops for filmmakers and festival attendees, filmmaker Q&A’s and coffee talks, after-parties, nature hikes and outdoor excursions, and other special events.

NCFF is known for recognizing and supporting new talent including independent filmmakers such as Jonathan Krisel (Portlandia, Baskets), Jason Sussberg (Bill Nye: Science Guy), Patrick Brice (Corporate Animals, The Overnight), Greg Finton (Dazed & Confused, The World According to Dick Cheney), Augustine Frizzell (Never Goin’ Back), David Zellner (Damsel, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter), Christina Choe (Nancy), Blackhorse Lowe (Reservation Dogs, Fukry), and animator and performance artist Miwa Matryek, among others.

In previous years NCFF has hosted filmmakers such as Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine, Ruby Sparks), Mike Mills, Terry Zwigoff, Wesley Allsbrook, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim (Cartoon Networks Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!), Bill Nye (the Science Guy), and comedians including Beth Stelling, John Early, Kate Berlant, Maria Bamford, Tig Notaro, Nick Kroll, Natasha Leggero, Eric Andre, Kyle Kinane, and Marc Maron.

Past NCFF judges have included award-winning producers and directors, plus writers from The Huffington Post, New York Times, McSweeneys, San Francisco Chronicle, Rolling Stone Magazine, NPR, Film School Rejects, and Pop-Up Magazine.

Professional, student, and amateur filmmakers are invited to submit short and feature length films in a variety of genres including, but not limited to, documentaries, animation, narrative, comedy, multi-media, experimental, and music videos.

$1500 Best of the Fest, Judges Award
$1000 Best Short Film Screenplay
$1000 Best Doc Feature
$1000 Best Narrative Feature
$500 Best Short Narrative
$500 Best Short Doc
$500 Best Short Animation
$500 Best Director
$500 Best Performance
$500 Best Cinematography
$500 Best Editing
$500 Best Production Design
$500 Best Musical Score
$500 Audience Award

SUBMISSIONS
1. Films MUST be no older than two years from date of Festival.
2. Feature films are 60 minutes in length or longer. Short films are under 30 minutes in length.
3. You may submit multiple entries but must fill out a separate entry form and pay an entry fee for each.
4. All accepted films are required to have Open Captioning

FEES
Nevada City Film Festival is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Fees collected through the Call for Entries process goes directly to our filmmaker awards, so please do not request a waiver, unless you meet one of the following requirements:

1. If you are an Applicant who identifies as LGBTQ, BIPOC, Arab-American, Latinx, AAPI or another disinvested identity group, then NCFF will provide a discount code for your submission fee upon request.
2. If you are an Applicant who lives in Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Sacramento, Sierra, Butte, Sutter, or Yuba Counties.

SCREENING AND APPEARANCE FEES
​NCFF splits all online screening revenue with filmmakers 50/50. NCFF also pays all films screened in the festival - $100 for short films, $200 for feature length films. NCFF also covers 2-nights of lodging and offers a travel stipend for all visiting filmmakers.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Matthew Boyd

    This is a great festival. Wonderful accommodations and great food in a charming little western town and nice to see some new friends from the circuit. Big thanks to Jess, Jesse, Jeff, Zach and the rest of the team for putting on a first class festival! Keep up the good work.

    July 2024
  • Leo Behrens

    I have been to a lot of festivals the last few years, and Nevada City was by far my absolute favorite. The city is charming, the theater is beautiful, the film selections were top notch, it was a lot of people attending the screenings and the people working there were so welcoming. They also provide lodging and travel stipend. I will definitely come back. Thank you for inviting me and my film to your festival.

    July 2024
  • NCFF is one of my TOP festivals overall for filmmaker hospitality! They truly value filmmakers and go above and beyond to make it as easy as possible for them to attend. They gave me free hotel nights, a screening fee, AND a travel stipend! Not to mention the gorgeous historic theater, fun mixers, and friendly staff/volunteers there too. And the programming is excellent. This one is absolutely worth the submission fee.

    - Written By Olivia Haller, the writer of my film [subtext]. Olvia was lucky enough to attend the festival in 2024. I hope to attend in the future.

    July 2024
  • Sean Pecknold

    Such an incredible festival. The hosts are gracious, the location stunning, and the celebratory and supportive atmosphere for independent filmmaking is one of the best in the world. Not to mention they have impeccable sense of design in their branding, logo, materials, website, etc. That stuff matters! We were so happy to bring our new animated film Tennis, Oranges there this year, and lucky to win Best Animated Short. We can't wait to come back someday soon!

    July 2024
  • nadia boctor

    Love Nevada City Film Fest. Such heart in a charming town, with great program and friendly filmmakers to meet.

    June 2024