The Philadelphia Film Festival, October 18-28, 2018 is an annual eleven day festival featuring screenings of international and domestic, and local films, retrospective tributes, forums and panels, and receptions.

Over the past several years, the Festival has grown to become both an important annual cultural event throughout Philadelphia as well as significant to the entertainment industry as a whole. The quality of the programming has been stellar, featuring some of the most highly-anticipated and eventual award-winning films, Oscar nominees Lady Bird, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, La La Land, Brooklyn, and Room, 2017 Best Picture Winner Moonlight, 2016 Best Picture Winner Spotlight, 2015 Best Picture winner Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), 2013 Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave, and 2011 Best Picture winner The Artist.

The Festival consists of approximately 100 films on up to 7 screens over 11 days and will be paired with events such as the Opening and Closing Night parties, multiple VIP receptions, a festival lounge open daily, where ticket holders, badge holders, and special guests can relax between shows and talk movies with patrons & guests.

The Festival also annually welcomes a large number of guests, with many filmmakers, actors, distributors and industry professionals attending and experiencing the Festival and Philadelphia. These guests included filmmakers and honorees such as: Bruce Willis, M. Night Shyamalan, Damien Chazelle, Todd Haynes, Steve Buscemi, Lee Daniels, Jonathan Demme, David Duchovny, Mark Duplass, Morgan Freeman, Duke Johnson, Charlie Kaufman, John Leguizamo, Alexander Payne, Paul Rudd, David O. Russell, Susan Sarandon, Alfre Woodard, and Robert Zemeckis, as well as representatives from distributors or sales agencies such as: Cinetic Media, The Film Sales Company, IFC Films, Kino Lorber FIlms, Magnolia Pictures, Music Box Films, Paramount, Preferred Content, Radius-TWC, Roadside Attractions, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisition Group, Strand Releasing, Submarine Entertainment, and The Weinstein Company.

The Philadelphia Film Festival was named one of 2016’s Top 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee in 2016 by MovieMaker Magazine.

Awards & Prizes

The Philadelphia Film Festival gives out the following awards:
Audience Award
Best Narrative Feature
Best Documentary Feature
Archie Award for Best First Feature
Pinkenson Award for Best Local Feature Film
Best Short Film

Rules & Terms

Screeners will not be returned.

Films should be at least a premiere in the greater Philadelphia area, and should not have screened publicly elsewhere in the Philadelphia Region.

Films should not be available publicly in any form of digital streaming, rental or sale.

Films must have been completed after October 2017.

TERMS & CONDITIONS
Philadelphia Film Festival is hereby granted the right to utilize an excerpt or stills from any film submitted and accepted for exhibition at the Festival and in perpetuity thereafter for promotional purposes.

The individual or corporation submitting the film hereby warrants that it is authorized to commit the film for screening, and understands and accepts these requirements and regulations.

The undersigned shall indemnify and hold harmless Philadelphia Film Festival from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney's fees, and costs of the court) which may be incurred by reason of any claim involving copyright, trademark, credits, publicity, screening, and loss of or damage to the screening videos entered.