The Poly Film Festival returns for its fourth year as a space for high school filmmakers to show off their work and see the work of their peers, this time hosted entirely online!

Sponsored by the upper school Poly Cinema Guild, a workshop-focused club for filmmakers of all backgrounds and skill levels, and the Poly Arts Student Council, we strive to foster and facilitate broader dialogue, collaboration, and study concerning the production of motion pictures among cinematically curious students across America.

The event will consist of short film screenings by high school students from all across America, intermingled with Q&A sessions between the audience members and filmmakers in attendance hosted over Zoom.

We hope to see you at this celebration of high school cinema!

At the festival, we will have two awards given to filmmakers: one will be an audience favorite and the other will be the favorite film as determined by the Cinema Guild, the club responsible for hosting the Poly Film Festival.

OPEN TO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS CURRENTLY ENROLLED IN GRADES 9-12. If you don't meet these requirements or fail to list them, your film will not be considered.

Entry Period: 13 January 2021 - 8 March 2021
Event Date: 12 March 2021
Event Location: Garland Auditorium, Polytechnic School (Pasadena, California)

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
1. GENRE: All genres of shorts are accepted.

2. RUNNING TIME: 10 minutes and under. No exceptions. Running time includes end credits.

3. PRODUCTION YEAR: The film must have been produced after January 1, 2019.

4. NUMBER OF SUBMISSIONS: Multiple submissions are allowed.

5. THE ENTRY MUST:
(a.) be appropriate for viewing by the general public (appropriateness will be determined by the Sponsor in its sole discretion),
(b.) be originally authored or the entrant must have written permission to use copyright protected material, and
(c.) non-English films must have English subtitles at the time submitted.

Entrant represents and warrants that Submission is the original work of entrant, it has not been copied from others, and it does not violate the rights of any other person or entity. Entrant further represents and warrants that the Submission adheres to the fundamental spirit of the Competition and does not contain any defamatory, obscene, or any unlawful matter.

6. HOW TO ENTER: To enter this Competition, entrants must upload their content using https://filmfreeway.com/PolyFilmFestival. Entrants must read and agree to all rules and regulations and submit the required information, including a link to the video.

7. FINALIST SELECTION AND NOTIFICATION: There will be two rounds of judging. A panel of judges will conduct the preliminary and final review and select films that will be presented at the Competition. In the preliminary and final rounds, judges will review and score the Submissions according to the following general criteria: (1.) Creativity in artistic expression, (2.) Originality of the Submission, and (3.) Technical quality of the final video product.

8. OFFICIAL SELECTION RECOGNITION: Official Selections may be featured on Poly Film Festival website and social media pages.

Finalists and all entrants are invited to attend the event on Saturday, 28 February 2019 in Pasadena, CA.

9. OWNERSHIP AND LICENSE: Ownership in any Submission shall remain the property of the entrant. Entrant hereby grants each of the following rights to the Sponsor without reservations, conditions or qualifications: (a) the right to use footage, stills and/or titles, and information from or relating to the Film for promotional purposes; and (b) the right to issue and authorize publicity concerning the filmmakers and the Film and to use all associated names, likenesses and biographical information.

10. PARTICIPATING ENTITIES: This Competition is administered by Polytechnic Cinema Guild, Polytechnic School, 1030 E California Blvd, Film Production Room, Pasadena, CA 91106.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Nathan Kadota

    Great festival! It was a lot of fun to see the other projects that were nominated. The Q&A was great and would highly recommend for people to submit!

    March 2019
  • Nicholas put on a really fun film screening and there were some great films. Each filmmaker got to speak about their film in front of the audience.

    March 2018