2023 brings The 30th Reel Affirmation Film Festival: Washington DC’s International LGBTQ Film Festival!. We are EXTREMELY EXCITED to celebrate our 30th anniversary (we were dark for 2 years)

Founded 1991, Reel Affirmations Film Festival was ranked one of the top 3 LGBTQ film festival in the country. Over the years Reel Affirmations has been a vigorous champion of ground breaking LGBTQIA2S+ cinema introducing exemplary filmmakers and presenting Academy Award Winning/Nominated films such as Gods and Monsters and Boys Dont Cry and locally co-presenting timely films such as The Happy Prince, Moonlight, Tangerine, The Danish Girl, A Fantastic Woman and Love is Strange.

As we came out of the deep impact of the pandemic In 2022, 100’s of films were submitted to consideration and all of them took us on a mind expanding, soul searching, WTF are we doing & WTF is happening journey.

We were determined to continue with our pivot and our amazing programming team chose 45+ diverse, compelling, vital, dramatic & hilarious films created by filmmakers who hail from 5 continents and 22 different countries with topics ranging from our challenging social/political landscape to societal/personal acceptance to affairs of the heart to multicultural interests.

Reaching our 30th year is an extraordinary milestone and direct testament to our commitment to supporting our LGBTQIA2S+ Creatives through providing a ever-evolving venue to present the best in modern day cinematic creativity which in turn offers insight as to how to cultivate the future we want to see-one that is full of hope, equality, imagination, uplifted voices, determination, humor and vulnerability.

While, Reel Affirmations Film Festival presents several days of NEW AND EXCITING international, documentary, short and feature films from all over the world to Washington as well as panel discussions, filmmaker Q&A and filmmaker receptions and celebrations we also have our Monthly Film Series: Reel Affirmations XTRA which keeps LGBTQIA2S+ images and lifestories on the foreground of the Arts and Culture scene in Washington DC.

We believe that powerful, poignant, humorous and life altering films can change lives and we invite you to submit your film!

Our incredible programming team looks forward to reviewing your film for our film festival and/or our monthly film series.

Awards & Prizes

GRAND JURY AWARDS
Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature
Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature
Grand Jury Award for Best DMV (DC, Maryland Virginia) Film

AUDIENCE AWARDS
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature
Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature
Audience Award for Best Documentary Short
Audience Award for Best Narrative Short

Rules & Terms

Films should be of interest to, and inclusive of, the LGBTQIA2S+ community

If your film is selected you will be sent a contract that will outline all of our festival's rules and terms.

We are a non profit with a small yet mighty leadership and programming team.

We firmly believe in fair and equitable compensation for all Creatives. With that being said we rely heavily on grant funding which is extremely limited and kindly request the opportunity to negotiate your proposed screening fee if necessary.

You are also encouraged to enclose a synopsis, film stills, film trailer, production credits, press information, and other collateral regarding your film.
9 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Suçon -

    Many thanks for screening my film, I was very happy and the communication was great !

    October 2023
    Helpful
  • victoria uchitel

    It was a honor to be part of the festival.

    October 2023
    Helpful
  • Cara Consilvio

    I am extremely disappointed and angered by this festival. My Feature documentary was accepted and then I was ghosted by the Festival. After we were accepted, we heard nothing from the Festival. I wrote emails repeatedly to ask for more information about the festival and what we needed to deliver to them. After 6 weeks, we were told we could no longer be in the festival because we had not submitted a form on time. We never received this form. And, we never received any responses to the many emails we wrote. Then, when we asked for more clarification about this form we never sent back that we never received, we were ghosted again. This experience was particularly frustrating as we had announced our acceptance into the Festival to our D.C. community and had many people who were interested in seeing our film at the festival. It was embarrassing. Why accept us in the first place if you don't want us in your festival? You could have just rejected us instead of treating us with so much disrespect and extremely poor communication.

    October 2022
    Helpful
  • Juan Lossada

    It has been a real honour to have had one of our short films in your programme this year. What a great job you do with such respect for the films, the filmmakers and the audience. We are touched by your closeness and dedication.

    October 2022
    Helpful
  • Diane Malherbe

    For sure, the best festival where my film was screened, until now! Great atmosphere. The communication with Kimberley was top notch! Prompt, friendly and professional! Many thanks to the team and the programmers! Hope we meet again in the better future...

    November 2021
    Helpful