The Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series is a two-day annual film festival founded by African Voices magazine and Long Island University's Media Arts Dept., Brooklyn Campus. Established in 1997, Reel Sisters (www.reelsisters.org) is dedicated to providing opportunities for women of color filmmakers to advance their careers in the film industry. Reel Sisters is the first Brooklyn-based film festival to showcase films directed, produced and written by women of color. Gender non-conforming filmmakers are welcomed to submit women centered films to the festival. Reel Sisters 21 Anniversary event will take place from Oct. 20-21, 2018. Reel Sisters will kick off on Sat., Oct. 6, 2018 with an afternoon of films in Harlem at Miller Theatre, 2960 Broadway (116 Street).

Awards & Prizes

Reel Sisters screens original films by women across the globe each year — the festival has screened over 3000 films since its inception. Awards for Best Director, Best Documentary, Best Experimental, Best Animation, Best Feature, Best Short, Best Narrative, Best Web Series and the Reel Sisters Spirit Award are selected by an independent jury composed of filmmakers, community leaders and artists. In 2016, Reel Sisters presented the Reel Sisters/Centric Awards, which includes a distribution deal with Centric/BET Networks. The cash awards depend on our funding level. It was a pleasure to bring back our scholarship awards to the film festival and with your support we can continue this tradition.

Rules & Terms

GENERAL RULES

TRANSLATION: Your film must be English dubbed or have English subtitles if it is in any other language.

To submit a film:

- You are required to send us a downloadable link of your film via FilmFreeway only. Please contact FilmFreeway staff if you have any issues uploading your film and making it downloadable for our production staff if you receive an acceptance letter.

- We will need trailer links from Vimeo and Youtube to help promote your film in our festival. Please submit them with your application.

- Complete the details required, providing brief synopsis of the film, credits, production stills and additional promotional items. We accept photographs in all formats including JPEGs, TIFFs and EPS (electronic photos must be 300 dpi resolution for promotional purposes).

- Entries must be postmarked by the deadline.

- Entry fees cover a small portion of the festival’s administrative costs for processing submissions and are non-refundable. No waivers.

**Failure to deliver a digital screening file on time Forfeits any previous accepted invitation
2 Reviews
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  • Constance Ejuma

    Love this festival! Really encouraged by the amount of support we got from them from their social media outlets not to speak of the opportunity they created for us to get media exposure from a well known blog. To top it off, my film got recognized and won a top prize which was very exciting. I can't wait to submit my next film to Reel Sisters!

    November 2016
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    Response from festival:

    Constance, it was our deepest pleasure! Our team worked hard to give you the best experience that we could! We're looking forward to seeing your next film at Reel Sisters! Thanks for your review!

  • Dawn Jones Redstone

    Really great to attend this festival. They really put filmmakers first!

    October 2016
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you for your review! Our Reel Sisters team enjoyed having you enjoy the journey with us! Wishing you continued success with Sistas In the Brotherhood! It is a film deserving greater recognition and audience!