Rivercity Underground Film Festival

Rivercity Underground Film Festival (RUFF) has recently made changes as we continue to learn and grow with the idea that it is our privilege to serve the independent filmmaker and their works.
RUFF focus on avant-garde, art-house, independent and no/low budget film-making, this event will take place the 1st weekend of December in San Antonio, Texas.
Our program provides a venue for filmmakers to reinvent and explore new approaches, to foster new forms of media art and to build an audience for such work. We aim to present a wide range of work exploring the many definitions and interpretations of the concept of “underground”.
We’re looking for films made with passion, obsession and drive; films that go beyond expectations and genre; films, video and audio projects that strive to push the boundaries of accepted form and content. A strong sense of authorship is a must.

While we tend to stride to be a little outside the box when awarding filmmakers by opening up to several different genres and categories we will try our best to at least find the few diamonds in the rough in the following categories:

Best Movie
Best Director
Best Male Role
Best Female Role
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Sound Design
Best Student Film Highschool/College

All winners receive a unique certificate designed for the festival and festival laurel. Feature-length films will have the option of appearing on our podcast "Film Noobs" and a referral to our distribution partner (contracts are drawn on an individual basis, and are between the filmmaker and the distributor).

Official selections will receive festival laurel

We are IMDb approved festival

-Work must be original work submitted.

-Rivercity Underground Film Festival reserves the right to change the programming at any time.

-All genres considered.

-All non-English movies with dialogues or voice-overs must include English subtitles.

-Work completed by film students in high school and college must email a copy of their student ID or transcript of the current school year to rivercityundergroundff@yahoo.com to fully qualify for the category.

-We reserve the right to refuse to screen any submission deemed by the festival to be offensive, violent, or racist.

-The 2023 festival is for films produced in January 2021 or after.

-Judges' decisions are Final.

Overall Rating

Quality

Value

Communication

Hospitality

Networking

Drew Schwemer

I don’t think anything happened? I received a selection laurel then nothing. Google didn’t help find any proof of an event either.

January 2024

Helpful
Lisa Ovies

Always such an honour to play with this fantastic festival. Thank you so much!

January 2024

Helpful
Joseph Graham

This is a scam. Only "winners" play the festival. We were never informed if the film won anything or was going to be programmed or not. No laurels sent. Save your money.

January 2024

Helpful
Michael W. Roth

Was selected to be a part of the fest. Zero communication. Event date listed for January 13th. Reached out multiple times. Nothing

Thanks for the laurel i guess...

January 2024

Helpful
Arturo Javier Mireles

This is a great film festival for local talent to showcase their abilities using a shoe string budget. The organizers are very responsive and immediately communicated how the festival would be handled during the pandemic.

January 2021

Helpful

Response from festival:

Arturo,
We are very appreciative of your review and we hope to continue to provide that showcase for all talented filmmakers. Looking forward to your next film.