What do Ron Howard, Christine Lahti, Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg have in common? Their film directing careers were launched from a short film.

Roselle Park Short Film Festival is looking for future Academy Award-winning film directors by giving aspiring filmmakers their break. We will showcase their work before a live audience, which will provide feedback and the opportunity to have audience reaction.

The Roselle Park Short Film Festival stands out from your typical film event. It is part of a larger day-long outdoor festival of the fine arts, film, and music. Nowhere else can you walk in the middle of hometown "main street" surrounded by professional artists, music and international foods of your choice while enjoying short film blocks taking place at two locations - better known as the Roselle Park Arts Festival

Check out last year's festival including the shorts fest at www.rplovesarts.org/

The Original Roselle Park Loves International Shorts! Film Festival has evolved into the Roselle Park Shorts Film Festival. Through a new partnership with Kean University's Robert Busch School of Design, our Roselle Park Arts Festival has elevated its program branding to a wider, more culturally diverse and accepting arts audience.

This year, we are recognizing the diversity of our community and state with a celebration of short films and filmmakers about the culture and communities of India and Latin America. See our special 2018 categories and we encourage filmmakers to submit.

Roselle Park Shorts Festival welcomes the breakout artist as well as the seasoned professional to screen their best, edgy, thought-provoking, colorful and inspiring work of art. Special emphasis is placed on newcomers in the field of film and the teenage filmmaker looking for an arena in which to showcase their art.

The Roselle Park Shorts!Film Festival prefers short films 10 minutes or less but will consider films 25 mins or less including credits. Special recognition will be given for submissions which use iPhone, iPad, or Android as their central means of filmmaking. As a special feature of the Film Fest, we encourage teenagers to submit their original work. (see terms and conditions for this year's festival)

We are true grassroots arts organization. We do not make a profit from this event. And, it's free for attendees to screen films on Festival Day! Our goal is simply to help other artist and to promote Roselle Park, New Jersey USA as an arts-friendly and welcoming community!

The Short Film Festival is part of Roselle Park Arts Festival annual day-long celebration of all the arts featuring local, statewide and professional artists in a variety of media! Touted by Roselle Park News as the #1 event in 2015. The arts festival welcomed visitors to outdoor showcases of artists, Master Classes, discussions of film, animation, gaming, dance, music, and ending with an evening of Jazz.

Roselle Park Shorts Film Festival was created from a desire of artists and volunteers from various professions looking to host a diversity of newcomers and professionals in the field of filmmaking so they may network and build their portfolio.

The film, music and art portion of the Roselle Park Arts Festival is a part of the ongoing efforts to promote the growing Arts community and diversity in Roselle Park, New Jersey, part of the New York City metropolitan area. Visitors are a mere 20 minutes from downtown Manhattan by car and there is easy accessibility by New Jersey Transit train or bus. Roselle Park Shorts and Roselle Park Arts are only minutes by foot from either the NYC bus or train.

P.S. - If you are wondering which short films our notables directed - Howard directed "Cards, Cads, Guns, Gore and Death"; Lahti directed "Lieberman in Love"; Lee directed "Joe's Bear Stay Barbershop: We Cut Heads"; Spielberg directed NBC's "Night Gallery segment "Eyes." So will you be the next on the list?

Awards & Prizes

Shorts chosen for the Film Fest will be recognized as an "Official Selection" of the Roselle Park Shorts Film Festival. Selections will be welcomed to a "meet and greet" networking event where you will meet other filmmakers and notable special guests.

Judges' selection of awardees will receive the one of a kind, official Roselle Park Short Film Festival trophy and will be announced during the day-long Roselle Park ARTS festival. Winners will also be interviewed by local news outlets and placed on RP Arts social media and website.

Rules & Terms

Roselle Park Short Film Festival Rules and Terms:

Submit your movie via FilmFreeway.com

Short films of all genres are accepted. The Festival prefers short films 10 minutes or less but will consider short films no longer than 25 minutes in length, both including title and credits.

For pre-screening, the Festival only accepts film submissions on via FlimFreeway.com, Vimeo, YouTube, or another online line screener with links and passcodes if necessary to view the film.

Films can be with dialogs, silent or without dialogs. Films in languages other than English require English subtitles and should retain the original language audio.

Roselle Park Short Film Festival reserves the right to select entrants based on scheduling and other factors. Films that trivialize or glorify violence or weapons will not be considered.

Student films must be produced by a student enrolled in a school (junior high school, high school, college, or graduate school), including teenage filmmakers. Proof will be required. To be considered under student or teenage category, the film-maker must be a student or teenager at the time of the film submission. Homeschooled teenagers will be accepted with proof of age and homeschool status.

No more than two entries will be accepted as long as they are submitted separately. Entered films public release date can be no older than January 1, 2015. Roselle Park Shorts Film Festival are open to all international, national, regional, or local filmmakers. Prior Roselle Park Short Film Festival award winners will not be considered for entry. Emphasis will be placed on filmmakers who can attend the film festival screenings and/or activities.

After an acceptance email has been sent, filmmakers are responsible for permitting the festival to send or download a copy of the film. If the entrant does not allow or permit the Festival access to the film, the Festival reserves the right to reject the film for the festival and the acceptance email will be null and void.

Deadlines

Final Deadline
MUST BE RECEIVED BY THE ADDRESS ABOVE BY August 1, 2018 TO BE CONSIDERED BY JUDGES

Extended Deadline - May be permitted at the sole discretion of the Festival.

Films not in English MUST submit one version of the film with English subtitles

If selected, please have photo stills of the short film including a still of the director, writer, and film stills, and include a synopsis, production credits to send to us immediately after being notified. Any press, film description, and writer and director's bio must be sent upon festival selection notification. Photos should be in JPEG format at least 300 dpi.
Roselle Park Short Film Festival reserves the right to secure substitute materials from other sources.

Reproduction acknowledgment
Film entrants give Roselle Park Shorts Film Festival and its affiliates full rights to have work exhibited, photographed, locally telecast, posted on Roselle Park Shorts Film Festival and Roselle Park Arts website and Facebook page, and other social media and other media reproduced in part of promotional purposes.

Term & Conditions

All decisions are final.

By the submission of a film to the Roselle Park Shorts Festival the entrant/submitter/filmmaker hereby grants the right to utilize an excerpt or the full film from any film submitted and/or accepted for exhibition at the Festival for promotional purposes or any other Roselle Park Short Film programs or activities beyond the Festival program.

Roselle Park Short Film Festival's cancellation policy:
The Festival reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to cancel any event due to a storm, power outage, flood, war, civil unrest, fire, earthquake or any other circumstance deemed beyond the Festival's control. Our policy is to cancel all movie screenings during severe storms and power outages until electrical power is stable and restored in order to protect projection and audio equipment from potentially permanent damage.

Submission a film, by the Filmmaker hereby irrevocably offers to Roselle Park Shorts Film Festival the right to screen the film, at the 2018 Roselle Park Loves Arts festival at times to be determined by the Festival in its sole discretion. The Filmmaker hereby grants the right to utilize an excerpt or the full film from any film submitted and/or accepted for exhibition at the Festival for promotional purposes or any other Roselle Park Shorts Film programs or activities beyond the Festival program. Filmmaker understands and agrees that once Festival accepts Filmmaker’s offer by selecting the Film for the Festival, Filmmaker shall have no right to remove the Film from the Festival, If Festival selects the Film for the Festival, Festival shall have the irrevocable right, but not the obligation, to screen the film at the 2018 Roselle Park Shorts Film Festival, in Festival’s sole discretion.

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 Roselle Park Shorts Film Festival, Roselle Park Arts and its Festival, and the Borough of Roselle Park, its employees, volunteers and its affiliates, harmless 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 in connection with the Film involving copyright, trademark, credits, publicity, screening, and loss of or damage to the screening videos entered. In particular, the Filmmaker expressly warrants it has obtained all necessary copyright clearances for original works of authorship used in the film.

If accepted, the contact person must respond to all requested items by the deadline given in the acceptance email or risk being rejected from the festival.

Roselle Park Shorts Film Festival reserves the right to cancel or change screening dates without prior contact.

Questions can be directed to RoselleParkLovesShortsFilmFest@gmail.com and note in the title RP Shorts Question.

We encourage the filmmakers to enjoy the film fest, love the opportunity to show film and network, and enjoy the Arts Festival and all the Roselle Park has to offer.
18 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Betty Ouyang

    Roselle Park Short Film Festival awarded me with the Directors Choice Award 2018 for my debut-short "Father's Day", and as a kid growing up in the tri-state area, I felt really honored. The Filmmaker Q&A was very well-done and thorough. I hope RPSFF continues to grow and expand. This year they had a panel with BuzzFeed, and it would be great if they could keep adding events like these for the filmmakers. Cheers!

    October 2018
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  • John Hedlund

    A smaller festival but with great networking opportunities.

    October 2018
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  • Digital Kinetoscope

    Roselle Park Shorts Festival is a lovely little film fest set in a quaint neighborhood as part of an overall arts festival, which made it a wonderful way to spend a day and screen your film to a great audience.

    October 2018
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  • Taylor Schafer

    I loved that this festival took place during a larger arts festival. It allowed me to check out work from many other artists along with seeing films throughout the afternoon. There was a nice Q&A and I felt welcomed and appreciated by the festival staff and the other filmmakers present, who were open to networking. The screening center I was in had a decent projector and speakers (along with free popcorn!) but it wasn't really made for a movie screening. Overall I would highly recommend this festival for screening in a small and welcoming setting with other indie filmmakers (most of which were first-time filmmakers, including me)!

    October 2018
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  • Grace Zhang

    Nice! Nice!Nice!...I feel good…See you next year…

    October 2018
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