Rules & Terms:
We strongly encourage you to review the following carefully. By submitting your project, you acknowledge that you have read and agreed to all of the following rules and terms. All projects that have been submitted by our final deadline and that adhere to the following terms will be considered for inclusion in the 2026 Royal Starr Film Festival.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:
Each submission must be accompanied by a submission fee paid in full and a working screener in order to be considered. Once we have all necessary materials, the submission will be marked “In Consideration”. It is the submitter’s responsibility to make sure that all requirements are met.
If your film has not been listed “In Consideration” within 7 business days of submission, please contact us to find out what is needed to move your film into consideration. Press kits and cover letters are not required but are appreciated.
If you wish to submit either, please attach it to your submission. Or email it to info@royalstarr.org
Hard copies sent to our office and will NOT be returned.
Films that are publicly available on any of the video sharing sites, VOD for free or pay or may be disqualified from competition but still screened at the discretion of the RSAI staff.
By submitting a film, promotional material or images, the submitter acknowledges that consent has been obtained from any and all owners, creators, writers, producers and/or other authorized representatives and that permission of any copyrighted or trademarked materials or content has been granted.
When submitting to the festival you are agreeing that, if selected and the invitation accepted, to screen the submitted film during the dates of the festival. RSFF will not pay any screening fees for presentation of the film during the festival.
SCREENERS
All projects must be submitted via secure online screener - either as a password protected Vimeo link attached to your submission, or uploaded directly to FilmFreeway. The submitter is responsible for ensuring that their screener link and password is active through at least September 31, 2026. In the event of a password or URL change after submitting, email us immediately. If we discover an error with the screener, we will attempt to email the submitter for an update. Failure to respond by the final submission deadline will result in disqualification without refund of submission fees. Online screeners must be available to stream, we do not accept any films that must be downloaded.
We DO NOT accept DVD or Blu-Ray screeners. In addition, we cannot accept screener links via email.
SUBTITLES
All foreign-language films must be submitted with English subtitles. If we discover a submission is missing subtitles, we will attempt to email the submitter for an update. Failure to provide working subtitles by the final submission deadline (May 30th, 2026) will result in disqualification without refund of submission fees.
WORKS IN PROGRESS
Works-in-progress are accepted with the following stipulations:
Incomplete projects must be clearly listed as such. Films should be marked as either a “Rough Cut” or “Work In Progress/WIP”. All incomplete materials or changes to be made should be clearly indicated (ex: temporary score, missing VFX, no color-correction) both in your cover letter and the film cut itself (ideally as a title card at the start of the film). The entrant may update their screener up until the final deadline, as long as the link and password for the submission remains the same. However, RSFF is only responsible for considering the project as it exists at the time of review. We are under no obligation to revisit updated cuts once a screener has been seen. Therefore, you should not submit your project if it is not complete enough to adequately represent the final product. Updated cuts must be accessible via your FilmFreeway account. We cannot accept updated cuts via email.
No updated cuts will be accepted after the final submission deadline: May 31, 2026. If selected, the final version of the film must be available by June 30, 2026.
SUBMISSION CATEGORIES
Please review all submission categories carefully before submitting your project. Awards will be determined based on which category the project is submitted for. All entrants are required to pay the submission fee of their film’s appropriate category. If you believe you have submitted your film to the wrong category, contact us immediately. While we can typically facilitate a change in category, the entrant will be responsible for any changes in submission fees. We cannot offer partial refunds for categories with a smaller fee. If the new category has a higher fee, the entrant is responsible for paying the difference.
Submission to multiple categories is not encouraged. Please read category descriptions carefully to determine where your submission belongs. If the entrant wishes to submit to multiple categories, a separate submission fee must be paid for each category. RSFF reserves the right to determine eligibility of a submission in each respective category. Refunds will not be offered for submission to an inappropriate category.
MICHIGAN FILM
The Michigan Film category is for any project that was at least partially filmed in Michigan AND/OR made by a filmmaker (Director, Cinematographer, Producer) who resides in the state of Michigan. Films programmed from the Michigan Film category will be eligible for the Michigan Film Award as well as any other juried categories that we may deem appropriate. If you submit to this category without meeting the necessary criteria, you will be disqualified from consideration for the festival and will not be issued a refund.
Please note, submitting in this category makes no difference to the chances of being accepted into the festival, as all local films must stand alongside the other films in Royal Starr Film Festival’s programming. The Michigan Film category is intended as a way to support our local filmmaking community by offering a budget-friendly means of entry (this category also helps us narrow down locally produced projects within the hundreds of submissions received each year).
COMPLETION DATE
All projects must have been completed on or after January 1, 2024 to be considered for the 2026 Royal Starr Film Festival.
PREMIERE STATUS
We do not require a World Premiere in any category, but premiere status is taken into consideration when making final selections.
DEADLINES
Please keep track of deadlines closely if you plan on submitting within a certain submission window. All deadlines are set for 11:59pm EST.
Any submissions with an unpaid balance after a deadline will be required to pay the following deadline’s submission fee. Failure to pay the appropriate fee will result in disqualification without a refund.
ACCEPTED FILMS
All works selected must be available by June 30, 2026 for inclusion in the festival. Should your film be accepted in the 2026 Royal Starr Film Festival, you grant RSFF the right to utilize an excerpt from any film submitted and accepted for exhibition at the Festival for promotional purposes.
All accepted films will screen at least once during the festival, with the possibility of an encore screening for select films/shorts blocks when appropriate. All scheduling is purely at the discretion of the RSFF staff.
Physical hard drives are NOT recommended and will only be returned with an additional handling fee. We highly recommended sending it online.
The Royal Starr Film Festival, at its sole discretion, reserves the right to waive, alter, add, delete or make exceptions to the submissions requirements and eligibility.
