Lights, camera, San Diego! The 8th Annual San Diego Film Week happened in America's Finest City every fall.

HIGHLIGHTS

Screening dozens of locally produced films
Happy Hours and Networking Mixers
Post Screening Q&A with the Filmmakers
Awards

SUBMISSION CATEGORIES
Film Week accepts locally made short and feature narrative and documentary films from student, independent and professional filmmakers.

CATEGORIES

Narrative or Experimental Short Films(under 45 minutes)
Documentary Short Films (under 45 minutes)
Narrative or Experimental Features Films (over 45 minutes)
Documentary Feature Films (over 45 minutes)

STUDENT CATEGORIES
Narrative Shorts (under 45 minutes)
Documentary Shorts (under 45 minutes)

ABOUT SAN DIEGO FILM WEEK
San Diego Film Week is a week-long celebration promoting the diverse filmmakers, actors, production companies, schools, artists and creatives that make up the San Diego film industry. Film Week’s mission is to showcase, celebrate and grow San Diego’s film industry.

Awards & Prizes

AWARDS AND PRIZES

We’re thrilled to share a big, heartfelt update for this year’s San Diego Film Week: our awards will now officially be called The Durbin Awards, named in honor of SDSU’s own Greg Durbin.

SAN DIEGO FILM WEEK 2025 TENTATIVE AWARDS
Best Short Documentary
Best Comedy
Best Drama
Best Horror
Best Sci-Fi
Best Documentary
Reverse Storytelling- Filmmakers are encouraged to rethink structure, play with time, and craft narratives that unfold in unexpected ways. We can’t wait to see how our community rises to the challenge and continues to elevate what San Diego filmmaking can be.

Rules & Terms

DETAILED ELIGIBILITY
Films released after January 1, 2024 and produced in San Diego county or Tijuana/Rosarito Mexico utilizing 80% cast, crew, and locations from San Diego or Tijuana/Rosarito are eligible for the 2025 San Diego Film Week. Non-local films made by Film Consortium/SD Film Awards/SD Film Week Alumni are also considered for the festival-*

*If you are a non-local film made by a Film Consortium/SD Film Week/ or SD Film Awards Alumni, Please make sure to note this in your submission under the custom questions section and/or in the cover letter.

STUDENT FILMS
Student films must have been produced for an official college level or high school level class or workshop in order to be eligible for awards in the student category.

RULES
Is your responsibility to promote and market the screening of your film in order to ensure attendance and participation by your cast, crew, and associates.

Upon acceptance, you confirm that your film is not and will not be made available online or accessible to the general public prior to its screening for 2025 San Diego Film Week. If it is online and you are willing to take it down or make it inaccessible to the public during the duration of the festival, please send us an email at filmconsd@gmail.com to ask for an exception.

You confirm that your film has not and will not screen publicly at a film festival or other venue in San Diego County prior to its screening for 2025 San Diego Film Week. We will make limited exceptions to this rule, please send us an email at filmconsd@gmail.com to ask for an exception.

Upon acceptance and programming of the film schedule, Film Week reserves the right to cancel any screenings that do not meet a minimum threshold of ticket sales by 7 days prior to the screening. This helps us insure that we cover our minimum costs and supports the long term sustainability of San Diego Film Week.

Film Week reserves the right to reject films that have already screened in San Diego County or films that are already available online if a waiver was not requested or granted.

Film Consortium San Diego reserves the right to disqualify any films at any time in the awards process for violations or misconduct, plagiarism, etc.

REFUNDS
All submission fees are NON-REFUNDABLE.

MEDIA AND MATERIALS
We cannot guarantee that any media and materials provided for the festival will be returned unless specific requests are made.

QUESTIONS OR TO ASK FOR EXCEPTIONS:
For questions or to ask for exceptions to the rules please email filmconsd@gmail.com

10 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Anthony Palmiotto

    SDFW 2023 offered a week-long celebration of local films, and workshops. The festival kicked off with a networking event at a local film studio, and closed out with a classy awards night in Balboa Park. The encore performance was a special screening of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!", a cult classic filmed right here, followed by a chat with the filmmakers. Everything was well planned out and my cast and crew had an excellent time. Thanks, SDFW!

    December 2023
    Helpful
  • Brent Bokovoy

    I love San Diego film week! This year they had a ton of great local films and workshops. The film parties and award shows are really fun and a great place to network with others in the industry.

    November 2023
    Helpful
  • jeff arballo

    This was our first experience with San Diego Film Week and San Diego Film Awards and we have to say that we were so impressed with the attention to detail and organization of all of the different screening and events. The Organizers of San Diego Film Week kept in contact with us as our film was being screened and provided more than enough staff to accommodate ticketing, answer questions and support the screening. I would highly recommend this event to anyone who is showcasing their film. IT is among the Best of the Best!

    July 2019
    Helpful
  • Anthony Grimm

    Great Festival! We were nominated for a San Diego Film Award and enjoyed the showing.

    July 2019
    Helpful
  • Ace Davis

    I had a great time, the people were great and the experience was amazing. Can't wait for next year!

    May 2019
    Helpful