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Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival (SFFSFF) is an annual film festival hosted by MoPOP and SIFF to celebrate new and innovative additions to the science fiction and fantasy cinematic arts. SFFSFF is in its fifteenth year featuring animated and live-action science fiction and fantasy films from around the world, which are then judged by nationally-recognized film critics prior to the festival in early 2020.

This wildly popular festival has sold out for the last ten years in a row, packing the house with enthusiastic fans from the region’s sci-fi, fantasy, and film communities. Films from SFFSFF have also received international distribution and sparked the interest of a vast network of film fans, including being nominated for Academy Awards, featured in museum exhibitions, and more.

SFFSFF is now collecting submissions for the 2020 film festival. All films entering the festival must have been completed no earlier than January 2015 and should be no longer than 15 minutes in length.* Films will be accepted from July 16 through October 14, 2019.

*Films that exceed 15 minutes may still be considered for the festival, but will not be eligible for awards.

Important Dates:
July 16, 2019—Call for Entries Open
August 19, 2019—Early Submissions Due $20
September 17, 2019—Regular Deadline $30
October 14, 2019—Late Deadline $40
January 2020—Notification of Acceptance
December 23, 2019—Film Print due
March 2020—SFFSFF (Exact date TBA)

Awards & Prizes

Grand Prize, Second Place, Third Place, Douglas Trumbull Award for Best Special Effects, and Audience Favorite.

Rules & Terms

Completion Date:
Films must have been completed no earlier than January 2015.

Film Length and Genre:
Films must be no longer than 15 minutes.* Films are selected on the basis of quality and originality, and preference is given to original premieres.

*Films that exceed 15 minutes may still be considered for the festival, but will not be eligible for awards.

Animated or live-action

Science fiction or fantasy (examples: futuristic stories, space adventure, technological speculation, social experiments, utopia and dystopia, sword and sorcery, folklore, urban fantasy, magic, and mythic adventure)

Presentation:
Selected films must be made available for presentation as high-resolution digital files (2k or 1080p resolution [.mov file encoded using Apple ProRes 422 or equivalent pro codec] or hi-res mpeg-4 file). Accepted films must arrive as high-resolution digital files. Failure to provide the film in the specified format will result in the film being dropped from the festival. To ensure the wide variance of frame rates and resolutions conform properly to our system we convert the high quality files to DCP in house.

Language:
Foreign language films must be made available with the original language soundtrack and English subtitles.