FESTIVAL DATES for the next edition: March 10-16, 2026 - Hybrid edition - Cinema Village, MRHS, Columbia University The Forum, West Harlem neighboring venues - and online.
PLEASE READ THE DESCRIPTION, THE RULES, and THE TERMS thoroughly before completing your submission. We are a HYBRID festival, and most films screen in-person and online, some only in-person (based on advance tickets sold), and some only online.
SRFF does NOT GIVE OUT FEE WAIVERS. It believes that doing so hurts the integrity of the competition, and it is not fair to filmmakers who do not get waivers. In exceptional cases, discount codes are offered to partner organizations or individual applicants, and special student discount waivers (with ID) are presented.
The same rules and entry fees should apply to all applicants, so no one film is favored over another. We understand the financial constraints of making films and the costs of submitting them to film festivals. However, we also feel that submitting for free does not help anyone, as it takes the seriousness and the commitment out of the process. Researching well and submitting your film only to the festivals that are a good match is essential and will best help you and your film's careers move forward.
SR Socially Relevantâ„¢ Film Festival NY is a film festival that focuses exclusively on socially relevant, human-interest stories that raise awareness of social problems by offering positive solutions through the powerful medium of cinema. SRFF believes creating a better world free of violence, hate, and crime is possible by raising awareness and knowledge about diverse cultures and the human condition.
SR Socially Relevantâ„¢ Film Festival New York shines the spotlight on filmmakers who tell compelling, socially relevant stories across a broad range of social issues without resorting to gratuitous violence or violent forms of filmmaking.
SRFF's human interest stories and character-driven films, including shorts, documentaries, narrative features, web series, children's movies, animation, and scripts in competition, reflect good storytelling.
SR films can be commercially viable and become box office successes when distributed through the proper channels and platforms. We connect filmmakers with our distributor industry partners.
SR Films are enlightening, uplifting, entertaining, but most of all, artistically appealing.
MISSION & OBJECTIVE
SRFF - Socially Relevant Film Festival New York is a festival that focuses on socially relevant film content and human interest stories covering a broad range of social issues.
SR aims to showcase socially relevant films of high artistic value that educate, enlighten, entertain, and are commercially viable. Socially Relevant films can be funny, dramatic, romantic, adventurous, comical, suspenseful, intellectual, historical, psychologically inclined, or tell a human story that matters. In short, SR films can be anything BUT boring!
THE MISSION of the Festival is to spotlight filmmakers and their films that tackle the social and environmental issues of the day without resorting to gratuitous violence, special effects, loud soundtracks, and sensationalism to draw in an audience. The festival supports its filmmakers beyond the weeklong festival through distribution deals made with industry partners, showcases of the selected films in other venues, events throughout the year, some major film markets and festivals, such as it has done at the Cannes Film Festival and overseas screenings of selected films in Paris, Berlin and elsewhere.
Occasionally, retrospectives are organized to make films from past and current editions available to viewers. This will be by invitation to selected filmmakers.
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
Artistic Director Nora Armani founded SRFF, a non-profit 501 c 3 film festival based in New York in 2013. SRFF launched in Manhattan, the world's entertainment capital, in March 2014 as the festival's inaugural year at the Quad Cinema in Greenwich Village in New York City.
SRFF has screened an international slate of over 795 films from 40 countries since its inception in 2013. The festival offers industry panels on Distribution, Storytelling, Diversity Casting, Marketing, and Film Finance in partnership with the School of Visual Arts Social Documentary Film School. It organizes spotlight panels on themes such as Empowering Women in the Film Industry, Marketing and Distribution, Low-budget Film Production workshop with SAG-AFTRA, and Filming in New York with the NY Governor's Office for Film and TV Development: script readings and more. New categories were added recently, such as children's films, web series, and animation.
Filmmaker Q&As follow most of the screenings where filmmakers are present. "Meet the Filmmaker" live broadcasts are held regularly and are broadcast live on the Festival's YouTube Channel and Facebook Page. The festival is devoted solely to filmmakers who create socially relevant film content. The film selections are made following the submission process on FilmFreeway.
The launch of the Socially Relevant Film Festival coincides with the growing trend of socially conscientious consumers seeking choices from the invasive films that rely on gratuitous violence and sensationalism used to generate box office numbers.
PRODUCTION YEAR and PREMIERE STATUS:
Films MUST be at least NEW YORK PREMIERES to qualify for the competition selection, preferably US or North American premieres or even World Premieres.
For documentary films, the completion date can be three years back (for SRFF 2026, we will go back to 2023). The documentaries submitted should be made on January 1st, three years before the festival year, or later, meaning January 1st, 2023, or later.
For narrative features, the completion date is two years back. For SRFF 2026, we will go back two years to 2024. Feature films should be made less than two years before the festival year or later, meaning January 1st, 2024, or after.
Short films follow the same guidelines, though in most cases, we are more flexible regarding the New York premiere status and the year of completion, but not older than 2022.
AWARDS & PRIZES:
The VANIA EXERJIAN AWARD For Empowering Women and Girls is offered to a film of choice by the festival director in memory of her cousin Vania Exerjian, who was the victim of a hate crime against a woman. This film is chosen across all categories.
Best NARRATIVE FEATURE PRIZE:
Donated by festival partner Cinema Libre Studio of Los Angeles, in-kind winning awards (a total value of $20-25K) are awarded.
A Jury Special Prize is presented in this category at the Jury's discretion.
Best DOCUMENTARY FILM PRIZE:
Donated by festival partner Cinema Libre Studio of Los Angeles, a leader in distribution and production. This award may not be exchanged for a monetary reward but only in kind.
A Jury Special Prize is presented in this category at the Jury's discretion.
The INDIEPIX VISION AWARD: Our industry partner, IndiePix, offers this award to a feature film or documentary of their choice amidst the selection of titles. This entails a distribution deal on IndiePix.
The HERFLIX Award: Our industry partner, HerPix, offers this award to a woman-directed feature film, documentary, or short of their choice amidst the selection of titles. This entails a distribution deal on HerPix.
The short film jury often comprises filmmakers from previous years of the festival selection and awards the best short film prizes in the narrative short and documentary short categories.
Women Film Critics Circle Award - offered by the Women Film Critics for a narrative short or feature directed by a woman.
SCREENWRITING:
Up to three finalists in the best screenplay competition category submitted to the festival, selected by a special jury, are offered the InkTip and ISA (International Scriptwriting Association) awards, offering high visibility for the winning scripts through their platforms free of charge.
InkTip Script Listing: Winners will receive a 3-month InkTip Pro Membership. As an InkTip Pro Member, thousands of filmmakers can find and read your scripts, and you'll be able to pitch directly to production companies every week. With over 3,000 options and 400 movies made, InkTip is the place for independent film.
Network ISA offers a similar prize which includes a six-month inclusion on their platform, which is usually a paying service, to the winning scripts.
Programming of the festival films is done by the collective and professionals on the advisory and selection committee; the team curates the final program based on these recommendations. We favor submissions that are made through our submissions platform, FilmFreeway.
The Jury of the different categories comprises distinguished and established international and US professionals from all disciplines, and the voting takes place confidentially and anonymously.
1. Best Narrative Feature: Winning feature film. 1/2 day consultation with Cinema Libre for deliverables, packaging, and promotion. New awards are negotiated and announced annually.
2. Best Documentary Feature: Winning Documentary Distribution deal with IndiePix. Packaging and Consultation from Cinema Libre for the winning Documentary and discounts for post-production work.
Distribution on Digital Platform IndiePix. Check the festival website for details. www.ratedsrfilms.org
3. Screenwriting contest: Winners will receive a 3-month InkTip Pro Membership. As an InkTip Pro Member, thousands of filmmakers can find and read your scripts, and you'll be able to pitch directly to production companies every week. With over 3,000 options and 400 movies made, InkTip and ISA are the places for independent films. Other scriptwriting prizes include optioning a screenplay for possible production.
4. More awards are announced annually, depending on categories. Awards change, are added to and reformulated depending on Jury recommendations.
Best Narrative Feature.
Best Documentary Feature
Best Narrative Short
Best Documentary Short
The Vania Exerjian Honor Award.
Additional awards:
The IndiePix Vision Award - A winner selected by IndiePix from the festival slate.
The Women Film Critics Circle Award (WFCC) is selected from the narrative films.
The festival has also given out (upon merit, and this varies from year to year):
The Ingenuity Award is a film that has achieved a lot with nothing.
The SR Social Justice Award,
The Justice and Peace Award
The Lifetime Inspiration and/or Achievement Award
Pushing the Boundaries Award
Ensemble Film Award
Ingenuity Award
Brave Documentarist Award
Best Actor, Best Actress awards
The awards given out each year are selected from these award categories.
Award trophies designed and donated by our partners are offered to the winners. Lost Pattern silk scarves with the festival Logo are also available.
The festival presents the Justice and Peace Award, the Lifetime of Inspiration Award, the Career Recognition Award, the Empowering Women and Girls Award in memory of Vania Exerjian, and the Women Film Critics Circle Award, in addition to cash prizes and other smaller in-kind awards. These awards may develop in number and category, or change from one year to another.
SRFF reserves the right to:
* Use clips and images from the selected films for trailers and publicity usage:
and is protected by the filmmakers from any third-party claims.
* Screen the winning films in other SRFF-related events internationally and recommend the winning films to other international partner film festivals that collaborate with SRFF upon approval by the filmmakers.