South Texas International Film Festival
General Submission Guidelines
1. The 9th edition of the South Texas International Film Festival (STXIFF) will be held from September 14 to 16, 2023 in Edinburg, Texas.
2. The South Texas International Film Festival is hosted and organized by the City of Edinburg.
3. Call for entries for the 9th STXIFF will open on December 1, 2022. Final submissions close at 11:59 PM on May 2, 2023. Deadlines will have four different dates:
Early Bird Entry: December 1 - December 22, 2022
Regular Entry: December 23 - March 23, 2023
Late Entry: March 24 - April 12, 2023
Extended Entry: April 13 - May 2, 2023
4. The Official Selection will be announced on June 15, 2023 via email to filmmakers and through the STXIFF social media platforms.
5. All genres and subgenres are accepted.
6. Submissions will be considered incomplete if the following are not included in the initial FilmFreeway submission: Film, Poster, and Synopsis. The submitter is responsible for ensuring that their screener link and password are active throughout the entire submission cycle. In the event of a password or URL change after submitting, email arts@cityofedinburg.com immediately.
7. Feature films must be between sixty (60) minutes and one-hundred and twenty (120) minutes in length, including credits. Short films must be between two (2) minutes and thirty (30) minutes, including credits. Music Videos must be between two (2) minutes and five (5) minutes.
8. All films will be eligible for a possible showcase, but to be eligible for competition and thus an award, the film:
a) Must have been completed after January 1, 2021.
b) Must not be publicly available online or physically for purchase or renting. The film may be online but private (i.e. password or private link) or streaming at a film festival. Music Videos and Young Filmmakers are exempt from this guideline (8b).
c) Must have the rights to all songs and other copyright material.
9. Film submissions will be admitted only through FilmFreeway.
10. The minimum requirement for selected films is H.264 codec in resolution 1920x1080.
11. If selected, you must submit the following by July 15, 2023 by 11:59 PM Central Standard Time:
a) Film projection file
b) High Resolution vertical film poster
c) Two (2) to four (4) sentence film synopsis
d) Film trailer or teaser
e) Press picture of director(s) (HD)
f) One-paragraph biography of director(s)
g) Three (3) film stills
12. Submissions must be in English or have English subtitles at the time submitted.
13. Each film may only participate in one category. The competition categories for the 9th edition of the STXIFF are as follows:
a) RGV Short Film
A RGV film is considered a film that was predominantly produced and shot in the Rio Grande Valley (i.e. Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, Willacy, and Zapata Counties). Must include your City and State in the Submitter Information on FilmFreeway. If your address is not in the RGV and your film was produced and shot in the RGV, please email arts@cityofedinburg.com.
b) Texas Short Film
A Texas film is considered a film that was predominantly produced and shot in the state of Texas. Must include Texas as State in the Submitter Information on FilmFreeway. If your address is not inTexas and your film was produced and shot in Texas, please email arts@cityofedinburg.com.
c) Texas Feature Film
A Texas film is considered a film that was predominantly produced and shot in the state of Texas. Must include Texas as State in the Submitter Information on FilmFreeway. If your address is not inTexas and your film was produced and shot in Texas, please email arts@cityofedinburg.com.
d) U.S. Short Film
A U.S. film is considered a film that was predominantly produced and shot in the United States.
e) U.S. Feature Film
A U.S. film is considered a film that was predominantly produced and shot in the United States.
f) International Short Film
An International film is considered a film that was produced and shot anywhere in the world except for the United States.
g) International Feature Film
An International film is considered a film that was produced and shot anywhere in the world except for the United States.
h) Texas Young Filmmaker
A Texas Young Filmmaker short film is an animation, documentary, narrative or Pitch that was predominantly produced and shot in the State of Texas by Texas secondary education students (high school, middle school and junior high). Filmmaker must have been a secondary student during the time of production. Graduating high school before the start of the festival does not disqualify any filmmaker. This category is open to filmmakers 18 years of age or younger at the time of production. Must include birthdate in the Submitter Information and Student Project in Specifications on FilmFreeway. If selected, the STXIFF may ask the student filmmakers for a school ID.
i) Documentary Feature Film
A Documentary Feature Film is considered a film that was produced and shot in any part of the world.
j) Documentary Short Film
A Documentary Short Film is considered a film that was produced and shot in any part of the world.
k) Animation Film
An Animation film includes stop-motion and computer animation methods. An Animation film may be of feature-length or short and produced in any part of the world.
l) Music Video
The music video should be the official music video for that song by that artist, that is, the artist and/or label commissioned the video and have approved the creation. A Music Video may be produced and shot in any part of the world.
14. The Pitch Competition will take place on Saturday, September 16, 2023.
Selected writers must be present on the day of the event in order to qualify for a prize. The winner will be announced that same day at the STXIFF Award Ceremony. Participants must submit a title & logline, 200-300 word synopsis, and concept art in order for it to be considered complete. Participants may submit a script but it is not required. The complete guidelines for The Pitch will be available on the STXIFF website.
15. The 48-Hour Film Race will begin on Friday, September 8, 2023 and filmmakers must turn in their film on Sunday, September 10. The complete guidelines for The 48-Hour Film Race will be available on the STXIFF website.
16. A Jury of industry professionals will determine the winners of each category. The decisions will be final and unappealable and will be announced during the Award Ceremony.
17. Staff of the STXIFF and STXIFF Planning Committee members may not participate in any of the films which compete for an award. This includes but is not limited to actress, actor, director, writer, producer, or any other member of the production team of the film. If the producer and/or director wishes to appeal a crew member’s conflict of interest, they may do so by contacting the STXIFF staff before submitting a film. The STXIFF will review the appeal and give a response within 15 days of informing the STXIFF Staff. Deadline dates may be affected by your appeal; we recommend informing STXIFF Staff 1 month prior to a deadline.
18. By submitting your film, you grant permission to the Festival to use up to thirty (30) seconds of your film, trailer, stills, press picture, synopsis, bio, and all other submitted information for Festival promotion without limitation and at its sole and complete discretion in perpetuity for the production and promotion of the South Texas International Film Festival.
19. The South Texas International Film Festival takes all necessary precautions to prevent copy and intellectual rights from being stolen, however, the film submitter takes all responsibility for any loss and stolen property by submitting to STXIFF and will to the maximum extent allowed by law agree to indemnify and hold harmless and defend the City of Edinburg, the South Texas International Film Festival, its agents, employees, officers, and volunteers from and against any claim, loss, damage, liability, and expense including reasonable attorney’s fees, incurred or suffered by them by reason of all claims, demands, or causes of actions asserted or that may be asserted against any or all of the named parties, whether alleging intentional or negligent acts or omissions, and whether seeking compensatory or punitive damages, and involving, arising out of, or relating to the submission agreement and any other claims against any staff or agent of the South Texas International Film Festival and the City of Edinburg.
20. By submitting your film, you are allowing STXIFF to screen/stream your film during the event dates. If you decide to remove your film from screening, you must notify STXIFF staff at least two months prior to the event date. Your film will not be eligible for a prize if it does not screen during the event.
21. Any other situation not considered in these submission guidelines will be reviewed by the South Texas International Film Festival.
22. We recommend you carefully review these guidelines and please email arts@cityofedinburg.com if you have any additional questions.
23. DISCLAIMER: In an effort to ensure fairness and transparency within our regional film competition, we invite professional filmmakers from outside the Rio Grande Valley as part of the programming team to view and select the films in our RGV competition. This process provides an equal platform for all local filmmakers in the RGV.
