San Diego Art Film Fest

San Diego Art Film Festival is passionate about arthouse filmmaking, indie artists and aims to promote and recognize art film projects of all genres in various sections of the festival.

Every online edition, the committee of the festival recognizes and promotes independent artists working in media. Film critics and film studies scholars typically define an art film as possessing "formal qualities that mark them as different from mainstream Hollywood films".

These art film cinematic qualities can include (among other elements): a sense of social realism; an emphasis on the authorial expressiveness of the director; and a focus on the thoughts, dreams, or motivations of characters, as opposed to the unfolding of a clear, goal-driven story.

Film scholar David Bordwell describes art cinema as "a film genre, with its own distinct conventions". We are dedicated to art cinema and seek to promote art film projects and artists with U.S. and international projects. The festival is a firm believer in indie filmmaking's potential.

Artists and film projects are encouraged to submit their work to our committee.