Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival

If accepted for screening, your film will screen 26 – 29 March 2020 at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival.

Films of any completion date are eligible for submission. However, accepted films must not have been shown commercially anywhere in Northern California* prior to the festival.

*Excludes films curated for special programs

FILMS MUST BE SUBMITTED VIA ONLINE SCREENER ONLY THROUGH THE FOLLOWING PORTALS:
- FilmFreeway and its video player;
- Vimeo with its current password protected private link;
- YouTube as an unlisted link.
Passwords must not be changed until submissions have closed and notification of program films is announced.

If you absolutely cannot upload your film please email programming@sebastopolfilm.org for instructions on mailing a physical screener.

We do not accept rough cuts, subsequent cuts or more complete versions of submitted films, therefore changing or updating the originally submitted link is not accepted.

Each accepted film may be screened more than once during the Festival. It can be selected and exhibited once again during Best of the Fest, a series of monthly screenings following SDFF 2020, until year’s end.

There are no fee waivers. We are sensitive to this issue and keep our fees low. They offset a portion of our administrative costs in bringing you and your audience together.

FORMAT REQUIREMENTS:
Exhibition Formats:
Acceptable exhibition formats are QuickTime or ProRes files which can be delivered as a download link or mailed to SDFF on a SD card, flash drive or hard drive. If you have a DCP version of your film we will need a digital file backup copy (QuickTime or ProRes file) for your film as well. By entering your film, you agree to provide compatible exhibition format(s) at least 40 days before the start date of the festival to give SDFF print traffic manager time to QC your doc.

Before sending your media, please verify that your film plays correctly. Do not include menus, trailers and other special features.

LANGUAGE:
Foreign language films must be made available with English subtitles.

All entry deadlines are postmark deadlines. Entries postmarked after the final deadline might not be considered. Submission fees are non-refundable.

COMMUNICATION:
Each entry, by any means, needs to include the following contact information:

Director: Full name, email address, phone number, mailing address
Rights Holder [if different]: Full name, email address, phone number, mailing address
Distributor Contact: Full Name, email address, department, phone number, mailing address

You are responsible for updating SDFF directly regarding any change to your contact information and ensuring that emails from programming@sebastopolfilm.org are not blocked by spam filters.

ADDITIONAL TERMS OF ENTRY:
By submitting this documentary, I understand that I am agreeing to the following:
I own or control the copyright and am duly authorized to submit this film to Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival 2020. Should ownership or rights to my film change, this agreement to screen at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival 2020, will be upheld and not be infringed.

If accepted, I will not withdraw my film from SDFF 2020. Upon selection for screening at SDFF 2020 up to two minutes of footage from the film and materials accompanying my entry may be used for promotional purposes.