INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL, SCREENING, & ACTING FILM FESTIVAL ~ participants being notified of winning status on September 20th 2024 with promotions and screenings early Nov 2024 TBA in West Los Angeles.

Top producers, directors and actors will receive prizes contracts & laurels along with IMDb credit. TOP PRIZE FOR OVERALL BEST OF WINNERS post production (finishing funds) and or distribution offers. Guaranteed screening and offers to be promoted in the markets if needed.

Winning overall best gets representation offer to be promoted screened and pitched world wide winning markets such as Cannes Marché Du Film, AFM American Film Market. European Film Market, Film London Production Finance Market, MIPCOM Cannes, ASIA TV Forum and Market, BANFF Media Festival. Toronto International Film Festival. Depending on what market your project needs.

Winning shorts offered contract for compilation Series.

* Shorts * Features * TV Series * Acting Reels * Unfinished Features * Pitch * Made for TV Films *

Overall best of the Festival Winners are offered a post production or distribution offer for features or in the short category compensation and request to be included for the best of the festival compilation along side famous actors like Sean Astin, D.B. Sweeney and Michael Muhney.

Awards & Prizes

TOP PRIZE FOR OVERALL BEST OF WINNERS post production (finishing funds) /or distribution offers + WINNER LAUREL - Guaranteed screening In CA -
Winning shorts offered contract for compilation Series.

Other winning categories 1-5 with 5 being the Best and up for top prize!

1) SELECTED: accepted into the contest = OFFICIAL SELECTION LAUREL

2) SEMI-FINALIST: accepted into the contest = SEMI-FINALIST LAUREL

3) FINALIST: accepted into the contest & promoted on the website and social media = FINALIST SELECTION LAUREL and IMDb credit

4) WINNERS & RUNNERS-UP: accepted into the contest and promoted on website & social media, IMDb credit = WINNER LAUREL shorts and Features Screened in the festival

5) OVERALL BEST OF WINNERS AKA BLUE DIAMOND WINNERS promoted on the website, social media; along with post production (finishing funds) /or distribution offers = WINNER LAUREL - Shorts and Features Screened in the festival and sales promoter or agent offer to take your project to the markets.

Rules & Terms

CONTEST:

You must not have current distribution. All submitting must have approval to submit from owner or be the owner of their project or actor in a reel.

Overall BEST of Winners for features, tv and shorts, will receive a guaranteed screening premiere and distribution offer, unfinished features or tv post production funds and reels and acting contract offer in a feature film.

All Category Winners, Overall best of WINNERS and 1st runner-ups are guaranteed to receive IMDb credit, laurels.

Not all film selected in the festival will be screened. Chosen Award Winners winners get a screening and representation. You will be notified no later than September 20th. Please allow one to two months after submitting your project to be judged. Not all accepted will be promoted, only top winners.

In addition, finalists and Award winners who do not respond to emails requiring more information or copies of films will not be screened. Please make sure you have confirmation 4 months prior to event to make sure you are going to be screened. There will be dates and instructions to follow to make sure you quality for a screening.
90 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Koura Linda

    Updating to add at the time of reviewing the festival (months after the festival) the information was not on their website.

    We got an email notifying us of the festival and then did not hear from them again.

    I always hesitate to leave a bad review (it takes a LOT) - we emailed them for months trying to find out what happened and then only heard back from them after they replied to our review here (where they first said they couldn't even find our project as an official selection, so I'm not exactly sure what the organization is like on there end but it seems a bit scattered).

    Their subsequent emails were incredibly passive-aggressive (when not just outright rude), defensive, and seeking to make me as wrong as possible.

    I don't care that we didn't win anything - it's a festival - we win some we lose some that is how it works. :)

    It is frustrating to have zero communication and be left hanging with no updates for months after the festival occurs only to have them lash out when we left a review after emailing them for months with zero replies, trying to find out what happened.

    Original review:
    Never posted the results of the festival. Website is (still) out of date. Never heard back from them. Unfortunately while we recommend a lot of festivals, can not recommend this one.

    October 2023
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    Response from festival:

    Wait, I'm confused the results have been up a while on our website and I not sure why your confused your project was mark selected (which you are notified in Filmfreeway) a while ago, way before the festival was over. Our festival rules state that Semi-finalists and finalist get awards and laurels. I'm sorry you feel this way, we wrote and even mailed all the winners prior to the festival and offered to mail trophies for those not coming as well. But you were not one of those, you should have known from the website and filmfreeway your project didn't get past selected. At first I though you were talking about IMDb results so I am editing this response as you said Website. You wrote us 2 months after the festival and expected us to be checking out email regularly for an annual event that just passed. Please see the rules for selected projects on our page. We also emailed them to you (recently). For a festival that has been around less than others we get more positive unsolicited reviews than most others I see that have been around longer and it's just sad you would go post a negative one for a mistake on your part.

  • Antonio J. Medina

    I traveled from LA to attend, having so many passionate film souls was heart healthy and a milestone to remember. Thank you to the festival team for what you do, looking forward to another successful event.

    August 2023
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  • Sabrina Layman

    It was my favorite film festival!! Everyone was so helpful and friendly, and I enjoyed every moment! It was an honor to be included in the Spotlight International Film Festival and win an award for the Best High School Short film, and I hope to return again next year!!

    August 2023
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  • First City Films

    Organizers, Jessica and Tiffany, go out of their way to make you feel welcome and important. There are quite a few awards and categories such as shorts, scripts and features. They have an acting demo reel competition too. Last years' reception was a bit better, but still had fun this year. Venue was nice. If you want even a little exposure for yourself or your film, it is definitely worth your submission.

    August 2023
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  • Ernest Dempsey

    It's a really wonderful event and it was a pleasure to have my screenplay a winner at the festival. Keep up the good work.

    August 2023
    Helpful