Superfest Disability Film Festival is the longest running disability film festival in the world. Since it first debuted in a small Los Angeles showcase in 1970 it has become an eagerly anticipated international event. Previously hosted by San Francisco's Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University, this marks the first year that it will be hosted by the San Francisco Disability Cultural Center. For more than 30 years, Superfest has celebrated cutting-edge cinema that portrays disability through a diverse, complex, unabashed and engaging lens. Superfest is one of the few festivals worldwide that is accessible to disabled filmgoers of all kinds. If your film is selected, we'll include it in our Superfest Showcases after the Superfest core festival is complete, but you can opt out at any time.

Awards & Prizes

*Awards are changed every year based on what the jury decides. Below are the awards that have been offered in the past.

Best of Festival: Full Length Feature
A work of exceptional quality. The film judged to be the most outstanding full length feature film.

Best of Festival: Short Film (under 45 minutes)
A work of exceptional quality. The film judged to be the most outstanding short film.

P.K. Walker Award in Innovation in Craft
Film judged to make the most innovative use of narrative, cinematography, or other filmmaking techniques to encourage exploration of the experiences of people with disabilities. Added in 2006, this award recognizes Pamela K. Walker’s many contributions to Superfest as its leader from 1998-2002.

Disabled Filmmaker Award
Film judged to be an outstanding work in which a person with a disability has a significant role in producing the film, e.g. producer, director or writer.

Advocacy Award
Film judged to have the most powerful message for disability justice.

Artistry Award
Film that best links disability and the arts.

Access Award
Film with the best accessibility through captioning and audio description.

Liane Yasumoto Jury's Choice Award
Named for the former festival director Liane Yasumoto, this award is presented to the finalist deemed by the judges to be singularly outstanding film that is not recognized in other award categories.

Rules & Terms

By submitting to Superfest, filmmakers are granting permission to show their film at the festival (virtual and in-person as public health safety permits) and to exhibit all or portions of their film at Superfest Showcases during the one year time period that follows the festival (at which point, filmmakers can opt out moving forward). Filmmakers are also required to provide or grant us the rights to create captioning and audio-description for accessibility to the widest possible audience by August 15 in order to have their film screened. To learn more about audio description, visit: http://www.superfestfilm.com/audiodescription If you already have a captioned or audio described version, please submit this version to the festival.

15 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Malak AlSayyad

    Thank you so much to Superfest and its incredibly dedicated team. This wonderful experience was one of the highlights of 2024 for me. A festival that is true to its values through and through and is deeply committed to accessibility and championing disabled filmmakers and their stories. My film was provided with Audio Description and made accessible in both its in-person and online screenings during the festival! Very excited to see what next year has in store and to follow the work of the Disabled BIPOC Film Collective launched at this year's festival!

    December 2024
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    Response from festival:

    Malak, thank you so much for this thoughtful and kind review. The panel with you was so beautiful - we loved getting to hear the behind the scenes talk about your process and work. Hope it's not the last collaboration!

  • brendan brady

    We had a fantastic time attending the virtual part of Superfest's hybrid festival with our short film, "Chronic." Superfest's organizers ensured we knew about the festival well in advance; their communication was excellent, and we also got to attend a filmmaker's panel, which was incredibly rewarding. Also, we loved the other films that were chosen.

    We highly recommend this festival!

    October 2023
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you for your kind words Brendan! We're so grateful we got to include Chronic in our festival - a perfectly relatable disability-insider story.

  • Greg Moran

    Great festival. Excellent communication. Unfortunately, we could not be there in person but felt Very fortunate to be selected. We felt very honoured to receive the innovation and craft award for our film Culicidae.

    October 2023
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  • Lindsay Zibach

    Superfest was communicative, supportive, engaging and so thoughtful in both the presentation of their selections and the conversation around them. I felt intellectually stimulated and creative fueled! A fantastic in-person festival with kind and generous organizers.

    December 2022
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  • Ariel Baska

    A stunningly well-curated and thoughtfully well-put-together festival. I can not give Emily Beitiks or her team a high enough rating to represent exactly how great the Superfest experience is. A great community that is seriously appreciative of filmmakers, and a great place for genuine discussion of the work.

    November 2022
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    Response from festival:

    Thanks so much Ariel, this is so very kind!