Taking Up Space Film Festival is seeking stories that are created and told by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Persons of Color) filmmakers or focus on the voices of the BIPOC community. The purpose of the film festival is to lift the voices of historically excluded racial and ethnic narratives.
NEW THIS YEAR - We will be taking films of all lengths, not just shorts. All types of works are being considered for 2025 - documentary, narratives, animation, experimental - all are welcome to submit.
As we are striving to lift the voices of diverse filmmakers, all films for this curated festival will be selected by a jury of BIPOC filmmakers/creatives.
Taking Up Space is a film festival within the Scranton Fringe Festival (https://scrantonfringe.org/).
Selected short films will be screened during the 2025 Scranton Fringe Festival, Friday, October 3rd and Saturday, October 4th, at the Ritz Theatre in Scranton, PA. Selected longer films will be screened online for the duration of the festival. This is to accommodate the structure of the Fringe format.
During Black History Month 2026, selected films will be shown in an encore screening with the Black Scranton Project during mini festival.
Submissions will be accepted from March 10th, 2025 through the end of the day, July 31st, 2025.
The artistic director of Taking Up Space is Dan Kimbrough.
Dan Kimbrough is a content creator who works with individuals and businesses to best tell their stories through media. Dan knows the power of content and storytelling in reaching an audience and branding a business. He has 20+ years of media experience and has worked with ESPN, as a documentary filmmaker, production manager, professor, podcast producer, photographer, editor, and more. In addition to the AD of Taking Up Space, Dan serves as the tech director of Scranton Fringe.
Co-presented by Park Multimedia, Black Scranton Project, Scranton Films, and Scranton Fringe.
A jury of all BIPOC filmmakers and creatives will award one (1) film"Best in Show". The prize will be awarded during our opening screening and includes a plaque and cash prize ($150).
All accepted films will receive a limited amount of artist passes to the entire 2025 Scranton Fringe Festival. A talk back with selected directors/winners will be arranged during the screenings in Scranton, PA.
Should the winner not be in attendance, the plaque and check will be mailed.
