UPDATE: **We are now accepting submissions for our Tampa Bay Transgender Film Festival taking place Nov 19 - 21.

The Tampa Bay Transgender Film Festival is brought to you in partnership with Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (TIGLFF) and St Pete Pride.
This weekend event is intended to highlight and elevate Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR). As we know, it is well beyond time to honor the transgender lives that have been lost to incessant, unnecessary violence, and to use media as an educational tool to bring that same violence to an end. We hope for this festival to help celebrate transgender lives & experiences, further creating a safe world for our transgender family to live in.
For this event in November, we intend to host a 100% virtual festival containing 4 feature films and one shorts program at a national level. Films should be of interest to intersex and/or transgender individuals & allies. We are seeking narrative, documentary, experimental and animated films and videos (both features and shorts). Please submit your film for free under the Transgender Film Festival category.

**

One of the biggest and longest running LGBTQ+ film festivals in the country, TIGLFF offers a selection of compelling cinema by, for or about LGBTQ+ communities that entertains, empowers, and enlightens the Festival audience.

To help alleviate the financial concerns of artists and filmmakers during this difficult time, TIGLFF is offering free entry for films submitted by the early deadline and lower entry fees for the ensuing deadlines.

Last year's program featured the U.S. Premiere of PORT AUTHORITY for Opening Night and the Golden Globe-nominated and Oscar-shortlisted French film TWO OF US for Closing Night. Our Centerpiece film was Thom Fitzgerald's film STAGE MOTHER along with a virtual Q&A with Jackie Beat.

For the festival in October, we hope to host a hybrid festival with some select screenings in physical venues along with virtual screenings online.

We are also looking for BIPOC-oriented LGBTQ films for our Queer In Color festival in June and transgender-oriented films for our Tampa Trans Film Festival in November.

TIGLFF was the most recent winner of the 2020 Creative Loafing Reader's poll Best of the Bay Film Festival

TIGLFF was also named as a "Top 25" public event by the Tampa Bay Business Journal

Awards & Prizes

The Friends of the Festival Fund was established in 2009 through the estate of Alan Ira Dusowitz. This endowment trust helps fund film programming content for TIGLFF. In honor of Alan, TIGLFF will give annual cash awards for Best Emerging Film-maker in the categories of Full Length Feature Film and Short Film.

In addition, we give nominal Audience and Jury Awards in the categories of Narrative Feature, Documentary Feature and Short Film.

Rules & Terms

Film Submission Requirements

1. Films should be of interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex and/or transgendered people. We are seeking narrative, documentary, experimental and animated films and videos (both features and shorts) on DCP, digital download, hard drive, 35mm and BluRay or DVD if necessary.

2. Vimeo links are preferred for preview screeners.

3. Each submission should be entered separately on FilmFreeway. If you are submitting more than one entry, please complete a separate entry for each submission.
Film Submission Requirements

4. Rough cuts and works-in-progress are eligible for submission if an exhibition copy will be available by Aug. 1, 2021. Please identify the screener as a “Rough Cut” and specify what is missing (i.e. temp sound, needs color correction, etc). Please be aware that an updated version of your rough cut MAY NOT be able to be re-screened for submission consideration.

5. By submitting your work to TIGLFF, you grant to Friends of the Festival, Inc. a nonexclusive license to use an excerpt of your submission tape of up to two minutes in length, for promotional purposes only, including but not limited to internet and television broadcast.

6. Still photos of your work are requested with your submission and are required for all films selected for the festival. Good stills make a difference in film placement and press coverage, particularly for shorts. Even the shortest short can get press coverage or festival prominence with a captivating still image. If you email stills to us they must be in JPEG format and hi-resolution (at least 300 dpi).

7. You are also encouraged to enclose a synopsis, production credits and press information regarding your film.

8 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • byron wong

    Great festival, very organized and excellent communication. Loved how they adapted for COVID with the online talkbacks.

    February 2021
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  • E. Patrick Johnson

    Well organized and planned! Thank you for a great virtual festival!

    October 2020
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  • Devon Diffenderfer

    Honored to have been a part of the festival this year with my film Love You Tyler. Thanks a lot to Derek and the team for giving my movie a shot :)

    October 2020
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  • Laura Madalinski

    Highly recommend! Very communicative, friendly, and helpful. I was treated exceptionally well by the festival staff and had a lovely time.

    February 2020
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  • Winton Holmes

    We were delighted that our short documentary "Rainbow Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand" was shown at the Festival, enabling these stories from another part of the globe, to be seen in Florida and on a large screen. Wonderful communication throughout. Thanks KJ and the Festival team! Kia Kaha.

    October 2019
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