The West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival invites submissions in video/film, animation, VR, video installation & performance to its 13th edition, which takes place March 5 - 8, 2026 on the campus of West Virginia University. We’re looking for innovative, provocative, highly charged and deeply personal works in a variety of genres, both traditional and experimental. This year we also welcome submissions to a special thematic category, exploring new insights into evolving definitions and understandings of Time, in any context. Deadline for entries is February 6, 2026.
Whether you’re an emerging fine artist, student filmmaker or seasoned pro, the West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival invites your creative and progressively minded submissions in video, film and animation. We screen short narrative films and experimental artworks alike, and welcome all genres: narrative, documentary, video art, experimental animation, comedy, sci/fi, 2D/3D animation, low budget/no budget and that which eludes categorization. Run by artists and art students, we celebrate the bold, the funny, the well-made, the imaginative and the enigmatic. We look for quality in form and depth in content and ideas, whether spectacularly unorthodox or time-honored in approach. Above all, we value authenticity.
Established submission categories include: Experimental, Narrative, Documentary, Animation & Student Work
Additional Categories:
Theme: Time
This year, the West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival coincides with the weekend when we turn clocks forward in observance of Daylight Saving Time. We would like to take this opportunity to issue a call for film and video works that ruminate on light and darkness, the malleability of time, the geological, social, and philosophical meanings of time, as well as the fleeting or expansive experience of time. How does the experience of time change in a world marked by instantaneous communication across long distances? How can time slow when we step outside the constraints of the industrial workday? How can the technological manipulation of light in film augment our experience of time? As AI and machine learning move us ever closer to realtime simulations reality, how does our sense of time speed up or collapse in on itself? What changes when realtime video technologies intersect with the meticulous sculpting of the editing timeline of film? How do our technologies warp or reify natural and artificial notions of time? How can the mind distort or dissolve the experience of time? The WVMSFF seeks short film, video, media installation, and performance works that deal with these varied meanings and experiences of time.
Video Installation, VR and Outdoor Video Projection:
In addition to single-channel videos for screening, there are 3 other opportunities to consider as part of the festival. These include a 2-channel video installation space, a VR experience option, and outdoor video projection.
Two-channel video installation:
We are seeking proposals for 2 channel video installations in a white cube gallery space. There are two 1080p projectors that can by synchronized with up to 2 channels of audio. The dimensions are 2122 square feet and a ceiling height of 10 feet.
VR:
We seek submissions that are designed to be experienced in virtual reality and that engage with the festival theme. Submitted works can take the form of VR films, interactive experiences, etc. Please reach out to wvmsff@gmail.com for technical inquiries.
Outdoor Video Projection:
The festival will identify several public video projection sites in the city of Morgantown to coincide with this year's festival. Please contact the festival organizers for specific site descriptions. Please reach out to wvmsff@gmail.com for details.
Established in 2010, the WVMSFF is a creation of the Digital Art & Animation area in the West Virginia University School of Art and Design. The primary mission of the festival is to celebrate, recognize and help to cultivate quality, innovation, and independence in the cinematic arts, and to expose West Virginia University students and the surrounding Morgantown community to the world of independent filmmaking, video and animation. The festival also strives to focus attention on topical issues in contemporary culture and to draw attention to the rich and unique heritage of West Virginia and the surrounding Appalachian region.
Modest awards have been established by the festival organizers to recognize work of exceptional accomplishment. They include a $300.00 Best of Festival award, and a $100 award in each of the festival categories.
