2025 Todo Cambia focuses on artistic visions that are Beyond Approval. We are not waiting to be approved, to feel that we deserve a chance. We are moving beyond the usual gate keepers to claim ourselves, our visions, and each other. At a time of national and international unrest, we keep thinking about cinema as a vehicle for community gathering and social change across Merced and the Central Valley. For the first time, we will welcome films from local filmmakers and celebrate their work through our festival. We will host inspiring image makers like the poet Irene Lara Silva, the visual artist Sharon Daniels, the painter Oscar Torres, together with the screening of contemporary documentary films. As always, our aim is to create and promote a film festival dedicated to social justice issues by attracting local and international artists and communities.

Certificates of Participation

We accept short feature documentaries made in January 2024 to present, that are bold and courageous in the way the perceive aesthetics and the moving image. We are interested in shaping a space where cinema is not an isolated event that focuses on pleasure but a communal space that is needed for all of us in order to cultivate and foster change.

We accept submissions from around the world but the selection jury will prioritize films that either focus on the Central Valley of California or offers visions to think about cinema activism that align with the Central Valley