Transparent Film Festival

PLEASE READ ALL RULES AND TERMS CAREFULLY PRIOR TO SUBMITTING YOUR FILM. BY SUBMITTING YOUR FILM TO THE TRANSPARENT FILM FESTIVAL, YOU HEREBY AGREE TO THE BELOW TERMS.

The 4th Transparent Film Festival (“TFF”) will take place at The Theater Under St. Marks in New York City's funky and fun East Village. It doesn't get any better during Spring Time in New York. Although unlikely at this point, due to the Pandemic, the venue operators may at their discretion choose to reschedule or cancel the event. If this happens, any money for ticket purchases will be returned to the method of payment used.

IMPORTANT: All films selected can not be shown live due to time constraints. If your film has been selected to screen live, it may be removed from its live program if we are unable to reach you (by email, facebook, text message, phone, app, etc.), or otherwise communicate with you. We recommend following us on Facebook if possible at https://www.facebook.com/transparentfilmfestival.

REALLY IMPORTANT: BY SUBMITTING YOUR FILM TO THIS FESTIVAL YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND GRANT TRANSPARENT FILM FESTIVAL THE NON-EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO PROMOTE YOUR FILM ON SOCIAL MEDIA (including YouTube, Instagram and Facebook). YOU FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WE MAY AT OUR DISCRETION INCLUDE A SHORT CLIP FROM YOUR FILM AS PART OF OUR WEEKLY TELEVISION SERIES IN NEW YORK (Transparent Film Festival Presents). WE ONLY SHOW MUSIC VIDEOS IN THEIR ENTIRETY. NO FILM IS SHOWN ON OUR WEBSITE (transparentfilmfestival.com) OR ON YOUTUBE WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE CONTENT CREATOR.

WE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WE OWN NO RIGHTS TO YOUR FILM, AND THAT YOU MAY REQUEST US TO REMOVE YOUR FILM FROM OUR WEBSITE AT ANY TIME AND FOR ANY REASON.

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT OUR POSTING YOUR FILM ON OUR WEBSITE IS FOR PROMOTIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND THAT THERE IS NO MONEY DUE YOU OR ANYONE ELSE INCLUDING BUT NOT NECESSARILY LIMITED TO: THE SUBMITTER (or submitters as the case may be); THE PRODUCERS; ACTORS; ACTRESSES; CREW; INVESTORS; SPONSORS, etc., OR ANYONE WHO WORKED ON OR IS ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR FILM.

1. Submission Deadlines
Submissions will be accepted beginning June 1, 2021. The final deadline is Sunday May 8, 2022. Early entry is encouraged but in no way guarantees acceptance. Last season, literally the very first, AND very last submissions were selected.

2. Submission Format
Films must be submitted via online screener ONLY. We do not accept films sent over by DVD. If selected, you must provide a theatrical quality screener that is HD and 2K in size dimensions as we will be showing on a 2K projector. Anything less than HD at a minimum of 1920 x 1080 will not be screened.

IMPORTANT ITEM 1 - We will review EVERY film. Due to the number of submissions we can no longer guarantee (as we did with the first three seasons), that we will watch every frame. We will provide our notes TO ALL FILMMAKERS along with our FilmFreeway Rating, and post a date stamped viewing receipt on our Facebook Page so you know when we viewed your submission.

IMPORTANT ITEM 2 - By approving our request for download, you consent to allowing us to promote your film on our website. We own no rights to your film. You may ask Ron have it removed at any time.

Please do not submit to our festival and make your film available for download if you are worried that a conflict will arise with other festivals. Our cable TV Show (audience reach of 620,000 people), in Manhattan NYC. Our streaming online has been gaining in popularity since launching last year. It will not affect your acceptance status. We own no rights to your film. We just just think it’s cool at a minimum and think people should see it.

3. Submission Eligibility
(A) All submissions must have begun production after 1 January 2019.
(B) Do not submit if you have exclusive distribution already in place.
(C) Transparent Film Festival reserves the right to disqualify any film for any reason. For instance, nudity is fine, children appearing in a film naked is not material we are comfortable with receiving and/or reviewing. Violence, even graphic violence in a narrative context is fine. However video footage of someone being pummeled is not.

4. Premiere Status
- There is no premiere policy.

5. Submission Fee
All submissions for The Transparent Film Festival are to be paid through FilmFreeway platform. The submission fee is non-refundable.

6. Shipping - We no longer accepted snail mail.

Use WeTransfer, Dropbox or Google Drive to send us content to:
transparentfilmfestival@gmail.com

7. If your film is selected - that means it will screen either live or online. Due to the pandemic, many films that we would like to screen live, we just can't. However we put all selected films on our website at http://transparentfilmfestival.com/. We are behind a paywall so films are not publicly available.

Features only screen online.

DOUBLE MAKING SURE YOU UNDERSTAND
By submitting your film to Transparent Film Festival, you acknowledge, and grant us permission to upload your film to our website for exposition and promotional purposes. We acknowledge that the operators of this website own no rights to your film, and you may request at any time to have it removed.

8. Selection of Films
Every submission will be screened and reviewed under the following criteria, and given a score between 1 and 10 according to our customized rating system on FilmFreeway - which you will receive a copy of. Note we post all ratings on Facebook, not the reviews.

9. Notification
TFF will complete all selection procedures by May 10, 2022, and inform all submitting parties, in writing, if their film has been successful or not after that time. Filmmakers whose submissions are accepted into the festival will be given two weeks to prepare, and will immediately receive information on how to make the most of participating in the Festival.

10. Festival Screenings
As selected films will be shown on 2K Projection Screen, selected films MUST provide an .MOV file that must be at least 1920 x 1080 HD quality. The film title and running time MUST be included in the file name. All foreign language films MUST contain English subtitles files.

11. Scheduling
Screenings are scheduled at the discretion of TFF. The festival organizers will make every effort to adhere to the published schedule, however, TFF reserves the right to make changes at any time for any reason. TFF will not be liable for any costs claimed as a result of a change in scheduling.

No film may be withdrawn from the festival after it is selected.

12. Preference for live screenings will be given to those filmmakers who are selected, actively promote their screening and commit to attending the festival. International Selections are screened online UNLESS THEY ARE IN CONTENTION FOR A BEST IN CATEGORY award (such as Best Foreign Film).

SUPPLEMENTAL RULES (PLEASE READ)

A. Film must have started production AFTER January 2019 and be FULLY COMPLETED BY THE END OF THE SUBMISSION PERIOD.

B. Filmmakers, or their representatives, must be in attendance to receive a "BEST OF" festival award.

THERE ARE NO LONGER COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS DUE TO THE FACT THAT FILMMAKERS REQUEST THEM AND THEN DO NOT ATTEND (thereby limiting tickets available for purchase).

C. We reserve the right to disqualify any film and or filmmaker for any reason such as dishonesty, violating our terms and conditions, or for any reason whatsoever. This includes the use of any unlicensed material (music or video footage).

D. Filmmakers who withdraw their film after receiving our notes will not receive a refund, and be banned from submitting to our festival in the future.

E. Filmmakers who are selected, but who are unable to attend their screening in person, will have their films screened online (with the exception of the Best Foreign Film category). Films screened online are still in competition for BEST OF FEST awards (as was the case in 2021).