The Yale Student Film Festival (YSFF) is an emerging student-run short film festival providing the opportunity for university-level and high school filmmakers, both foreign and domestic, to exhibit their work. It will be held on Yale University’s campus.
YSFF takes place annually at Yale University in New Haven, CT, and is now in its seventh year. In addition to the competitive student blocks, the three-day event will include a spotlight screening, panel discussions, guest speakers, and masterclasses, all led by Yale alumni in the entertainment industry.
Founded in 2015, the festival began as a collaboration between the Yale Film Alliance, Yale Film Study Center, Yale Film Studies Program, Films at the Whitney, and the Yale College Dean’s Office to highlight the small but growing community of filmmakers on Yale’s campus who create work outside of a traditional film school environment.
Continuing this theme, this year’s festival will celebrate emerging student work from those taking the first steps towards a professional career, and aims to provide a platform to encourage conversation and camaraderie across schools and experiences.
The festival features six separate student competitions: the narrative film competition; the documentary film competition; the experimental film competition; the animation film competition; the new social media category; and new Connecticut high school student only competition.
With broadly set categories, we hope to put together a program that encompasses of variety of genres, media, experiences, and cinematic journeys. We are especially on the lookout for films that challenge the ways in which we think about the world and each other and that engage with relevant issues effecting us today. From discussions of race and gender, to politics, to the evolving concept of the family, we are searching for work that can not only offer a cinematic escape but also deeper insight into contemporary society. That being said, all films are encouraged to submit work!
YSFF Website: https://collegearts.yale.edu/organizations/yale-film-alliance/yale-student-film-festival/about
Awards & Prizes
Films entered in the competition category are eligible to compete for some of the following awards:
• Best Narrative Film
• Best Documentary Film
• Best Experimental Film
• Best High School film
• Best Animated Short
• Best Cinematography
• Best Editing
• Best Director
• Best Comedy
• Best Drama
Previous years included prizes from Blackmagic, Rokinon and The Prodigy Camp.
