The Yorkton Film Festival began in 1947 as the Yorkton Film Council. Thus, making it North America’s longest running film festival.

From its inception the festival has gone through many evolutions, however, it continues to be dedicated to the promotion of the best Canadian screen based media content, through our annual film festival and Golden Sheaf Awards competition. In addition to the annual event, the festival is dedicated to the promotion of short film content through our year round screening and tour outreach programs.

The Yorkton Film Festival is a qualifying festival to the Canada Screen Awards.


• All main category, accompanying category, craft category, and special awards come with a Golden Sheaf Awards statuette.
• The Kathleen Shannon Award comes with a cheque for $1000 CDN
• The Ruth Shaw Award comes with a cheque for $750 CDN

Fees and Entry Deadlines

• Super Early bird until end-of-day on Nov. 10th, 2023
• Early bird until end-of-day Dec. 14th, 2023
• *Outstanding Color Grading - before and after reel deadline - January 15 & 31
2024, respectively.
• Regular until end-of-day January 31st, 2024
• Early bird -Student Production until end-of-day Nov, 10th, 2023
• Regular – Student Production until end-of-day Dec. 14th, 2023
• All main category submissions will be automatically considered for craft category nominations (no additional fee is required).
• All entry fees are non-refundable. Entry fees must be submitted with the production at time of entry.

Rules & Terms

• Only Canadian filmmakers, producers and distributors are eligible and are invited to submit their original work to the 2024 Yorkton Film Festival competition for the Golden Sheaf Awards.
• Canadian productions 60 minutes and under will be accepted. A Canadian production is defined as any production which would qualify as a certified production under current regulations applied by CAVCO. International co-productions are eligible only if the director is Canadian.
• All entries must have been completed in the period between February 1, 2022 and January 31, 2024 and not have been entered in a previous Golden Sheaf Awards competition. Films that premiered at other festivals prior to February 1st, 2022, or were broadcast prior to that date, are not eligible to enter.
• A single production cannot compete in multiple categories. It is eligible to be entered in one main category only.

Exception: If your production is part of an anthology series where episodes are produced by different production companies, then each production company may submit their work as a standalone entry. A separate entry form and fee are required for each entry.

How to submit

• All festival submissions are handled through FilmFreeway. If you are unable to submit your final copy in digital form and would like to submit your film via an alternative method, please contact the festival office.
• Entrants are responsible for the technical quality of their submissions. Entries which cannot be adequately judged because of technical problems prior to upload/submission will be deemed ineligible
• Recommended video specs for export:
Bit rate: 8Mbit.
Codec: H.264
Resolution: 1920x1080p, or 1280x720p
Frame rate: 23.98, or 29.97 fps
Audio: 48khz 2 channel, stereo audio

Entries & Nominations

All entrants will be notified of selection status via FilmFreeway. Nominations in the main and accompanying categories will be available in late March while nominations in the craft categories will be available in early April via our website, www.yorktonfilm.com
Screening and Yorkton Film Festival Bursary.

Nominees who are attending the festival are given priority for screenings. To help cover costs, filmmakers can apply for a bursary to cover registration to the festival. Note, this is will be at the discretion of the festival. We also happily provide letters of reference to help with travel grant applications.

Adjudication

Qualified jurors, selected by the festival, will judge the entries. Awards may not be given in categories where, in the opinion of the jurors, the entries do not merit distinction. In the case of entries of three or less in any category, the festival reserves the right to collapse that category.

On Demand Screening Centre

All productions submitted will be available for screening during the festival , at the on-demand screening centre during the film festival.

DVD Tour and Festival Library

• A program of Golden Sheaf award productions may be taken on tour to other Canadian centres, following the festival. If your production is selected, it may be included in these special festival-run screenings.
• All productions submitted will be archived in the festival library for viewing by the general public (no rental fee will be charged).

Rights and clearances

The entrant warrants that all necessary rights and clearances to the material contained in their production have been secured. The entrant agrees to grant the festival use of their production for the purposes and in the manner indicated above.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Noelle Duddridge

    It's a lovely Film Festival, with great opportunities for networking.

    June 2023
  • Joel Penner

    I thoroughly enjoyed attending the 2023 YFF with my film Wrought. Totally worth going if you're able to for the networking, talks and relaxed atmosphere!

    June 2023
  • Anita Adefuye

    It was such an honour and great delight to have our short film- 'The Girl Child' nominated in 3 categories in this festival. As a newcomer to this industry, this festival and the experience at Yorkton really set a positive stage for me. Looking forward to more experiences like his. Thank you Yorkton and the Yorkton Film Festival

    June 2023
  • Susanne Cuffe

    YFF has always been a regular stop on our festival circuit. Our documentaries have been well received over the years.

    June 2023
  • Michelle Grodecki

    We were honored to be nominees in three categories at our first festival and especially humbled to be the recipient of the Ruth Shaw Award for our short-film Fable Deaf. The festival provided us with many networking opportunities. Lobsterfest and Skeet Shooting was a highlight for sure!! The awards gala was very well organized, and there's nothing quite like a Saskatchewan Ukrainian Dinner.

    June 2023