Underwater Films Only!

This year is the 25th SDUFEX Underwater Film Festival - please submit your films and help us make this occasion a great success! Screenings will be in person over two nights and held in San Diego at the Qualcomm Hall with over 1,000 attendees.

The festival will also be a hybrid event with films available on-line, so plenty of opportunities for your film to be screened.

Audience choices will be awarded prizes of $250 each night!

The first San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition was organized in 2000 by a small group who had been meeting at Chuck Nicklin’s dive shop to share information on shooting and editing underwater video. In the past twenty five years, it has grown into one of the most prestigious underwater film festivals worldwide. Help us make the 25th festival the best ever by submitting your underwater film!

The films should be submitted in either 4k or HD format encoding in H.264 in .mov or .mp4 format. The film(s) submitted will be the exhibition version that will be screened as uploaded to FilmFreeway if your film(s) is/are selected. Please keep your audio from peaking over -6 dB, as the sound system will distort audio that goes above this volume level.

Please provide relevant info, including the following:
1. The name of the film.
2. The name of the filmmaker(s).
3. A brief introduction of the film (100 words or less).
4. A brief introduction of the filmmaker(s) (100 words or less).
5. Photo of the filmmaker(s).
6. A Contact email for the filmmaker(s)

By submitting the above information along with your film to the 2024 San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition, you will be declaring that all the included information is true to the best of your knowledge and that you have all legal rights, including legal rights to the music, to submit this film for public screening at the 2024 SDUFEX film exhibition. Your submission of the film is your affirmation to the truth of this declaration, in lieu of a signature.

Additional information, deadlines, and rules are listed below:

• Films must be submitted through FilmFreeway no later than June 20th, 2024.
• Films can be submitted in three categories:

Under 30 second "micro" film. Must be all underwater with no more than 5 secs of credits. Show us your best!

5 Minutes Max. Up to 5 minutes in length with at least 50% of the footage shot underwater. We encourage film makers to submit the best version of their film, even if it is well under 5 minutes. Many of our best films are only 2 or 3 minutes long – longer does not always mean better.

10 Minutes Max. 5 to 10 minutes in length with a significant part of the footage shot underwater. In this category, the films MUST tell a story. We strongly encourage submissions with more substance in this category, and these will be judged accordingly. Films will only be selected for this category if they are narrated.

• Black Video Lead-In: Record or add a one (1) second black lead-in at the front of your video.
• You must have the legal right to use all visual footage, images, audio, and music contained in your film. You will be required to certify this in your entry email.
• Judges will not be permitted to submit films for consideration.
• Films should not have commercial content, for example promoting destination hotels or dive-boats. Films should also not show deliberate harassment of animals.
• Films that have previously been submitted to SDUFEX will not be considered unless significant changes have been made. No more than four films per person may be submitted.
• The San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition reserves the right to use up to thirty seconds from your film(s) for the promotion of this event and future events. All rights will remain with the producers of the films.
• Please do not include watermarks that appear during the whole film. All credits and acknowledgements should appear either at the beginning or end of your film.

Questions or Assistance: info@sdufex.com

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
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Networking
  • Nice to be part of this Edition. Thank you

    October 2022
    Logo
    Response from festival:

    You’re most welcome - we look forward to seeing some of your work in the future!

    Best regards,
    SDUFEX team

  • Logan Mock

    Thank you San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition.

    October 2022
  • Marcell Nikolausz

    It was a great film exhibition. I hope, once I can participate in person, not just on-line

    December 2021
  • As every year this year's festival (20th anniversary) was a gala of high quality films from many different film makers, with a variety of subjects and areas in the world. I had the pleasure of attending this year's edition and hope to be there again soon.

    October 2019
  • Mike Johnson

    I really enjoyed the event and look forward to next year!

    October 2017