The 19th Durango Independent Film Festival is an early spring destination festival cultivating a reputation as a Filmmaker’s Festival. Located in picturesque southwestern Colorado, filmmakers will enjoy staying within walking distance of two venues, fine restaurants, boutiques, brew pubs, art galleries, and historic Victorian hotels. Durango offers many recreational diversions such as the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge train and early spring skiing at nearby Purgatory Ski Resort. In addition to festival parties, we host nightly gatherings in the private filmmaker’s lounge with complementary beverages such as our own festival beer artfully brewed by SKA Brewing.

We are planning an in-person 2024 Festival Festival February 28 - March 3. We are not planning any virtual screenings at the time of opening our call for entries – except for some school screenings. Festival events include Coffee Talk with Filmmakers, Panel discussions, Q&A's following screenings, and parties. We will continue to champion the art of independent filmmaking and will showcase your film in the best possible way.

Each year, our festival seeks out an eclectic mix of narrative features, documentaries, and short films. We seek all genres of film including: Adventure, LGBTQ, Native Cinema, and Family. We also curate creative films suitable for students of all ages for our REEL Learning School Program. As stated elsewhere, please submit your film to ONE CATEGORY only. Our team leaders will alert other teams should they feel a different category provides a better fit.

Awards & Prizes

This is a juried film festival with both juror and audience award presentations:
Jury Awards
Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature
Jury Award for Best Best Documentary Feature
Jury Award for Best Short Documentary
Jury Award for Best Narrative Short
Jury Award for Best Animated Short
Jury Award for Best Adventure Film
Jury Award for Best Native Cinema Film
Jury Award for Best Performance in the Narrative Features category
Audience Awards
Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature
Audience Award for Best Narrative Short
Audience Award for Best Documentary Short
Audience Award for Best Native Cinema film
Audience Award for Best Adventure film
Audience Award for Best Family film
Audience Award for Best REEL Learning film (votes by students)

Rules & Terms

UPDATE: Please submit to ONE category only, otherwise you will be charged for each category you include. Please select the best category that fits your film's subject/genre. Our programming teams share films that can fit in more than one category so please choose only one. We will NOT process refunds if you choose to submit to more than one category.
Please no requests for submission fee waivers. Alumni filmmakers may contact the festival for a waiver code for one submission.
Works in progress must be received prior the early bird deadline and final completed work must be received by October 31, 2023.
For exhibition formats, BluRays are accepted for back-up purposes only and are not used in presentations.
Please notify the festival if your film will be broadcast on cable or network television or released for sale on DVD prior to the beginning of the festival.
Please note that two of our four screens are DCP compatible. Our other screens will use .mov and .mp4 file formats. If your film is selected, you will be notified as to the required format the festival will accept based upon venue location.
Durango Film will only return ship to domestic destinations, including domestic film festival destinations.
Selected films will not be paid a screening fee. Films that require a screening fee are not eligible for either a juried or audience award. All films will screen twice, in theatres, during the festival and filmmakers will be notified by mid-January 2024 when both screenings have been scheduled.
50 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Max Rissman

    A great community of film lovers and filmmakers located in a beautiful town!

    March 2024
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  • Tatiana James

    Everyone I met at this festival ranked it very high, and thanks to the compact area and many social events and panels, I got to meet a lot of interesting filmmakers. Nearly every screening was more than sold out. They had to turn people away. The town loves its movies! Bravo, Durango!

    March 2024
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  • Josh Sathre

    A delightful and fulfilling experience all around. Carol, Great, Michelle, Meghan, and the entire team go far above and beyond to make filmmakers feel welcome. The entire town rallies around the festival. Both of our shorts blocks were sold out and were followed by very thoughtful Q&As. Can't wait to go back.

    March 2024
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  • Brian Hedden

    This is a lovely festival in a beautiful town. The staff and volunteers are incredibly welcoming and helpful and the filmmakers were very accessible and interesting to meet.

    March 2024
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  • Brian Russell

    The Durango Independent Film Festival offered an excellent chance to network with other filmmakers, and show our movies. Nearly all the screenings were sold out, and there is nothing like showing your work to a full house. The organizers were fantastic, communication excellent and this festival was truly worth the time and effort to attend. Highly recomend.

    March 2024
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