The Spirit Quest Film Festival is an International, competition based event that is dedicated to connecting filmmakers with a global audience each year via their annual online festival.

Focusing on the human experience, from day to day relationships to matters of life and death, war and peace, science and spirituality, Spirit Quest's founders hope to challenge their audiences with an impressive and diverse line-up of film selections year after year.

We hope that filmmakers around the world will join us in bringing their productions to a wider audience and to the attention of many industry professionals who may have otherwise been unaware of their talent. With the addition of our social media page announcements, official submission notices and potential inclusion in our 2018 line up - we feel we are providing our entrants with the best possible chance they may have to reach a large number of viewers and boost their visibility on the incredibly competitive film festival stage.

We will judge and award both feature and short screenplays this season and beyond - again announcing ALL submissions on our social media pages and announcing semi-finalists, finalists and winners on our sites in the Spring of 2018, once all judging is complete.

Festival Certificate and sponsored awards for Best Feature and Best Short films and Screenplays.

Submitting filmmaker must be 18+ years of age to enter.

Each work is judged solely on its own merits.

Entry Formats
1. Formats accepted for preview: Online screener (via FilmFreeway or other link).
2. All films must have been completed after January 2013.
3. Foreign films must be dubbed or presented in their original language with English language subtitles.

Note: We are no longer accepting DVDs for screening.

Agreements
Submission of your film to our competition confirms that the Spirit Quest Film Festival has permission to screen your film (of selected) at our annual online event and at any other Festival related event, including special screenings and promotional activities. By submitting your film, you also grant permission to the Festival to employ moving image excerpts and reproduce stills for exhibition and promotion purposes. Filmmaker confirms that he or she has acquired any and all copyright clearances necessary for exhibition of their film at said events (ie: music included on the soundtrack, a logo or trademark shown in the film, etc). Filmmaker agrees to accept all responsibility for the content of their film and any dispute that may arise from use of copyrighted material.

Film Length Definition
Feature films: 45 minutes or longer.
Short films: 44 minutes or less.

Screenplay Length Definition
Feature Screenplay: 80 pages or more.
Short Screenplay: 79 pages or less.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • mark bellusci

    Great to be in this. Thanks.

    December 2019
  • Probably nice film festival, but enormous lack of communication.

    November 2018
  • Mitchell Gibson

    never got back in touch with me regarding the final results...don't know if the festival was ever held. very curious..

    August 2018
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    Response from festival:

    You should have been notified long ago. Winners have been announced. On our Facebook page as well. The Festival absolutely took place, even had visiting filmmakers here (including Matthew Roth, the winner of the Best Feature Film in 2018).

    Best Feature Film - FIVE PIECE
    Best Short Film - 21:21:21
    Best Short Screenplay: THE LAST FAD
    Best Feature Screenplay: EXECUTION DAY

  • I can only rate this contest with regard to the screenplay competition. The film portion may be better, but I would think my struggles with this festival would exist on the film side as well.

    Essentially this contest has been a frustrating experience. I never found out how many total entries there were, I don't think a single deadline was met during this contest. When the notification date was pushed back time after time for longer than a month, I tried multiple times to contact the festival directly.

    The website link is out of date, the email gets kicked back every time you send it, and the voicemail inbox is full for the phone number listed. Essentially there is no way to contact the festival purely from what is listed on Film Freeway.

    The website for this festival did not exist until approximately a month before the festival occurred and then it suddenly appears as a one page, no real content, site. There are around four Facebook pages for this festival, the only active one rarely gets updated despite the fact that the coordinator of the festival seems to update their personal site 4-5 times a day.

    I finally contacted the Film Freeway support email and copied the festival email to my complaint. Film Freeway was quick to respond and they issued me a reimbursement for my $25.00. I have to say Film Freeway has excellent customer service.

    Coincidentally, later that same day I was suddenly announced as a finalist. However, when I went to the Facebook page I saw that I was announced as a finalist in a category that I had not entered.

    A week after this event I commented on the Facebook asking if the results would be publicly displayed somewhere, I was quickly notified back that they would be posted later that night. It has been two weeks and I still know nothing.

    I have no confirmation that my screenplay was even read or looked at. I have no knowledge of what other competition there was in this event. I do not feel that this competition is worth even the cost of $25 dollars.

    With the previous ratings, the festival coordinator contacted back and stated that he wished that they had only tried to contact him before giving the festival negative feedback, so I tried really hard to give this festival a chance, but at this point it really feels like a festival that deserves negative feedback. Don't waste your money, there are way better festivals on Film Freeway.

    July 2018
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you for your message. Notifications should have gone out (even from Film Freeway automatically). No idea how you weren't notified, but obviously others weren't as well - based on the reviews here (odd, since many responded back to the notifications). We had many problems this season (and last) behind the scenes - including family emergencies, health scares and a funeral. Yet the show must go on - and we decided to do just that. Looking back, we should have taken a break - but we absolutely reviewed every film and script that was entered (and that is the reason why notifications were sent late - but were indeed sent). The Festival took place as planned, all films screened and visiting filmmaker Mathew Roth was in attendance as well (winner for Best Feature). Not making any excuses - and respect your review here as it was your experience and is noted. Just wanted to clarify a few details in your posting. As is - sadly - we are pulling the plug on this Festival, despite many begging for us to keep it going. The negative reviews here are soul crushing to those of us who have tried to keep it alive but again, they are the honest feedback of the experiences some had in regard to the submission and notification process and we have to accept them as is. How we wish you all could have attended the event over the years - we truly believe you would have had drastically different take on Spirit Quest. Regardless - we wish you nothing but success with your current and future projects and again, thank you for your feedback.

  • Tricia Tomasky

    Extremely poor communication and planning; unable to get answers to questions in order to plan travel. No website, just a Facebook page that was infested with inappropriate spam.

    August 2016
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    Response from festival:

    Tricia - VERY saddened to hear about your experience (and that of Derrick's below) in regards to our 2016 event. Please note that I have personally explored ALL of our emails and have not found any from you (though due to the server issues we ourselves were victims of last season god only knows if you sent something that never arrived). Sadly - only people with bad experiences seem to ever leave feedback so while I absolutely will apologize to you here and wished you'd simply called me (I'm one of the only film festival Presidents on earth that even provides his personal contact info and take great pride in the feedback we've received over the years just for that reason alone) and you would have had a much different opinion of our event (which has gone on for years without a single complaint til last season when we were hit with server issues, family emergencies, deaths, etc). I would have bent over backwards for you to answer any and all of your concerns or questions. As is - we now have another bad rating from someone who we would have LOVED to have assisted and the public now has a very unrealistic view of our annual festival as a result. For the record, we have been around for years, have had incredible feedback, shown very cutting edge films, had celebrity guests, made contacts with filmmakers for talent and productions, etc and have earned rave reviews from the audiences, filmmakers and critics as well. We are not in any way a sham, a scam nor remotely even shoddy. I've worked in this industry for nearly most of my life and truly believe in this little festival that showcases films that matter. And for the record - since you had such a bad experience, I would like to to know that we will offer you TWO FREE entries in our current and 2018 festivals. All you need to do is either drop me a line DIRECTLY TO ME: gnosticmystic@verizon.net OR CALL ME: 814-273-3195 and I'll make sure you get answers to anything you could possibly need. Again - thank you for your review but please note that it is based totally on circumstances beyond our control and NOT our event, staff nor myself. All the best, regardless - Greg