The DIY Film Festival seeks to honor independent filmmakers and self-produced films that demonstrate that great art can be created without large expenditures. We seek to expose such films and filmmakers to audiences through our festival and our various media outlets. We abide by the Jean Cocteau quote "When the cost of filmmaking is as much as a pencil and piece of paper you'll find true art."
The DIY Film Festival was founded in 2000 as an offshoot of the DIY Convention: Do It Yourself in Film, Music and Books. The convention teaches filmmakers, authors, musicians and entrepreneurs how to create, promote, protect and distribute independent film, music and books.

In the past, we've screened films year round in conjunction with our seminars and other events in various cities in the US. Sometime in late March we have an awards banquet where winning films or clips of the longer ones are screened and filmmakers are honored for their work. Links to the winning films,or their pages are promoted, and highlighted for the winning filmmakers. However as of late many of our winning filmmakers from across the globe aren't able to attend the banquet, so the 2016-2017 festival will be online only. We encourage those filmmakers who want to submit to the festival to build an online presence, featuring a trailer for the film. All winnings films are eligible for distribution from our sponsor KinoNation, and winning entrants receive free editing software for the DIY Filmmaker.

The DIY Film Festival is proud to talk about.. itself! We've had a lot of talented filmmakers in the past fourteen years, and many have gone on to careers in the industry. DIY prides itself on showing cutting edge films, and honoring those filmmakers who just had a desire to tell a story.

This past year, the 2017 festival was Sixteenth.

The winning entries in each category were given editing software donated by Pinnacle editing systems, owned by Corel Industries, and winning entries are eligible for digital distribution through Kinonation.com

We have held a wonderful celebratory event for the winners each year in Hollywood and some photos of the yearly event are available at the website as well. In the future we are going to be an online film festival. We've had a number of our festival winners and filmmakers go on to greater success, including films that have been broadcast on cable tv, theatrical release, and success in the DIY distribution world.

Please check out the webpage to get a flavor of the kind of films that we've been lucky enough to feature at our festival!

First Prize in a category includes editing software from Pinnacle Editing software, a division of Corel industries. Also finalists are eligible for online distribution through our sponsor FILMHUB.COM (previously KinoNation) which has distribution via many online outlets. All winners receive a certificate suitable for framing, our interviewed either in print or by video and those clips are posted on the website DIYFilmFest.com. We were a theatrical event for the first ten years of our existence, then in the past few we've morphed into an online event, as many of the finalists and winners were from distant locations and countries. We found that there was more interest in being a completely online festival.

The films should follow the paradigm of "Do It Yourself" filmmaking. This means no film studio or major corporation financed your film. However, in the case of student filmmakers, we're aware that there are funds made available to finish your film. Basically, we're a film festival that highlights and focuses on the ability to tell a good story, a moving story, an interesting story using the tools that are available to everyone. That being said, it's up to you how professional your film looks, or your story is. We firmly believe in Jean Cocteau's maxim "When the cost of making films is as much as a pencil and piece of paper, then we'll find true art."Final determination on festival qualifications and eligibility rests with our judges. We cannot return entries, so please do not send us your only copy of a film. You must mail your project. You cannot drop it off in person.

The DIY Film Festival is hereby granted the right to utilize an excerpt from any film submitted and accepted for exhibition at the Festival for promotional purposes.

The individual or corporation submitting the film hereby warrants that it is authorized to commit the film for screening, and understands and accepts these requirements and regulations.

The undersigned shall indemnify and hold harmless The DIY Film Festival from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney's fees, and costs of the court) which may be incurred by reason of any claim involving copyright, trademark, credits, publicity, screening, and loss of or damage to the screening videos entered.