By submitting to the Jamaica Queens Film Industry Festival, the submitter agrees to the following rules, terms, and conditions.
The Jamaica Queens Film Industry Festival accepts submissions in multiple categories, including feature films, short films, documentaries, web series, and student films. All genres are welcome unless otherwise restricted by these rules.
Submission does not guarantee selection, screening, nomination, award placement, publicity, distribution, or any other benefit.
All decisions made by the festival, judges, programmers, and selection panel are final.
1. Eligibility
Submissions may be entered by individuals, filmmakers, students, producers, or production companies.
Submitters must be at least 18 years old. If the submitter is under 18, a parent or legal guardian must submit on their behalf and accept these terms.
Student films are accepted. Student submitters may be required to provide school or student information if requested by the festival.
Premiere status is not required.
Previously screened films and publicly available films are eligible, including films posted online, as long as the submitter has the legal right to submit and screen the film and there are no exclusive rights, distribution restrictions, or platform agreements preventing festival screening.
At this time, only English-language films are accepted.
Works-in-progress, rough cuts, incomplete edits, or unfinished projects are not accepted.
2. Submission Categories and Runtime Requirements
Submitters must choose the correct category when submitting through FilmFreeway.
Categories may include:
Feature Film
Short Film
Documentary
Web Series
Student Film
Runtime requirements are listed on the official FilmFreeway category pages.
Web series submissions must include the first completed episode only and must be under 60 minutes.
If a project is submitted to the wrong category or does not meet the runtime requirements, the festival may disqualify the project or move it to a more appropriate category at its discretion.
3. Required Submission Materials
Each submission must include:
Completed film, documentary, episode, or student project
Trailer or teaser
Synopsis
Correct category selection
Accurate runtime
Director name
Producer name, if applicable
Writer name, if applicable
Submitter contact information
MP4 or MOV file
Any requested artwork, poster, stills, or promotional materials
Trailers are required for all categories.
The submitter is responsible for making sure all materials are accurate, complete, and submitted by the required deadline.
The festival is not responsible for late, lost, misdirected, incomplete, incorrect, or technically unusable submissions.
4. Accepted File Formats
Accepted file formats are MP4 and MOV.
Selected filmmakers must provide a high-quality screening file by the deadline requested by the festival.
Projects may be removed from consideration or from the screening lineup if the submitted file has major technical issues, including but not limited to:
Poor audio quality
Missing audio
Poor image quality
Incomplete export
Missing media
Corrupt file
Watermarks that interfere with screening
Incorrect format
Failure to provide the final screening file on time
5. Submission Fees
Submission fees are listed on the FilmFreeway submission page and may vary by category and deadline tier.
Fee tiers may include:
Early Bird
Regular
Late
All submission fees are non-refundable.
Fees will not be refunded for any reason, including but not limited to:
Withdrawal by the submitter
Non-selection
Disqualification
Incorrect category submission
Failure to meet festival rules
Failure to provide required materials
Technical problems with the submitted file
Scheduling conflicts
Changes in festival date, venue, format, or programming
6. Withdrawals
Submitters may withdraw their projects from consideration. However, withdrawal does not qualify the submitter for a refund.
If a selected project is withdrawn after acceptance, the festival is not responsible for any schedule changes, promotional changes, programming gaps, or other issues caused by the withdrawal.
7. Judging and Selection
Projects will be reviewed by the festival’s judges, programmers, or selection panel.
Judging may be based on criteria such as story, originality, direction, production quality, performance, editing, sound, score, overall impact, and category fit.
Selection does not guarantee an award.
Awards are determined at the sole discretion of the judges and festival team.
All judging decisions are final.
The festival is not responsible for the personal opinions, comments, rankings, notes, or decisions of individual judges.
8. Awards
Selected winners will receive awards (trophies) and public acknowledgment at the festival and online on our social media platforms.
Award categories may include, but are not limited to:
Best Feature Film
Best Short Film
Best Documentary
Best Web Series
Best Student Film
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Film Score
Additional awards may be given at the discretion of the judges.
Not every award category is guaranteed to be awarded. The festival reserves the right to withhold any award if the judges determine that no submission meets the standard for that category.
Winners will receive small-engraved trophies.
9. Tickets for Selected Filmmakers
Each selected project will receive two complimentary tickets to the festival screening event.
Additional tickets may be subject to availability and must be purchased separately unless otherwise stated by the festival.
Complimentary tickets have no cash value and may not be exchanged, transferred, or refunded.
10. Travel and Lodging
The festival does not cover travel, lodging, transportation, meals, parking, or related expenses for filmmakers, cast, crew, guests, or representatives.
All attendees are responsible for their own travel and accommodation arrangements.
11. Screening, Venue, and Festival Changes
Selected films will be screened according to the festival schedule, venue, and format listed on the official FilmFreeway page.
The festival has a venue set aside for the event. However, the Jamaica Queens Film Industry Festival reserves the right to change the screening date, time, venue, schedule, format, programming, or event structure if necessary.
Changes may occur due to venue availability, technical needs, weather, safety concerns, emergencies, scheduling conflicts, low enrollment, operational needs, or other circumstances outside the festival’s control.
The festival will make reasonable efforts to notify selected filmmakers of major changes.
Submission fees will not be refunded due to changes in date, time, venue, format, schedule, or programming.
12. Rights and Clearances
By submitting, the submitter confirms that they own or control all rights necessary to submit and screen the project.
This includes, but is not limited to:
Music
Images
Archival footage
Stock footage
Artwork
Logos
Voiceover
Performances
Locations
Interviews
Third-party materials
Copyrighted content
Distribution or platform rights
The submitter confirms that the project does not violate the rights of any person, company, organization, platform, distributor, artist, performer, musician, writer, or other third party.
The festival is not responsible for copyright disputes, ownership disputes, licensing issues, clearance issues, distribution conflicts, or legal claims related to a submitted project.
13. Permission to Screen and Promote
By submitting, the submitter grants the Jamaica Queens Film Industry Festival permission to review, judge, and, if selected, screen the submitted project as part of the festival.
The submitter also grants the festival permission to use the project title, synopsis, trailer, clips, poster, stills, filmmaker name, cast names, crew names, and related promotional materials for festival marketing, social media, website listings, press, public relations, event promotion, and festival-related publicity.
This permission is for festival and promotional purposes only. Ownership of the submitted project remains with the filmmaker or rights holder.
14. Media Release
By attending or participating in the festival, filmmakers, guests, cast, crew, and representatives understand that they may be photographed, recorded, livestreamed, or filmed during festival-related activities.
The festival may use photographs, video, audio, interviews, appearances, and related media for promotional, marketing, archival, press, social media, website, or public relations purposes.
Participants release the festival, its organizers, staff, judges, partners, sponsors, representatives, and venue from claims related to the festival’s use of these media materials.
15. Content Restrictions
The festival may reject, remove, or disqualify any submission that contains or promotes:
Illegal content
Unauthorized copyrighted material
Hate speech
Harassment
Exploitation
Direct threats or calls for harm
Criminal activity
Content that creates legal, safety, reputational, or operational concerns for the festival
The festival may also reject content it determines to be excessively obscene, vulgar, or inappropriate for the festival’s standards.
16. Disqualification
The festival may disqualify a submission at any time if:
The project violates these rules
The project violates applicable law
The submitter provides false or misleading information
The project is incomplete or a work-in-progress
The project is submitted in the wrong category
The runtime does not match the category requirements
The submitter does not own or control the required rights
The project contains unauthorized copyrighted material
The screening file is not provided on time
The file is technically unsuitable for screening
The submitter acts in a threatening, abusive, discriminatory, harassing, or unprofessional manner toward festival staff, judges, partners, sponsors, venue staff, guests, or attendees
The project or submitter creates a legal, safety, reputational, or operational concern for the festival
Submission fees will not be refunded for disqualified projects.
17. Limitation of Liability
The festival is not responsible for any costs, losses, damages, claims, expenses, or liabilities connected to a submission, non-selection, disqualification, screening, award decision, schedule change, venue change, technical issue, travel expense, lost opportunity, publicity issue, or festival-related matter.
The festival does not guarantee that selection, nomination, screening, or winning an award will result in publicity, distribution, sales, professional opportunities, financial gain, or career advancement.
To the fullest extent allowed by law, the festival’s liability is limited to the amount of the submission fee paid by the submitter.
18. Indemnity
The submitter agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Jamaica Queens Film Industry Festival, Urban Artistic Films, Urban Artistic Media Group, its organizers, staff, judges, partners, sponsors, contractors, representatives, and venue from any claims, losses, damages, expenses, legal fees, or liabilities arising from:
The submitted project
Rights or clearance issues
Copyright or trademark claims
Music licensing claims
Distribution or platform conflicts
False or misleading information
Breach of these rules
Violation of law
Any claim made by a third party connected to the submission
19. Privacy
The festival may collect personal information through FilmFreeway, submission forms, communications, applications, contractors, or festival representatives.
This information may be used to process submissions, contact filmmakers, judge projects, organize screenings, promote selected films, administer awards, and operate the festival.
Without this information, the festival may not be able to process the submission.
20. General Terms
Failure by the festival to enforce any part of these rules does not waive the festival’s right to enforce those rules later.
If any part of these terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining terms will remain in effect.
The festival may update, clarify, or modify these rules as needed. The current rules listed on the official Film Freeway page will control.
By submitting, the submitter confirms that they have read, understood, and agreed to these rules and terms.
