The Sugar Loaf Film Festival’s mission is to highlight and celebrate the work of emerging filmmakers creating film and documentaries on both a local and international platform. SLFF will bring focus to filmmaking in New York State, New York City and specifically the Hudson Valley.

Our goal is to foster filmmakers and filmmaking in the Hudson Valley and its community. The Sugar Loaf Film Festival will also include special categories for filmmakers within the Hudson Valley, underrepresented filmmakers, and filmmakers under 21.

Our partnership with The Sugar Loaf Performing Arts Center, as well as Shift 72, an accessible online viewing platform, will mean the work of these independent filmmakers can be shared with cinephiles and supporters around the corner, across the country, and around the world.

Films >
Winning category films will be honored with a trophy, certificate and an image of festival laurels. Winners film title will be presented on the SLFF website for 12 months, and will be referenced in future SLFF events as “past winner”.

Screenplays >
Winning screenplays will be honored with a trophy, certificate and an image of festival laurels. Winners screenplay title will be presented on the SLFF website for 12 months, and will be referenced in future SLFF events as “past winner”. The top three submitted screenplays will also receive a copy of Final Draft Screenwriting software.

FURTHER PRIZES FOR FESTIVAL + CATEGORY WINNERS TO BE ANNOUNCED!

Submissions must be accompanied by the applicable submission fee PER ENTRY and a completed entry form.

Applicants are permitted to submit to as many categories as they wish, as long as each entry is accompanied by its individual required entry form and submission fee.

Any and all submission fees accompanied with a film submission to the SLFF are non-refundable

All films should be in English and/or accompanied with English subtitles. The SLFF reserves the right to disqualify any Applicants, without refund of any or all submissions fees

Films must be submitted as a video file via the submission platform, FilmFreeway.

SLFF will screen films ONLY as digital files and will not accept films on Blu-Ray, DVD, or HD-CAM.

The Sugar Loaf Film Festival reserves the right to screen any and all film projects submitted to the SLFF without paying screening fees.

The SLFF reserves the right to use photos, posters, and/or excerpts of your film to be used on the Sugar Loaf Film Festival website and/or social media platforms for marketing and promotional purposes. Applicants also grant SLFF the use of the material listed above to be used in promotion for the following year(s) film festival. The SLFF will never use components of your film for any other purpose outside of promotions for the film festival.

There is no time frame as to when films must have been completed, however, they must be accessible for screening during the time frame the film festival is running, May 1st - August 20th.

Incomplete or "In Progress" films are only deemed acceptable to be submitted to the Sugar Loaf Film Festival in select categories. (Student)

Content deemed as pornographic material will result in disqualification without a refund of any or all submission fees.

All films are eligible for submission to the SLFF even if they have been released digitally, theatrically, broadcast on television or online, or screened at any other festival(s) around the world.

Projects that have previously been submitted to other film festivals around the world are eligible for re-submission in the SLFF.

It is the sole responsibility of each Applicant to secure authorization and permission from the copyright owner(s) of all copyrighted materials included within the film project. The SLFF will not be held responsible for any unauthorized copyrighted content included in projects. The SLFF reserves the right to disqualify any Applicant that uses unauthorized copyrighted content in their projects, without a refund of any or all submission fees.

It is the sole responsibility of the Applicant to authorize all content of the films from any and all current or future legal claims and issues, such as claims based on libel, defamation, invasion of privacy, violation of rights and publicity, theft of trade secrets, breach of confidence, breach of confidential relationship, and breach of express or implied contract.

Video files for all films submitted to the SLFF must be submitted through direct digital upload or provided by a Vimeo or Youtube link entered directly on the Applicant's FilmFreeway page. The SLFF reserves the right to disqualify any projects, without refund of any or all submission fees, any film project that is not submitted to the film festival using one of the above-mentioned upload formats.

It is the sole responsibility of the Applicant to make certain that any film submitted to the SLFF is viewable to its entirety. The SLFF reserves the right to disqualify, without refund of any or all submission fees, any film that is not able to be viewed due to any technical errors and/or issues, regardless the fault of either the Applicant or third-party entity.

It is the Applicant's sole responsibility to ensure that their film submission is submitted and retains a submission status listed as "In Consideration" on FilmFreeway.com no later than 11:59pm on the final day of the submission deadline time frame. The SLFF reserves the right to disqualify, without refund of any or all submission fees, any film project that exceeds the submission deadline. Applicants may re-submit the same film project in another deadline window, if there is one.

Films submitted as a “Resident” must prove place of address in final stages and must reside within 40 miles of zip code 10918. Submissions from filmmakers based in NYC or its outer boroughs will not be considered a resident submission.

All screenplay submissions must be feature length (80-120 pages), written and formatted to industry standard in pdf format. The applicant's name must not appear on any page other than the title page of the script. Screenplays submitted that are outside of industry standard and file formats will be disqualified and entry fees will not be returned.

Entrants opting for feature screenplay coverage will receive coverage within 60 days of submission. Coverage will include a rework of a logline, a constructive evaluation of your script, a short plot synopsis, a professional assessment of your script’s market potential, an industry style “recommend”, “consider”, or “pass”.

In order to be considered by The Sugar Loaf Film Festival, the Applicant must fully complete the submission form at https://www.slffny.com/ via FilmFreeway.com. The SLFF reserves the right to disqualify, without refund of any or all submission fees, any film that is not submitted via one of the above-mentioned links.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • THANK YOU Sugar Loaf Film Festival for hosting DEAD AIR’s New York premiere!! I was booked, so I was unable to attend; however, all the photos on social media looked so fun, and I’d like to thank the festival for promoting DEAD AIR on social media as well, and for the communication along the way. I wish your festival continued success throughout the years! 🎬🍿❤️

    October 2024
  • Gregg Bray

    Great films! Great venue! Wish there had been some communication with the filmmakers leading up to the event, and a dedicated festival phone line would be a good idea. But what a venue! Loved the diversity of voices and happy our little film was among them. Will be back!

    October 2023
  • thanks for selecting not only our fiction film 'preferentes' but also the videoart 'shadows of a radio in the east'.

    October 2023
  • Nice festival, appreciated the experience, thank you!

    October 2023
  • It was a very attractive festival and I am happy that my film was present in this festival

    October 2023