The Pan African Film Festival

WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO SUBMIT TO PAFF?
• PAFF accepts films and videos made by and/or about people of African descent. (Filmmaker needn't be of African descent.) Preferably, films should depict positive or realistic images.
• Films can be of any genre -- drama, comedy, horror, adventure, animation, romance, science fiction, experimental, etc. PAFF accepts features, featurettes, shorts and web series; narratives and documentaries.
• All submissions must be in English or have English subtitles.
• Completion Date - Films should have a copyright date of 2024 or 2025. Films completed prior to 2024 can be accepted at the discretion of the PAFF programmers, but will not be eligible for a PAFF Award.
• Film may not have streamed or screened in the Los Angeles area in 2026, prior to the beginning of PAFF.
• PAFF will accept the submissions of works in progress. However, your submission must be sufficiently complete to allow our programmers to follow the storyline and be able to make a decision. We will only accept one work-in-progress version of your film, so please make sure to make it your best shot. (If you expect your final version to be 90 minutes, a 45-minute rough cut is probably not acceptable.) You can include a note in a cover letter about what is lacking (i.e. temporary score, color correction, missing VFX.)

SUBMISSION CATEGORIES
Please review all submission categories carefully before submitting your project. All entrants are required to pay the submission fee of their film’s appropriate category. If you believe you have submitted your film to the wrong category, contact us immediately at: submissions@paff.org. Entrant will be responsible for any changes in submission fees. We cannot offer partial refunds for categories with a smaller fee. If the new category has a higher fee, the entrant is responsible for paying the difference.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Each submission must be accompanied by the appropriate submission fee and a working screener. The submitter is responsible for ensuring that their screener link and password are active throughout the entire submission cycle (until Feb. 17, 2026.) If you change your screener URL or password, please see that it’s updated on FilmFreeway immediately. If we discover an error with your screener before our final deadline, we will email you to fix it.

A submission will be considered incomplete if (but are not limited to):
• the Screener is missing
• the Screener has been deleted or password has been changed
• the Screener does not have subtitles (if in a foreign language), audio, image, or any feature that prevents us from properly judging it
• a submission fee balance is owed due to submitting in the wrong category based on the film’s runtime

Failure to respond by the final submission deadline will result in disqualification without refund of submission fees.

After applicable Late Submission deadline, the submitter must contact submissions@paff.org to obtain permission to submit their film. Permission will depend on space availability.

THINGS TO KNOW IF YOUR FILM IS ACCEPTED
• FORMAT - PAFF’s host theater is all-digital. The only accepted projection format for is DCP. Films playing virtually will need to submit a downloadable video file link.
• If there are any updates for projection formats, you will receive them with your acceptance notification.
• PAFF will not accept watermarked films for public presentation.

ACCEPTED FILMS - All selected works must be ready with a final version, or a reasonable expectation of when we can expect a final version, for inclusion in the festival by our notification date of December 1st.