Are you an environmentalist? A BIPOC filmmaker? A student? A zombie fan? All of the above? No matter who you are, we’re confident that the following list of 15 Film Festivals You Can Enter for Free will have a great opportunity for you. You might even find several great opportunities.
It’s easy to empty your wallet paying submission fees to film festivals that pass on your film, which is why we try to help you narrow things down with our annual list of 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee.
But what if you don’t want to pay any fees? We get it, and so do the festivals below. Some are entirely free to all, while others specifically seek out filmmakers of color, women, young filmmakers on the rise, and other filmmakers whose voices and visions they want to welcome and amplify.
So apply away — you have nothing to lose.
Austin Film Festival’s Young Filmmakers Competition (free to filmmakers 13-18)
Austin Film Festival supports storytellers at all stages of their careers, including when they’re just starting out — even if that’s in middle school. Now entering its 29th year, AFF has a free film competition for filmmakers ages 13-18. Best of all, they can compete in multiple categories, including animated, documentary, and narrative short films. Enjoy your youth and all that — it’s important! — but if you happen to have a wise-beyond-your-years cinematic vision, Austin is one of the most respected film festivals of all. The application period is open until September 2.
Bentonville Film Festival’s Molly Holtzinger Aspiring Filmmaker Award Program (free to Arkansas female filmmakers in high school or college)
For its 8th edition, Bentonville Film Festival introduced the Molly Holtzinger Aspiring Filmmaker Award Program, named for a writer-filmmaker-podcaster who tragically died young after a skateboarding accident. The program is targeted toward female high school or college filmmakers in Arkansas, where Bentonville is located. Approximately five or six films will be selected for screening at the festival each year and the winner will be announced after the program during the awards ceremony. The festival is currently underway, so you’re too late to submit for this year, but you can start planning your 2023 submission way ahead.
Dirty Popcorn Black Film Festival (free to BIPOC filmmakers in Delaware and nearby states)
If you are a BIPOC filmmaker from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania or New York, then Dirty Popcorn Black Film Festival wants your film, and encourages you to submit it — for free. Sponsored by and hosted at the Delaware Art Museum, this brand-new festival, founded by local creative director Jet Phynx, is looking for narrative (drama/fiction), documentary, and experimental (music videos, animation, etc.) submissions under 30 minutes. Get to know this incredibly named festival before the word gets out! The entry period for the first edition, coming up in August, has passed, but you can start planning for next year.
FilmSlam (free to Florida filmmakers)
Florida filmmakers have no excuse not to submit to FilmSlam, the unique 18-year-old screening series for independent filmmakers in the region. Not only is there no submission fee, but submissions are accepted year-round for consideration to screen at a monthly event held at the Orlando Museum of Art. FilmSlam is open to all short films under twenty minutes. All genres are welcome, and horror films are exclusively shown during October’s screening.
Filmmakers at October’s 25th anniversary Heartland Film Festival Awards Party in Indianapolis. Photo credit: Banayote Photography/Heartland Film Festival
Heartland International Film Festival (free to all, in certain categories)
Indy Shorts (free to all, in certain categories)
These highly respected Indianapolis festivals attract major films, including Oscar contenders, and are on our list of 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee. Most categories have an entry fee, but the festival encourages inclusivity and discovery by making some categories submission fee free — up to a certain date. Heartland International welcomes features and documentaries shot in Indiana for free, as well as horror features — as long as you meet the Early Bird Deadline. It’s passed for this year, but you do have time to make the July 10 Extended Deadline, which does carry an Entry Fee. The festival is held Oct. 6-16.
Indy Shorts charges no admission for horror features, films shot in Indiana, and films by high school filmmakers — again, as long as their submitted by the Early Bird Deadline. Those deadlines have passed for this year, because Indy Shorts is coming up soon — July 19 through 24. Start planning for next year.
Indie Memphis (free to Memphis filmmakers)
Another of our 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee, this is a top-tier festival in one of the coolest and most fascinating places in America. It gives love back to local filmmakers with free passes for local filmmakers in several categories: the Hometowner Featurs Competition, Narrative Short – Memphis Hometowner, Documentary Short – Memphis Hometowner, Music Video – Memphis Hometowner, Animated Short – Memphis Hometowner and Experimental Short – Memphis Hometowner. You’re too late for this year, but not next year. The upcoming festival will be held October 19-24.
Kaboom Animation Festival (free to all)
This very international festival, based in Amsterdam’s Melkweg cultural center, invites you to submit up to three films, immersive projects or games, using all animation techniques, for free. The submission period is open until October 3. “Ranging from cutting-edge experimental arthouse to colorful stories for families and kids, Kaboom will cater to the animation needs of all,” the festival says on its website. “Yes, even yours, my amazing weirdo friend!”
Miami Underground Film Festival (free to South Florida filmmakers)
Open only to South Florida filmmakers, the Miami Underground Film Festival is a haven of some of the Sunshine State’s most eclectic and creative work. Lucky entries will get the chance to be a part of the festival’s delightfully irreverent “Circle-Jerk” Awards, held annually to honor winners of categories like “Best Stunt Casting” and “Best Traditional Graffiti Documentary.” Submissions for narrative shorts, music videos, documentaries, and animations are open until July 31. This year, the festival will be held on September 24.
Nevermore Film Festival (practically free to all)
This top-notch Durham, North Carolina horror festival isn’t exactly free — but it is only $1 for early submissions. And you have time to plan, because submissions for 2023 won’t open until October 1. Wait, it gets better: Nevermore has a highly favorable ratio of applicants to accepted films, and is fairly generous with awards for the films that make it in. It’s very well-established, dating back more than two decades, and draws big, enthusiastic crowds. If you’ve made a horror movie, applying is a no-brainer. FilmFreeway offers a handy “add to list” button at the end of the entry, and we recommend using it. Speaking of FilmFreeway, Nevermore is free to Gold Members.
PDX Recovery Film Festival (free to all)
An awesome idea for a festival, aimed at our many friends in the sober community. The festival says it is aimed “at exhibiting works of art that promote hope and community around the struggle of addictions, mental health and homelessness. Our audience includes people seeking recovery, those who have walked through recovery, workers in the field and the general public. It seeks shorts, documentaries, music videos, stop animation, and all other films/videos of any length that deal with the subjects of addictions, mental health, homelessness and recovery. Everyone is welcome, as long as they aren’t a terrible person: “Films that are racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ablest, ageist or are in any other way targeting a population negatively will not be considered,” the festival says. The regular deadline was just yesterday, so you have a very early start on next year.
Street Side Cinema (free to all who can keep it relatively clean)
Want the public to see your film? Out in public? Street Side Cinema is for you. It’s a daily, outdoor film screening program at a/perture cinema in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, open to anyone — and the goal is to make film more accessible to everyone. Because of that, the festival is looking for films that can be publicly projected for all to see. This year’s submissions are closed, but keep your eyes open for the next opportunity.
The Tallgrass Film Festival
Tallgrass Film Festival’s Gordon Parks Award for Black Excellence in Filmmaking (free to Black filmmakers)
Tallgrass, based in Wichita, Kansas, is another of our 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee, and the Gordon Parks award is noteworthy because you can not only enter for free, but earn substantial rewards. Open to films from any director who “self-identifies as Black, African-American or part of the African-Diaspora,” this one comes with a prize package that includes a Panavision $15,000 camera rental package and $5,000 cash from Cargill. Additionally, films submitted to this category are also eligible in Tallgrass’ other categories. Entry is free each year until the Late Deadline, which passed June 11 — but you have until July 2 — this Saturday — to submit for the heavily discounted fee of $25. (By comparison, entering in the main feature competition at this stage is $130 — but entering Gordon Parks, which automatically includes entry in the main category, costs less than a fifth of that.) This year’s festival will be held September 28-October 2.
SCAD Savannah Film Festival (free to SCAD students)
Another of our 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee, this award-season destination gives SCAD students a chance to mix it up with A-listers who come to this idyllic Georgia town to present their prestige films, often weeks before they’re released in theaters. SCAD makes the festival a little more enticing to its students by letting them enter for free.
Yale Environment 360 Film Contest (free to all who love the planet)
Do you care about the environment? Did you make a short film about it? If you answered yes and yes, you can enter this esteemed festival for free. This annual festival is refreshingly easy to apply to, and its judged by a top-notch panel that includes Yale Environment 360 editor Roger Cohn, Pulitzer Prize winner and e360 contributor Elizabeth Kolbert, and Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Thomas Lennon. This year’s deadline has passed, but you can follow the event August 1-19 to gather intel on what the judges like — and of course learn about the world’s most pressing issues.
Zombiepalooza (free to all who love the undead)
You have until September 9 to enter a short film of five minutes or less, and it must explore themes related to historic cross-pollination of power structures insofar as they relate to — nah, we’re messing with you. The movies have to be about ZOMBIES. This event is coming to the Cary Theater in downtown Cary, North Carolina on October 28, just before Halloween.
Bonus: TIFF Wavelengths (free to the elite few)
You can get into one of the world’s most prestigious film festivals for free — if it invites you. Wavelengths describes itself as “a tightly curated international showcase that comprises a vast array of artist film and video, including feature-length experimental narratives, innovative and essayist documentaries, lyrical shorts, and films from the contemporary art world.” So at least you know what to aim for.
Sarah Druhan and Deirdre McCarrick contributed to this story.
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