Do you accept International films?
Yes, we accept International films. Subtitles must be available.
Esplanade Film Fest is held at several venues across the United States. The February fest will be held in Orlando, Florida.
Yes, volunteering is a great way to learn the filming industry and connect with the community. Contact us if interested.
Films with U.S. distribution including films produced, financed or initiated by a major film studio or television network are ineligible for competition. Films that have been shown on US network or cable television or distributed to theaters prior to the festival dates are also ineligible for competition.
We only accept submissions through filmfreeway. If you are new to FilmFreeway, your first step will be to create an account and then to create a “project” for your submission. Please refer to the following page for more information on how to create a project and submit to festivals: https://filmfreeway.com/help.
Of Course; however, each film must be entered separately accompanied with an additional submission fee.
Submissions must include a streamable online screener of the full film. We do NOT accept DVDs, Blu-Rays, or files that must be downloaded, or trailers.
If we discover an error with the screener, we will attempt to email the submission contact for an update. Failure to respond by the final submission deadline will result in disqualification without refund of submission fees.
In your FilmFreeway account, under the “Submissions” tab, you can locate your submission to our festival. As long as the Submission Status is listed as “In Consideration”, your film has satisfied all of our requirements and is ready to be reviewed by our screeners and programmers.
Films that are listed “Incomplete” at the time you submit are most likely missing a screener. Please check your submission again to ensure that your screener was uploaded properly.
Reasons a submission will be considered incomplete include (but are not limited to) the following:
Screener is missing
Screener has been deleted or password has been changed
Screener is missing subtitles (if in a foreign language), audio, image, or any feature that prevents us from properly judging it
If we discover an issue with your submission during the submissions process we will reach out to the submitter to correct the problem. We will update the status of the film to “Incomplete”. If at any point your film is listed as “Incomplete” and you did not receive an email disclosing the reason, please reach out to us at admin@esplanadefilmfest.org
Accepted films will receive an invitation letter by email. Films that are not accepted to screen will also be notified by email by the notification deadline.
Please make sure the email address associated with your submission remains active throughout the submission process and add each of the following accounts to your address book to prevent our communication from going to spam: admin@esplanadefilmfest.org noreply@filmfreeway.com
Your status of Accepted/Not Accepted will also be reflected in FilmFreeway under “Submissions”
Note: Email filters have a hard time with addresses that start with info@, mail@, admin@, etc. If you’re using one of these email addresses, it’s more likely your notification email may not arrive. We also suggest using an email address that someone checks daily.
All accepted films will screen at least once during the festival.
Each film is screened by a committee and evaluated across several different criteria. Screeners are asked a series of questions about each film, working to determine whether or not the film is a good fit for the festival. Accepted selections are ultimately reviewed by our jury for awards.