Your film should consist of a 3 to 20-minute short animation or live-action film with an Afro-futuristic theme.
1) Projects/Films completed prior to January 1, 2018, are not eligible for the film festival.
2) Projects/Films that have been screened in more than two film festivals prior to April 2020 or previously released via any distribution platform (Blue-Ray, DVD, Streaming or Video on Demand) are ineligible.
3) Projects/Films that have been previously exhibited theatrically at one or more private screenings for which tickets were not sold to the general public retain eligibility for the 2020 AFCC festival.
4) Projects/Films should not exceed a running time of 10 minutes including opening and closing credits.
5) It is the sole responsibility of the Applicant to secure authorization and permission from the copyright owner(s) of any and all copyrighted content or materials included within the submitted Project/Film. Filmmakers/Producers MUST own or have licensed the rights to any images, music, or video included in the film. This statement includes all trademarked content, materials, or symbols. (Documentation must be provided before being screened online or via cable or theatrically).
6) AFCC reserves the right to disqualify, without refund of any or all submission fees previously collected from the Applicant, any Project/Film with any unauthorized inclusion of copyrighted or trademarked content or materials. AFCC has the right to waive selection criteria based on special circumstances.
7) In order to qualify for the festival’s Best Short Film category or Best Short Documentary category, your project/film must retain “World Premiere” status until December 1, 2020.
8) Projects/Films submitted for previous AFCC film festivals can be resubmitted only if the current version of the project/film differs greatly from the previous submission.
9) Applicants submitting a Project/Film that contains significant non-English spoken dialogue must provide on-screen English subtitles. AFCC reserves the right to disqualify, without refund of any or all submission fees previously collected from the Applicant, any Project/Film that contains significant non-English spoken dialogue that does not include accompanying on-screen English subtitles.
10) Submissions may NOT be withdrawn from the AFCC festival once they have been entered, except at the sole discretion of the AFCC Festival Director.
11) All selected films may be excerpted for up to 2 minutes (max) for publicity purposes.
12) All projects/films must be submitted via the FilmFreeway platform. Do not send DVDs, drives, or files to AFCC Festival Team members.
13) All accepted films will be screened digitally via the FilmFreeway platform. Transmedia projects will live on the NNPA/BlackPressUSA site for a period of time not to exceed 1 year from the date of the AFCC festival.
14) Please note, notification letters will be sent electronically. Acceptance letters will be sent electronically and accompanied by a phone call. Please make sure you submit a working email and phone number with each submission (s).