Films must meet at least one of two criteria to be considered for programming: the film was created with an eye toward gender, sexuality, or social justice issues, and/or the film was created by people underrepresented in media fields (women, people of color, queer, transgender, disabled).
Columbia College Chicago current students or alumni and Chicago Feminst Film Festival alumni may request a submission fee waiver. Please message us before submitting, as submission fees will not be refunded.
Shorts must be 30 minutes or less and created since March 2017. Any non-English language films must be subtitled in English.
We prefer Chicago premieres. Films may not screen publicly in the Greater Chicago area within three months of the CFFF (between Dec. 2018 and March 2019).
By submitting a film to CFFF for Festival consideration, the submitter represents that they have obtained consent from any and all owners, creators, writers, producers, and/or other authorized representatives of the film, including clearing all rights to copyrighted music used in the film. In the case of any rights related to Errors and Omissions, the filmmaker and submitter relieves the festival of any responsibility resulting from copyright infringement or libel.
Submitters grant legal permission to the CFFF to include their name, likeness, stills, and very short portions of their film in promotional materials (festival programs, trailers, news articles, websites, social media, etc.).