Moonplay Cinema is a new feminist screening program featuring women and gender non-conforming filmmakers and moving image artists. We screen short films that are under 30 minutes and prefer auteur-driven experimental, documentary, and innovative narrative works.
This call for submissions has ended for our 2021 season (2020 has been postponed due to COVID-19).
The theater we program at will be closed for the remainder of 2020. Selected films from submissions will be curated and scheduled once the theater is available and safe to use.
Moonplay is a platform for those identifying with marginalized gender identities. Our work is vastly overlooked, ignored, and not equally represented within traditional film communities. Those identifying as women, femme, trans, and gender non-conforming are all encouraged to apply to screen with Moonplay.
Our events take place 1-4 times a year at Dreamland Arts, a 40-seat theater owned and operated by theater artists Zaraawar Mistry and Leslye Orr. The theater, named after a dilapidated movie theater in Secunderabad, India, is located in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota. It is attached to the artists' house through an underground passage in the basement.
Moonplay is organized and curated by artist and filmmaker, Jes Reyes, the founder of the Altered Esthetics Film Festival. She directed the festival as an official ARTshare program at The Southern Theater for 4 seasons (2014-2017). She has been developing Moonplay Cinema for the last two years, so she is excited to get it off the ground and running.
Minnesota filmmakers always submit for free. There is a $5 submission fee for national and international filmmakers. Please see the rules for waiver requests. We only take submissions through FilmFreeway.
Thanks for applying to screen with Moonplay!
Moonplay has a Featured Artist program to honor and recognize promising films made by women filmmakers. Featured Artists are local to Minnesota and are selected based upon the compelling films they make. If funding is available, Featured Artists receive an honorarium.
If funding is available, general screening filmmakers receive an honorarium (in US dollars).
Exhibiting artists and filmmakers become part of our community and roster. We promote your involvement and aim to stay connected through an ongoing partnership and an artist registry on our website.