If accepted for the program, your film will screen April 22 - April 25, 2021 at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival.
Films of any completion date are eligible for submission. However, accepted films must not have been shown commercially anywhere in Northern California* prior to the festival.
*Excludes films curated for special programs
RULES & TERMS
FILMS MUST BE SUBMITTED VIA ONLINE SCREENER ONLY THROUGH FilmFreeway and its video player.
Submission fees are non-refundable. We are sensitive to this issue and keep our fees low. They offset a portion of our administrative costs in bringing you and your audience together.
Passwords must not be changed until submissions have closed and notification of program films is announced.
We do not accept rough cuts, subsequent cuts or more complete versions of submitted films, therefore changing or updating the originally submitted link is not permitted.
Each accepted film may be screened more than once during the Festival. Programming is at the discretion of SDFF.
FORMAT REQUIREMENTS:
Exhibition Formats:
SDFF has multiple screening venues. Some require DCP; others do not.
You will be informed of the required screening format when the program is locked.
Acceptable exhibition formats are QuickTime or ProRes files which can be delivered as a download link or mailed to SDFF on a SD card, flash drive or hard drive. If you have a DCP version of your film, we will also need a digital file backup copy (QuickTime or ProRes file).
By entering your film, you agree to provide compatible exhibition format(s) at least 30 days before the start date of the festival to give SDFF print traffic manager time to QC your doc.
Before sending your media, please verify that your film plays correctly. Do not include menus, trailers and other special features.
SDFF will not pay shipping costs to the festival. SDFF will pay return shipping of media files, within the United States, to the designated filmmaker/distributor after the festival concludes provided complete return shipping address labels and contact information is included with the materials. If you want your materials returned to an address/location outside the United States, please provide return postage with your self-addressed return shipping container and put the name of your film on all shipping materials.
LANGUAGE:
Foreign language films must be made available with English subtitles.
COMMUNICATION:
Each entry, by any means, needs to include the following contact information:
➯ Director: Full name, email address, phone number, postal mailing address
➯ Rights Holder [if different]: Company name; Contact name, email address, phone number, postal mailing address
➯ Distributor Contact: Company name, Contact Name, email address, department, phone number, postal mailing address.
You are responsible for updating SDFF directly regarding any change to your contact information and ensuring that emails from programming@sebastopolfilm.org are not blocked by spam filters.
ADDITIONAL TERMS OF ENTRY:
By submitting this documentary, I understand that I am agreeing to the following:
I own or control the copyright and am duly authorized to submit this film to Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival 2021. Should ownership or rights to my film change, this agreement to screen at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival 2021, will be honored, upheld and not be infringed.
If accepted, I will not withdraw my film from SDFF 2021. Upon selection for screening at SDFF 2021 up to two minutes of footage from the film and materials accompanying my entry may be used for promotional purposes.
DEADLINES:
All entry deadlines are postmark deadlines. Entries postmarked after the final deadline might not be considered.
NOTIFICATION DATE: January 26, 2021
EVENT DATES: April 22 - April 25 2021