The Shawna Shea Film Festival (SSFF) is a fringe independent international film festival. We love quirky and experimental films as much as we love straight narratives. All are welcome.
Established in 2012 the SSFF is a fundraiser for the Shawna E Shea Memorial Foundation Inc, a 501(c)(3), to honor Shawna's unique independent spirit by highlighting truly independent films that share the same quality.
The funds raised from the festival go towards scholarships and fellowships, including a Women in Film Fellowship.
Every year we have an opening night networking party and on the closing night we have an awards ceremony and party with food and a band. It is a party!
SPECIAL COVID-19 MESSAGE
As you are all aware these are challenging times for film festivals and the filmmakers we try to support. With Covid-19 we are all trying to navigate this pandemic and do what is best for all involved. And for us safety is our primary concern.
We had hoped we would be in better shape by this Fall but containing the virus seems to be challenging. SSFF and the SSFF Shorts Festival are fringe festivals. We do not screen in movie theaters. In some cases we screen in bars. As it is right now in Massachusetts, the establishments we like to call home for both festivals aren’t open, or if they are open, can not fill our needs. A block of shorts with only ten people in the audience is problematic.
So it is with great reluctance we are announcing that we will be screening the SSFF Spring Shorts online to October 3rd. It will be a one day festival, geo-blocked to just the USA, much like Fantasia is geo-blocked to Canada only and each block will run at a specific time. Once.
You will get more information in the coming weeks.
As for the major SSFF October Festival, we are postponing that until next May, when we normally run the shorts festival in hopes that we can have a live event by then. We will still close submission on August 19th to be fair to all who have submitted so far. We will push back the announcements until October 5th so it will be after the SSFF Shorts Festival ends. Once we solidify the date of the festival we’ll update it on FilmFreeway.
So basically we are going from Spring into Fall and then Fall into Spring with both festivals.
Our thanks go out to all of you as you are helping us grow the Shawna E Shea Memorial Foundation, Inc. For that we are all extremely grateful.
We appreciate all of your support and now, patience.
Every year we give out Best of Awards in many categories including the Women in Film Award and the William Gerrity Award.
We also offer a Female Fellowship Award every year to aspiring female filmmakers from around the world. Go to the Shawna E Shea Memorial Foundation website for more details.