Call for Entries
GEMS: October 30 – November 3, 2024
Submissions Information
July 1, 2024
Opening Date
September 1, 2024
Earlybird Deadline
November 1, 2024
Regular Deadline
December 1, 2024
Late Deadline
January 1, 2025
Extended Deadline
February 18, 2025
Notification Date
April 4 – 13, 2025
Festival Dates
MARIMBAS Award
The MARIMBAS Award is a competition for the jury-selected U.S. or international narrative feature film (60 min or longer) that best exemplifies richness and resonance for cinema’s future.
Made in MIA Feature Film Award
Made in MIA Feature Film Award is a competition for the jury-selected feature film of any genre that features a qualitatively and quantitatively substantial portion of its content (story, setting and actual filming location) in South Florida (Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and/or Monroe counties) and that best utilizes its story and theme for universal resonance.
Made in MIA Short Film Award
Made in MIA Short Film Award is a competition for the jury-selected short film (30 minutes or less) of any genre that features a qualitatively and quantitatively substantial portion of its content (story, setting and actual filming location) in South Florida (Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and/or Monroe counties) and that best utilizes its story and theme for universal resonance.
Jordan Ressler First Feature Award
Is a competition for the jury-selected best film made by a filmmaker making their feature narrative (60 min or longer) film debut.
Documentary Achievement Award
Award given to the director of the jury-selected best feature-length (60 min or longer) documentary film.
Miami International Short Film Award
Miami International Short Film Award is given to a jury-selected narrative short film (30 min or less) of any genre from anywhere in the world.
Documentary Short Film Award
Documentary Short Film Award is a jury competition, with the award given to a jury-selected documentary short film (30 min or less) from anywhere in the world.
Narrative Feature Film Audience Award
Presented to the filmmaker of the Festival audience’s choice of best non-documentary feature (60 min or more) of the entire Official Selection.
Documentary Audience Award
Award given to one documentary film as voted upon by the Festival audience, awarded to the film’s lead producer (production company). All feature-length documentary (50 min or longer) playing in the Festival’s Official Selection are eligible for this Award.
Short Film Audience Award
Presented to the filmmaker(s) of the Festival audience’s choice of best eligible short of any genre (30 min or less) of the entire Official Selection.
CINEMASLAM (For Florida Film Students Only)
Cinemaslam is Miami Film Festival’s annual Florida film school competition. The purpose of Cinemaslam is to foster excellence in student filmmaking and expose students to the value of film festivals in connecting their work with public audiences and industry professionals. Please read the eligibility criteria carefully. Only eligible films will be considered and no refunds will be given for ineligible submissions.
Special Presentation
This out-of-competition category highlights significant shorts, features, or episodic content that exceed 30 min or more of any genre.
1. For all Competition categories, World premiere must have occurred no earlier than January 1, 2024. For Non-Competition categories (Special Presentation), there is no specific regulation regarding the date of a film’s World premiere.
2. For feature films in all competition categories, the Festival will give programming preference to films that offer a World, International, North American or US premiere status. PLEASE NOTE THAT WE REQUIRE ANY FESTIVAL SCREENING BE AT A MINIMUM A FLORIDA PREMIERE. Short films, and out-of-competition films, do not have a minimum premiere requirement, but as with in-competition features, strong preference will be given to Florida premieres and higher.
3. Films that are in commercial circulation (theatrical, broadcast, commercial VOD or domestic airline entertainment system) in the USA prior to April 14, 2025 will not be eligible for the Festival.
4. The Festival’s Competition categories have different eligibility rules – the length, genre (narrative or documentary) and origin regulations can all change from category to category. For example, some categories accept films of any running time, while other categories may require a minimum running time of 60 minutes or a maximum running time of 30 minutes. For other examples, some categories accept both narrative and documentary films, while other categories are restricted to one or the other; some categories accept films from any country in the world, while others only accept films from the United States or specific counties in Florida. Please read each category description carefully before submitting. If you mistakenly submit to a category for which your film is not eligible, the Festival will not disqualify your entry, but our programmers will instead consider your submission for a category where it will be eligible.
5. Our Festival’s audience-voted awards are determined by the audience of each screening being invited to rate the film on a numeric scale on a paper ballot. The average of the audience’s scoring will be multiplied by the fractional audience participation in the voting process (that is, the number of people who choose to vote out of the total attendance at each screening) in order to come up with a final score. At the conclusion of the Festival, the film with the highest over-all score in each audience-voted category will win that category’s award. Should two top final scores be separated by less than 1/10 of a percentage point, a tie will be declared. Ratings and final scores are confidential and not published or shared.
6. Films selected for the Festival will be required to provide a DCP format file for In-Theater Exhibition.
7. The Cinemaslam category is only open to undergraduate and graduate Florida film students whose films meet the specific criteria listed in that section. It has a later deadline and lower submission cost than other categories. Do not submit your film to this category if it does not meet the eligibility requirements. Ineligible films will not be selected and the submission fee will not be refunded.
Knight Marimbas Award *
Miami Film Festival’s top award, presenting $40,000 cash to the jury-selected feature film (60 min or longer) that best exemplifies richness and resonance for cinema’s future. The cash prize will go to the lead producer (production company), but is eligible to be split with a US distributor, if there is a US company that has made a commitment to release the winning film in US theaters prior to a VOD release.
Knight Made in MIA Award
Cash competition for the jury-selected best feature film ($30,000) and the jury-selected best short film under 30 minutes ($10,000) of any genre that features a qualitatively/quantitatively substantial portion of its content (story, setting and actual filming location) in South Florida, from West Palm to the Keys, and that most universally demonstrates a common ground of pride, emotion, and faith for the South Florida community.
Jordan Ressler First Feature Award
$10,000 cash to the filmmaker (director, or writer/director) of the jury-selected best film made by a filmmaker making his or her feature narrative (60 min or longer) film debut. The Award is courtesy of the South Florida family of the late Jordan Ressler, an aspiring screenwriter whose life was tragically cut short before he could realize his dream.
HBO Ibero-American Feature Film Award
$10,000 cash, courtesy of HBO, to the jury-selected best U.S. Hispanic or Ibero-American feature film (60 min or longer) in the Official Selection, awarded to the lead producer (production company).
HBO Ibero-American Short Film Award
$5,000 cash, courtesy of HBO, to the jury-selected best U.S. Hispanic or Ibero-American short film (30 min or less) in the Official Selection, the four runner-ups will each receive a cash prize of $1,250, courtesy of HBO.
Alacran Music in Film Award
Highlights the power of music in film and celebrates the role of the film composer. Alacran would like to celebrate the artists behind the music composition, which often stays in the shadow, for their contribution to the film industry with a $5000 prize for Best Original Score.
Zeno Mountain Award
$5,000 cash, courtesy of Fringe Partners, to the filmmaker of a jury-selected film of any genre and any length that best celebrates the diversity of abilities and disabilities and helps to break down barriers to our understanding of people living with disabilities. The award is named after Zeno Mountain Farm in Lincoln, VT, and inspired by the actors and filmmakers in the 2016 documentary film “Becoming Bulletproof.”
Documentary Achievement Award
Prize given to one documentary film as voted upon by the Festival audience, awarded to the film’s lead producer (production company). All feature-length documentary (50 min or longer) playing in the Festival’s Official Selection are eligible for this Award.
Short Film Award
Jury-selected short films (30 min or less) of any genre for the best short film not in the Spanish language.
Wolfson CinemaSlam Competition
Open to all eligible film students across the State of Florida. Details at miamifilmfestival.com/cinemaslam-2020.
- Best Use of Archival Footage from Wolfson Archives
- Grand Winner
- Best Director
- Best Writing
- Best Actor
- Best Actress
- Best Technical Achievement
Toyota Feature Film Audience Award
Presented to the filmmaker of the Festival audience’s choice of best non-documentary feature (60 min or more) of the entire Official Selection.
Toyota Short Film Audience Award
Presented to the filmmaker(s) of the Festival audience’s choice of best non-documentary short (30 min or less) of the entire Official Selection.
Rene Rodriguez Critics Award
Presented to the filmmaker of one film of any genre and any length voted on by all accredited film critics covering the annual Festival, for the film they consider the best of that year’s selection.
Miami Film Festival Trailer Award presented by Oolite Arts
The winning editor will receive an invitation and honorarium as a guest of the 2021 Miami Film Festival as an Oolite Arts Skills Master Class Lecturer.
Miami Film Festival Poster Award presented by Oolite Arts
The winning designer will receive an invitation and honorarium as a guest of the 2021 Miami Film Festival as an Oolite Arts Skills Master Class Lecturer.
*A marimba is a variation of a xylophone that produces a deeper, richer and more resonant tone that a traditional xylophone. The marimba originated in Guatemala and Central America approximately 400 years ago and remains popular to this day in a wide variety of musical disciplines. The name of Miami Film Festival’s top award is inspired by the 2011 winner of the Festival’s top award, Julio Hernandez Cordon’s Marimbas from Hell, which embodies the spirit of forward-looking cinema.
Cinema 360°
Narratives (60 min or more) from both masters and up-and-coming filmmakers from every country in the world, including an international selection of dramas, comedies, suspense thrillers, neo westerns, and innovative docudramas.
Reel Music Scene
Narrative or documentary films of any length with music-themed content.
Visit the Wolfson CinemaSlam Competition page for information and past winners.
Completed Short Films
Prizes
The winning student project will receive $7,500 cash. Additionally, four runners-up will be acknowledged with cash prizes of $5,000 each.
Regulations
- To be eligible, films must contain some meaningful use of archival footage, from the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives at Miami Dade College, within their film. There is NO requirement for a minimum or maximum percentage of the film’s running time dedicated to archival footage.
- Films may be in the narrative, documentary, experimental, animated or hybrid genres.
- Film completion date must be October 2018 or later. Films submitted to a prior year of the CinemaSlam are ineligible.
- Students must have been enrolled at the participating school on the completion date of their finished films.
- Films submitted may be part of a class project or an independent piece.
- Submissions are OPEN until Friday, January 18, 2020.
- Submissions MUST be uploaded to the FilmFreeway platform in an acceptable resolution.
- Students must pay a submission fee of $10 to enter the competition. Winning Works-in-Progress projects from Cinemaslam 2019 may submit their completed films with a fee waiver, upon request at info@miamifilmfestival.com
- The exhibition format of films selected must be a digital file, resolution 1920×1080 or higher. Quicktime is preferred, as Miami Film Festival will be converting it to DCP for exhibition.
Works in Progress (WIP)
Prizes
Up to 15 “seed money” awards of $1,000 cash will be awarded, to be used toward competition of the student’s project. Should the jury find less than 15 projects for consideration, the $15,000 cash awards funds will be evenly split among the jury’s selection of finalists.
Regulations
- Projects will make any use of archival material from Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Archives in a way that is essential to the student’s content.
- Projects may be in development, script, pre-production, production or post-production.
- Projects may be in the narrative, documentary, experimental, animated, or hybrid genres.
- There is no minimum or maximum required percentage of the planned production running time devoted to archival material.
- Projects will not be finished before March 10, 2020.
- The completed film MUST be submitted to the 2021 Wolfson CinemaSlam Competition (submission fee will be waived).
- Submissions are OPEN until Friday, January 18, 2020.
- Students must pay a submission fee of $10 to enter the competition.
- Projects in development, script, pre-production and production, can submit the following material for consideration:
- One-page Treatment (in PDF format and in English language)
- Director and Producer Note of Intention (Max. one page in PDF format and in English language)
- Script (in PDF format and in English language)
- Video excerpt or scene (Max. 5 minutes as a private, shareable link)
Submit
Knight Marimbas Award *
Miami Film Festival’s top award, presenting $40,000 cash to the jury-selected feature film (60 min or longer) that best exemplifies richness and resonance for cinema’s future. The cash prize will go to the lead producer (production company), but is eligible to be split with a US distributor, if there is a US company that has made a commitment to release the winning film in US theaters prior to a VOD release.
Knight Made in MIA Award
Cash competition for the jury-selected best feature film ($30,000) and the jury-selected best short film under 30 minutes ($10,000) of any genre that features a qualitatively/quantitatively substantial portion of its content (story, setting and actual filming location) in South Florida, from West Palm to the Keys, and that most universally demonstrates a common ground of pride, emotion, and faith for the South Florida community.
Jordan Ressler First Feature Award
$10,000 cash to the filmmaker (director, or writer/director) of the jury-selected best film made by a filmmaker making his or her feature narrative (60 min or longer) film debut. The Award is courtesy of the South Florida family of the late Jordan Ressler, an aspiring screenwriter whose life was tragically cut short before he could realize his dream.
HBO Ibero-American Feature Film Award
$10,000 cash, courtesy of HBO, to the jury-selected best U.S. Hispanic or Ibero-American feature film (60 min or longer) in the Official Selection, awarded to the lead producer (production company).
HBO Ibero-American Short Film Award
$5,000 cash, courtesy of HBO, to the jury-selected best U.S. Hispanic or Ibero-American short film (30 min or less) in the Official Selection, the four runner-ups will each receive a cash prize of $1,250, courtesy of HBO.
Alacran Music in Film Award
Highlights the power of music in film and celebrates the role of the film composer. Alacran would like to celebrate the artists behind the music composition, which often stays in the shadow, for their contribution to the film industry with a $5000 prize for Best Original Score.
Zeno Mountain Award
$5,000 cash, courtesy of Fringe Partners, to the filmmaker of a jury-selected film of any genre and any length that best celebrates the diversity of abilities and disabilities and helps to break down barriers to our understanding of people living with disabilities. The award is named after Zeno Mountain Farm in Lincoln, VT, and inspired by the actors and filmmakers in the 2016 documentary film “Becoming Bulletproof.”
Documentary Achievement Award
Prize given to one documentary film as voted upon by the Festival audience, awarded to the film’s lead producer (production company). All feature-length documentary (50 min or longer) playing in the Festival’s Official Selection are eligible for this Award.
Short Film Award
Jury-selected short films (30 min or less) of any genre for the best short film not in the Spanish language.
Wolfson CinemaSlam Competition
Open to all eligible film students across the State of Florida. Details at miamifilmfestival.com/cinemaslam-2020.
- Best Use of Archival Footage from Wolfson Archives
- Grand Winner
- Best Director
- Best Writing
- Best Actor
- Best Actress
- Best Technical Achievement
Toyota Feature Film Audience Award
Presented to the filmmaker of the Festival audience’s choice of best non-documentary feature (60 min or more) of the entire Official Selection.
Toyota Short Film Audience Award
Presented to the filmmaker(s) of the Festival audience’s choice of best non-documentary short (30 min or less) of the entire Official Selection.
Rene Rodriguez Critics Award
Presented to the filmmaker of one film of any genre and any length voted on by all accredited film critics covering the annual Festival, for the film they consider the best of that year’s selection.
Miami Film Festival Trailer Award presented by Oolite Arts
The winning editor will receive an invitation and honorarium as a guest of the 2021 Miami Film Festival as an Oolite Arts Skills Master Class Lecturer.
Miami Film Festival Poster Award presented by Oolite Arts
The winning designer will receive an invitation and honorarium as a guest of the 2021 Miami Film Festival as an Oolite Arts Skills Master Class Lecturer.
*A marimba is a variation of a xylophone that produces a deeper, richer and more resonant tone that a traditional xylophone. The marimba originated in Guatemala and Central America approximately 400 years ago and remains popular to this day in a wide variety of musical disciplines. The name of Miami Film Festival’s top award is inspired by the 2011 winner of the Festival’s top award, Julio Hernandez Cordon’s Marimbas from Hell, which embodies the spirit of forward-looking cinema.
Cinema 360°
Narratives (60 min or more) from both masters and up-and-coming filmmakers from every country in the world, including an international selection of dramas, comedies, suspense thrillers, neo westerns, and innovative docudramas.
Reel Music Scene
Narrative or documentary films of any length with music-themed content.
Visit the Wolfson CinemaSlam Competition page for information and past winners.
Completed Short Films
Prizes
The winning student project will receive $7,500 cash. Additionally, four runners-up will be acknowledged with cash prizes of $5,000 each.
Regulations
- To be eligible, films must contain some meaningful use of archival footage, from the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives at Miami Dade College, within their film. There is NO requirement for a minimum or maximum percentage of the film’s running time dedicated to archival footage.
- Films may be in the narrative, documentary, experimental, animated or hybrid genres.
- Film completion date must be October 2018 or later. Films submitted to a prior year of the CinemaSlam are ineligible.
- Students must have been enrolled at the participating school on the completion date of their finished films.
- Films submitted may be part of a class project or an independent piece.
- Submissions are OPEN until Friday, January 18, 2020.
- Submissions MUST be uploaded to the FilmFreeway platform in an acceptable resolution.
- Students must pay a submission fee of $10 to enter the competition. Winning Works-in-Progress projects from Cinemaslam 2019 may submit their completed films with a fee waiver, upon request at info@miamifilmfestival.com
- The exhibition format of films selected must be a digital file, resolution 1920×1080 or higher. Quicktime is preferred, as Miami Film Festival will be converting it to DCP for exhibition.
Works in Progress (WIP)
Prizes
Up to 15 “seed money” awards of $1,000 cash will be awarded, to be used toward competition of the student’s project. Should the jury find less than 15 projects for consideration, the $15,000 cash awards funds will be evenly split among the jury’s selection of finalists.
Regulations
- Projects will make any use of archival material from Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Archives in a way that is essential to the student’s content.
- Projects may be in development, script, pre-production, production or post-production.
- Projects may be in the narrative, documentary, experimental, animated, or hybrid genres.
- There is no minimum or maximum required percentage of the planned production running time devoted to archival material.
- Projects will not be finished before March 10, 2020.
- The completed film MUST be submitted to the 2021 Wolfson CinemaSlam Competition (submission fee will be waived).
- Submissions are OPEN until Friday, January 18, 2020.
- Students must pay a submission fee of $10 to enter the competition.
- Projects in development, script, pre-production and production, can submit the following material for consideration:
- One-page Treatment (in PDF format and in English language)
- Director and Producer Note of Intention (Max. one page in PDF format and in English language)
- Script (in PDF format and in English language)
- Video excerpt or scene (Max. 5 minutes as a private, shareable link)
Submit
Submissions for the 2020-21 season will open on June 1, 2020. To request inclusion on the Festival’s Industry mailing list for alerts, please email egenao@mdc.edu.
JOIN OUR FESTIVAL INSIDER
Stay up to date on upcoming releases,
exclusive events and festival news.
Accessibility Statement
Miami Dade College is committed to ensuring the accessibility and usability of digital communications by all users and/or recipients, regardless of technology or access method. To ensure accessibility, the College strives to adhere to the standards established by Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Levels A and AA standards. Reports of problems or concerns should be addressed to Cindy Lau Evans, Director, Office of Equal Opportunity Programs and ADA Coordinator, at (305) 237-2577 (Voice) or 711 (Relay Service). 11011 SW 104 St., 1102-01; Miami, FL 33176. EquityOff@mdc.edu
Non-Discrimination Statement
Miami Dade College is an equal access/equal opportunity institution which does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, marital status, age, religion, national origin, disability, veteran’s status, ethnicity, pregnancy, sexual orientation or genetic information. To obtain more information about the College’s equal access and equal opportunity policies, procedures and practices, please contact the College’s Equity Officer: Cindy Lau Evans, Director, Office of Equal Opportunity Programs and ADA Coordinator, at 305-237-2577 (Voice) or 711 (Relay Service); 11011 S.W. 104th St., Room 1102-01; Miami, FL 33176. EquityOff@mdc.edu
Privacy Policy © 2023 Miami Film Festival, All Rights Reserved.