CALL FOR ENTRIES TO THE 26th ANNUAL

RHODE ISLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL • August 8-14, 2022 is Open

2022 Rhode Island International Film Festival Call for Entries is Now Open

This year's deadlines

January 15, 2022, early deadline with reduced rates; May 15, 2022, regular deadline; June 1, 2022, late deadline; June 15, 2022, final extended late deadline

Final Deadline for Screenplay Entries: July 15, 2022

The Rhode Island International Film Festival prefers paperless entries. Our 2022 exclusive partner entry portal provides cost-saving, online entry to major film festivals throughout the U.S. and in Europe with one master entry form, allowing you to enter your film more quickly and with greater accuracy. Online entry users enjoy the advantages of Extended Deadlines and Online Press Kit submissions.

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Criteria
There are no category restrictions. Each work is juried solely on its own merits. The Festival seeks any combination of inventive, incisive, bold, vital and otherwise provocative work of any style or genre.

Entry Formats

All entries must have been completed after January 2020.

1. Entries for adjudication must be submitted as digital files on FilmFreeway.

2. Formats accepted for exhibition: Digital H264 Media.

3. Films must be presented in their original language with English language subtitles. Please let us also know you sound mix. Most of our venues work best with a Left/Right mix.

Procedures

• Entry Fee (Non Refundable)

• NO FEE WAIVERS WILL BE GRANTED; PLEASE DO NOT ASK.

• $50 per all entries regardless of length.

• Films submitted after the official deadline of May 15th should add a $10 late fee.

Film Length Definition
Feature films: 41 minutes or longer. Short films: 40 minutes or less, per Academy rules.

Agreements
Submission of a work confirms that Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival has permission to exhibit it during the Festival and any Festival Tours or Best of Fest Showcases (which we will notify you about as a courtesy and ask permission.) Submission of a work implies that the Festival can employ moving image excerpts and reproduce stills for exhibition promotion.

Deadlines
Very Important: Festival entries must be postmarked by January 15, 2022 for the early bird deadline, May 15, 2022 for the regular deadline; the late deadline is June 1, 2022. The FINAL deadline is June 15, 2022. If your film is accepted, the Film/video prints are due no later than July 15, 2022 to the RIIFF offices. Please note this date as it is very important.

Jurying
All entries are initially reviewed by pre-screening officials. In June, the jury will consider the pre-screeners' semi-finalists and any other entries submitted to the Festival they may wish to see (even those not passed on by the pre-screeners.) Following the jurors' decisions, a list of Finalists will be determined by the first week in July 2022. Acceptance of films to be invited and shown at RIIFF by the Festival Director or Program Director via e-mail.

Return Shipping Information:
RIIFF is now digital. No return shipping will be involved.

Publicity
If your film is invited to screen at RIIFF, please submit whichever of the following materials you have immediately upon notification of acceptance to better aid in Festival publicity of your work: Digital sets of B&W & color stills; an EPK; digital video clip as an MOV. You-tube or Vimeo file. PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL THIS MATERIAL PRIOR TO ACCEPTANCE.

Travel and Hospitality
It is RIIFF's intention to provide to create a worry-free environment where people can conduct business and view work with ease. Our staff will be happy to provide for you a list of local hotels and B&B's upon request. We will also provide each attending filmmaker with an hospitality package which will include maps, passes, special offers at restaurants, entertainment complexes and attractions.

Competition and Awards
A panel of jurists comprised of filmmakers and professionals in the varied fields of cinema will award cash prizes and trophies in the following:

• Best Feature

• Best Short - Live Action

• Best Short Animation

• Best Documentary Short

• Best Score

• Best Editing

• Best Children’s Film

• Original Screenplay Award

• Director’s Discovery Award

• Best Student Film Award - high school and college divisions

• Best Documentary Feature

• Best Cinematography

• Viola M. Marshall Audience Choice Awards

Please note that only films that enter officially with a paid application and signed authorization form will be eligible for juried awards. Only films that pay submission fees will be eligible for the Viola M. Marshall Audience Choice Awards.

Important Additional Information
Given the growth of the Festival in recent years and the additional programming that has developed, you can now designate on this application form if you want your film entered into the Flickers' VORTEX Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror Film Festival (October 2022). This event takes place outside the dates for RIIFF. Make sure you check off the form which festival you would like to enter. It is possible that you could even have your film accepted and played at more than one film festival event.

The Fine Print

We ask you to read the fine print when you decide to enter our Festival. This centers on your ownership of the work you submit and having all necesassary copyright clearances. Additionally, we request the right to promote your work within the Festival and need your authorization. Please click on this link for the PDF.

This form should be included with your application if you are submitting a hard copy entry.

Finally...

We strongly encourage filmmakers who submit to RIIFF not to screen their work in our region prior to the August event. What is our region? Rhode Island and southern New England (that's nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut). Essentially, we are talking a drive radius that extends to New Bedford, MA and New London, CT. Boston and the Cape are not an issue since we partner with many of the Festivals in that region and cross-promote. (We are very close friends with the Woods Hole Film Festival, for example, and work together on programming that reflects our respective audiences.)

Unless we have communicated with you directly about your given circumstance (and we do ask you to contact us), the odds for acceptance into the Festival decrease if you screen in Rhode Island before RIIFF takes place compared to a film that has not screened, particularly if the scores from our judges are similar and we have limited slots for programming. Usually, the film will be accepted into one of our other year-round programs that allow for breathing space between screenings so that our promotions and marketing of the film are not undercut.

If the film is tied to a school (such as RISD, URI, Brown, RWU, RIC, PC, Wheaton, Salve, etc.), student screenings are not usually open to the general public, so the rule does not apply. We strongly support student work and yearly sponsor student programs at the regional colleges and award prizes, including a screening at RIIFF.

If there might be a conflict, talk with us or write us.

Questions & Information about the Festival, contact the:

Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival™

PO Box 162
Newport, RI 02840 USA
Street Address: 36 Rhode Island Avenue, Newport, RI 02840

Office: The Vets, 83 Park Street, Suite 5, Providence, RI 02903
401/861-4445 . fax: 401/490-6735
info@film-festival.org