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2024 SPE Media Festival

Video Art, New Media, Film

Society for Photographic Education   /   Deadline: 10/13/23

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The SPE (Society for Photographic Education) Media Festival (originally the SPE Women's Film Festival) has featured innovative and provocative short documentaries, animation, and fiction by, for, and about women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQIA community since 1995.

We invite artists to submit video art, new media projects, and films that embrace the diversity of the moving-image medium through immersive visual storytelling, interdisciplinary research, intersectional thinking, and experimental practice. Narrative, documentary, animated, and experimental shorts under 30 minutes, that address issues of concern to women, people of color, global or LGBTQIA communities, human rights, or the conference theme are eligible. We are looking for films that retell, reimagine, rewrite, and redefine more inclusive truths that will deeply affect our future as a global community.

Location

The Marriot St. Louis Grand, in St. Louis, Missouri

Fees

Entry fee for submissions received by 11:59 PM, August 31, 2023 is free for SPE members and $10 for non-members. SPE members must check off that they are members and enter the members waiver code sent by SPE to members at checkout to receive the SPE early-bird free entry. Entry fee for submissions received from non SPE members is $10 until July 31. Aug. 1 – Sept. 12 is $15. Fee for submissions received Sept. 13 - Oct. 13 is $25.

Eligibility

Enter via FilmFreeway: https://filmfreeway.com/SPEFilmFestival-2024

FilmFreeway entries must include the following:
A web link to the full video – If password protected, include password.
Contact information for filmmaker (name, address, email and telephone number, website is optional).
Distributor information if different than filmmaker.
Short film synopsis (maximum 50 words).
Short director's bio (maximum 50 words).
Awards and festival screenings, if applicable.
Year of completion.
Exact running time (do not count color bars, black, etc.).

Requirements

Filmmakers may submit different work to more than one category, but the same video cannot be submitted to multiple categories.
All works must be under 30 minutes, including credits; there is no completion date limitation.
All rights must be cleared.
Filmmakers do not have to be SPE members.
Jurors may give preference to works that reflect the conference theme: New Realities.
Films entered in previous years are not eligible.

Accepted filmmakers must provide a Quicktime H.264 file at the original dimensions, up to 1920px x 1080px, by December 22, 2023.

Awards

Laurels for Best Women's Film
Laurels for Best Multi-Cultural Film
Laurels for Best LGBTQIA Film

Evaluation Criteria

Categories:
Women's Media Festival: Short documentaries, animation and fiction by, for or about women.
Multi-Cultural Media Festival: Short documentaries, animation and fiction on cultural issues by, for or about people of diverse cultural backgrounds.
LGBTQIA Media Festival: Short documentaries, animation and fiction by, for or about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual people.

Contact Information

Amanda Kline

E: amandalekline@gmail.com