Q: What is Winter Film Festival ? I think I stumbled onto this website by mistake.
A: Winter Film Festival (WFF) is an all-volunteer women and minority-run 501(c)3 organization founded in 2011 by NYC filmmakers and arts enthusiasts. It was built with the dream of making indie film more accessible to the public and providing driven, talented artists the opportunity to break through competitive barriers to establish meaningful careers in film.Winter Film Festival is a live in-person event. All selected films are screened at LOOK Cinemas on West 57th Street in NYC in one of two screens (70 seats and 130 seats). The Festival screens all lengths and all genres – features and shorts, narrative fiction, documentaries, horror, animation, music videos and episodic web series.
Q: What benefits are there for taking part in Winter Film Festival ?
There is absolutely nothing like seeing your film screened at a real theater with awesome sound in front of a live audience! There is also nothing as amazing as the networking opportunities at a film festival – you get the chance to hang out with other filmmakers, producers, distributors, sponsors and fans. Our discussion panels/workshops are designed to teach you useful things you need to know for your career and get your questions answered – in the past, we’ve hosted panels on legal issues, sustainable filmmaking, distribution, SAG-AFTRA, shooting sex and violence, production 101, insurance, NYS and NYC government and many more!
Every selected film at Winter Film Festival receives an SEO-enhanced page on our website, which includes links to your website, social media and IMDB entries plus reviews, trailers, and photos. In addition, we shoot promo videos for our longer films (20 minutes and more), which are placed all over social media and screened during intermissions. We assign a writer to all longer films to ensure a good article we can share and send to bloggers/media. We generate press releases with details for a variety of film groups (e.g. Films from Asia, Films from Germany, Horror Films, etc).
All attending filmmakers are interviewed at least one time on our red carpet, and the videos are posted on social media and linked to on your page on our site. All attending filmmakers receive a swag bag with roughly $200 worth of awesome stuff – software discounts, a roll of gaff tape, a shirt, liquor and snacks.
Q. There are tons of Film Festivals! How do I know that WFF is a real, legitimate festival?
Winter Film Festival is thrilled to be included in Film Festival Alliance’s Film Festival Directory, a comprehensive list of more than one hundred reputable film festivals committed to upholding the newly established best practices for professional film festivals. Explore the directory to read through our profile and learn more about our fellow member festivals, their programming philosophies, and more here: https://bit.ly/FFADirectory
Q: How do I submit to the festival?
A: All films must be submitted through FilmFreeway. Submissions open each year on June 1. Do not send work directly to our email address or our office – we will not consider any film not submitted via our submission platforms.
Q: When’s the submission deadline?
A: There are several rounds of deadlines: Early Deadline is September 6, Regular Deadline is October 18 and Late Deadline is November 8.
Q: Is there a difference if I apply earlier?
A: It’s cheaper (early entry fees are much lower).
Q: What formats do you accept for submissions?
A: Films must be submitted via our entry on Film Freeway. We do not accept DVD copies of films for submission – all films must be available online for selection judging.
Q: Do you guys accept Music Videos too?
A: Yes! To qualify as an entrant, all you need is basic exhibition “festival rights.” This should be no different than the rights necessary to include the video on a director’s reel. As long as the video was produced in conjunction with the label (and not on spec), this should not be a problem.
Q: Do you only screen American films?
A: No. We have no American financing or content requirements. WFF aims to showcase filmmakers no matter what country they’re from. Our 2016 lineup includes films from 24 countries!
Q: Do you accept works in progress?
A: We judge submissions as they are now, not as they might be upon completion. If your film is still a work-in-progress or doesn’t have finalized sound, it’s a good idea to wait until the film is complete before submitting.
Q: If I entered last year, can I enter again this year?
A: Yep. This year’s judges won’t have any idea that you submitted before and will look at your film afresh. We have several cases of films rejected one year and then accepted the following.
Q: Should I be concerned about premiering my film at another festival and blowing my chances at getting into WFF?
A: We have no premiere status requirements – NYC is a big place, so even if you’ve screened here before, chances are good there are a bunch of people yet to see your film.
Q: I’m a student and I made my film with a budget of $100. I used a skateboard as a dolly and shot most of it on my iPhone and used free editing software. Do I have any chance of acceptance? Should I bother spending the submission fee?
A: Submit. WFF loves labors of love and we care mostly that your film is interesting to watch, will hold people’s attention and is something different. One of our best films was a horror film shot for about $10 that took place in the supermarket where the Director worked as night manager that involved lots of ketchup for blood and carefully implied violence to avoid actually wrecking anything.
Q: Do I need to have all my music and other rights cleared to show a film at WFF?
A: You must affirm that you own all required rights to exhibit this film publicly, and all copyright, trademark, and other rights to the materials shown in the film, and you must accept all liabilities for any failure to secure such rights. If WFF is made aware of any issues at all having to do with these copyright, we will immediately pull your film from the lineup.
Q: Should I submit a full press kit?
A: No. We should have all the information we need from the aforementioned material. You should definitely have press kits on standby, because if we accept your film, we’ll need these materials as soon as possible.
Q: Are there completion date restrictions?
We accept films made in the three years before the festival.
Q: What if the film’s not in English but I can’t afford subtitles?
A: Again, we poor filmmakers sympathize with lack of funds. Unfortunately, however, our programmers may not speak your language and therefore we require English subtitles on all such films.
Q: I’m an auteur who doesn’t like to be disturbed at home, so should I put my big Hollywood agent down as the contact info on the application form?
A: We would strongly encourage people to put the director down as the primary contact person. At least put down the producer who will be at home and available in December. Our experience shows that producers, agents, lawyers, publicists and producers reps will come and go – but the director rarely changes.
Q: Once I’ve submitted, should I call and bother you about my film?
A: If you’ve got any new, relevant information for us during the selection process (new contact info, you just got into another festival, the film got distribution, etc.), please let us know. Also, if you want to make sure we have received your submission information, email submissions@winterfilmawards.com. Try not to pester us too much, but if you have any real questions or concerns, don’t be shy about emailing. Please don’t contact us until you read ALL of the FAQ.
Q: What are the submission fees?
A: Early fee is $25 USD, Regular is $35 USD and Late is $65 USD.FilmFreeway GOLD members can take an additional $5 off our fees.
Q: Hey, I’m a poor starving filmmaker – what’s up with these outrageous entry fees!!!?
A: As struggling filmmakers ourselves, we feel your pain, comrade. Unfortunately though, it costs a lot of money to put on our little festival (remember, it’s held at one of the most expensive cities in the world). Our best advice is to submit early to get the cheaper fee AND familiarize yourself with WFF. Check out each year’s OFFICIAL SELECTIONS. See if your film is the sort of project we’re likely to consider. When all’s said and done, it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than submitting to Cannes.
Q: I’m totally broke, but would love to take part in the Festival. Do you offer fee waivers?
We offer roughly 10-15 fee waivers per season. Please fill in our request form here –> https://winterfilmawards.com/info/waiverrequest/In general, we are more likely to offer waivers to shorts, particularly horror, music videos and animation, or to filmmakers from countries under US sanction (such as Iran). We are much more likely to offer waivers to films with trailers.Fee waiver decisions are made in early October each year.
Q: Do you invite people to submit films?
A: Yes. It’s important to us to have a broad spectrum of awesome films to show, and we check out interesting films we hear about or look at films from ethnic and genre festivals from around the world. We invite these films to submit for consideration and wave the submission fee.However, this does not in any way mean the film is guaranteed to be accepted – the submissions judges are not told which films are invited and judge purely based upon what they see on the screen. The team involved in searching for interesting films and possibly inviting them to submit are not on the judging or programming teams and have no input into a film’s score or acceptance.Generally, about 5% of submissions were invited. About of 1/4 of those were actually selected for the Festival.
Q: Your festival talks a lot about diversity. I’m a white guy from New Jersey – should I bother submitting my film, or are you only looking for women and minorities?
Diversity in film is important – half the world are women and a whole lot of them are making films. A whole lot of people aren’t white guys and a whole lot of them are making films. People are making films in the world’s biggest cities and tiniest villages.
We believe that everyone deserves a fair shot to get their voice heard! The Festival seeks to show different genres, different viewpoints, different stories, different perspectives and different countries. We seek to show the work of men and women and non-binary, gay and straight and bi and other, and the work of black, white, Asian, Latino and everyone else in any combination. We seek to show the work of people from right here in New York and also from every corner of the world. We seek to show comedies and romances and dramas and horror and documentaries and experimental and the weird and the unusual and the universal and the controversial. We seek to show films made for virtually zero budget and films made with multi-million dollar budgets. We seek to show you something you haven’t seen before or didn’t realize exists. We want you to laugh, cry, dance, learn, hide in terror and/or have your mind blown.
That said, we are not interested in showing a crappy film by an ethnically interesting filmmaker – this does a disservice to our filmmakers and to our audience. To ensure that our final selections include a broad swath of truly awesome indie film, we throw our net very wide and each submission goes through the exact same careful consideration by a wide group of judges from around the world, each with a completely different viewpoint. In the end, we wind up with an amazing mixture of really great work – films of all genres, from around the world, from a whole variety of different people, including white guys from New Jersey.
Q: So, why do you ask submitters if the director is a woman or BIPOC? Why should this matter?
We ask for that as part of the submissions so we have some idea how many women and BIPOC directors we are reaching with our submissions push. Ideally, we would like half our submissions to come from women and half from people of color – we cannot program a balanced slate if we don’t have balanced submissions to choose from. If we’re getting a low percentage, we step up our submissions calls to specifically target woman-based or BIPOC filmmaking groups.
Q: The internet says that short films must be under 10 minutes for selection. Is this true? Do you only accept shorter shorts?
We accept films of all lengths! Here are our selection vs submission statistics for the past 10 years:
| Film Length | % of All Submissions | % of All Selections | % of Submitted films of this length Selected vs Rejected |
| 0-5 minutes | 12.9% | 17.8% | 29.9% |
| 6-10 minutes | 18.7% | 20.8% | 22.7% |
| 11-15 minutes | 21.4% | 22.2% | 21.1% |
| 16-20 minutes | 12.4% | 11.6% | 18.6% |
| 21-25 minutes | 5.5% | 4.9% | 17.3% |
| 26-30 minutes | 4.0% | 2.3% | 10.5% |
| 31-40 minutes | 2.5% | 1.5% | 11.0% |
| 41-50 minutes | 1.5% | 0.1% | 1.5% |
| 51-60 minutes | 1.9% | 1.2% | 11.7% |
| 61-75 minutes | 3.6% | 3.0% | 16.1% |
| 76-90 minutes | 7.6% | 6.5% | 16.6% |
| 91-110 minutes | 5.9% | 6.7% | 23.7% |
| 110-140 minutes | 1.7% | 1.5% | 16.7% |
| 140+ minutes | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Q: Are you just looking for disturbing, artsy, and gritty films?
A: No way. As far as genre is concerned, we really have no preferences at all. Drama, comedy, docs, romance, sci-fi, zombie, whatever. It really doesn’t matter. We’re looking for films with an original vision.
Q: What are you REALLY looking for in a film?
WFF is looking for diverse films from emerging filmmakers. We love first time directors and students. The overwhelming majority of our films were made for under $50k.
Q: How are submissions judged? Who are the judges?
A: Each film is watched by at least four judges, who score for overall awesomeness and 10 points of tech.We have about 50 submission judges for each Festival, about half are women. They range from film students to enthusiasts to industry veterans and ages range from 15 to 60. We have a very diverse range of ethnicities for our judges. Our judges are all over the world – we have judges in the Philippines, Brazil, France, Mexico, Turkey, Singapore and Germany and all over the US.Every one of our programmers approaches the process differently, but generally speaking; the number one quality we look for is originality. We see an awful lot of films that have the twentysomethings – driving – around – with guns – taking – drugs – talking – about – how – they’re – going – to – film – themselves – robbing – a – bank sort of feel to them. Does that mean that if you have some of the mentioned in your film you shouldn’t bother applying? Not at all. It had just better be done well in order for it to stand out among the crowd.
Q: Who will be able to see my submission? Should I be worried that you’ll share the film with others?
Only our jury and programming team is able to see your submitted film. Submitted films links or copies will never be shared or duplicated outside of adjudication, including with donors, sponsors or for personal or fundraising purposes, unless specific permission is obtained from the filmmaker or submitting entity.
Q: Do “production values” really matter?
A: A bad script, bad acting, bad editing and bad sound are much more likely to sink a submission than bad cinematography or “production value.”
Q: What are my chances of getting into the festival?
A: Depending upon category, we accept roughly 11-15% of submissions. Our programmers are committed to the hunt for the films with the most original vision.
Q: What’s the one most important thing I should be sure my film has to increase its chances of acceptance?
A: Obviously, a good story, good acting and great cinematography are important. However, the one thing absolutely 100% guaranteed to sink your film’s chances of acceptance is terrible sound.
Q: If I help you raise sponsorship money, or if I work for one of your sponsors, or if I write you a really, really big check, does it help my chances of getting into the festival?
A: We are always looking to develop sponsorship for the festival, and certainly appreciate any help people can give us. But as a matter of fairness, payola does not actually help your film get into the festival.
Q: Are my chances of acceptance increased if I was invited to submit my film? How about if I have a celebrity connected to my film? Any other way to increase my chances?
A: No, it doesn’t. Judges are provided minimal information about films – they know only film name, country, whether it is a student work and the synopsis . They are not told anything else and judge the films purely based upon the work upon the screen.The team involved in searching for interesting films and possibly inviting them to submit are not on the judging or programming teams and have no input into a film’s score or acceptance.
Q: When are the selections made?
A: We begin notifying acceptances via email in December. All filmmakers will receive an email one way or the other. Please be sure to look for mail from submissions@winterfilmwards.com – we find that our notices sometimes wind up in spam folders and we have to hunt you down to let you know we’ve accepted your film.We notify all filmmakers via email one way or another by our notification date in early January.
Q: Do you make early decisions or give early notifications?
A: No. At WFF we program all the slots at the same time. It makes for a rather grueling few days at the end of the programming session, but we feel it’s a more fair system to wait until all the films are submitted and scored before making any firm decisions or issuing any invitations to the festival.
Q: Do I have a better chance of getting into the festival if I have a fancy agent or lawyer or publicist call in and lobby?
A: No. Remember, WFF is about helping filmmakers get a leg up. If you’ve already got a fancy agent, lawyer and publicist, then you really don’t need WFF to help promote your film – you should just set up an industry screening at a different time of year with all those people helping you.
Q: I guess you guys think my film is a piece of crap because you rejected it! You could at least let me know!
A: We will notify you one way or another by our January announcement date. But if you don’t see your film listed on the website around early January, you can assume you have a message from us sitting in your spam folder. Before you go firebombing our office, trashing our good name, or sending us “I Love You” viruses, please keep in mind that just because you didn’t get into the festival DOESN’T MEAN YOUR FILM SUCKS!We’re pretty good about recommending films that didn’t make it into the festival to our friends at other festivals or to distributors and other industry-types we know. Remember WFF shows only a small number of films. Every year we are forced to pass on a ton of absolutely great films and it can be a heartbreak for us as well. However, we have only a certain fixed number of screening minutes and there’s only so many we can fit in there.
Q: At least will you give me some feedback on my film?
A: We really wish we could. We’re all filmmakers here so we understand very well the importance of feedback. However, due to the large amount of submissions we get every year and the fact that our programmers are all volunteers, unfortunately we just don’t have the ability to provide feedback on your submission.That said, if you contact us after the festival is done and we’ve had a chance to come up for air, we may be able to provide some feedback to you.
Q: Hooray! My film was accepted! Do you have any advice for me to get the most out of my festival experience?
Congratulations! We are proud to screen your film! In order to get the most out of your festival experience, we recommend you take a look at our A Bit of Advice About Your Film Festival Submission, which has lots of tips for ensuring the best possible festival experience.
Q: Do you screen all of your selections? Where do you screen?
We screen every selected film at NYC’s LOOK Cinema on two screens (130 seats and 70 seats). Each film’s primary screening is on a weekend or a weekday evening. In addition, we have second showings of a good number of our short films on weekday afternoons. All screening blocks include a 20-30 minute Q&A.
Q: What deliverables will you need from me?
– A signed legal agreement giving us rights to show your film at the Festival. – A pile of information about your film for our website and program. – Director headshot – Vertical poster for your film. If you do not have a vertical poster, we will make one for you from a still. – Stills, trailer – DCP uploaded to SimpleDCP
Q: What formats can you screen?
Our Cinema is all DCP. If you do not have a DCP for your short film, Winter Film Festival may be able to provide a grant to help you get one created by SimpleDCP.
Q: Do you pay screening fees to show my film?
A: Sorry, but as a small non-profit, we are not in a financial position to pay screening fees. If your film requires a screening fee, please do not submit it because we will not be able to accept it.
Q: Do you have Q&A Sessions with the directors after the screenings?
Yes – we include Q&A sessions for all primary screenings. Sessions last roughly 20-30 minutes and include all films from the screening block. Sessions are moderated by a WFF team member who has seen all of the films in the session and is prepared with questions.We often broadcast these sessions via Instagram Live.Note, however, that Q&A Sessions are in-person only; we do not offer virtual Q&A sessions.
Q: My film is a short, but it is screening in a block with a feature. Will they get all the questions?
Absolutely not! Our moderators ensure that everyone gets a more-or-less equal chance to talk!
Q: I don’t speak English or I need ASL interpreting. Is there any accommodation for me?
The great thing about a Festival that focuses on diversity and is based in NYC is that we are able to provide ASL interpreting and translation for virtually any language – just let us know what you’ll need and we’ll find someone (at the Festival’s expense) to translate for your screening, interviews, Q&A sessions and Awards ceremony.
Q: If I get into the festival, does WFF fly me first-class to NYC, put me up in a fancy hotel suite and buy me expensive meals?
A: No. We’d love to and hopefully one day we’ll get enough sponsor support (or frequent flier miles) to do that. But in this world, we currently can not provide travel, room or board. That said, if you are coming from far away, we are happy to help you try to find a grant to help cover travel expenses — local travel agents, universities and embassies are sometimes willing to help fund filmmaker travel.
Q: If my film is accepted to the Festival, am I required to pay for anything else?
You are responsible for your own travel/lodging and meals, and you are responsible for providing a DCP for screening (we can help with this in some cases).Other than that, you are provided with two all-access passes to the Festival and are invited to attend all screenings and events, including parties and the Awards Ceremony, free of charge. If you are not able to attend the Festival, you are welcome to share your passes with a local friend.
Q: I’m local and would like to bring my whole family, cast and crew to the Festival. Are tickets free for them too?
Your friends and family are welcome to attend the parties, Awards Ceremony, meetups and education sessions with our compliments. We are only able to provide two passes for screenings, but are able to provide discounts for additional screening tickets.
Q: Who’s in the audience at WFF?
A: Our audiences are a real mixed bag of nuts, ranging from local film enthusiasts, actors, other filmmakers, press, alum, local fans and friends, other film festival directors, volunteers, students and many more.
Q: How do Awards work? Are all films in competition?
All selections are in competition for their category (Feature, Short, Animated, Music Video, Horror Feature, Horror Short, Documentary, Web Series). In addition, all selections are eligible for other awards as applicable (Best Director, Best Student Film, Best NYC Film).A fresh set of judges reviews selected films and votes for Award winners. We announce the top four nominees for each category and the winner at our Awards Ceremony.
Q: How does awards judging work?
All selected films are automatically in competition for as many categories as apply to their film. We have a fresh set of awards judges who watch every accepted film and choose their top four in each category. These scores are run through an algorithm that spits out our top four films in each category and the winner. The awards jury is made up of filmmakers, film critics, festival sponsors and festival organizers from other film festivals around the world. We announce nominees and winners at our closing Awards Ceremony and our website/social media.
Q: I cannot get to NYC for the Awards Ceremony. Does this mean I cannot win an Award?
Absolutely not – whether or not you’ll be in town does not affect your film’s prospects for an Award. If you cannot attend the Awards Ceremony, it would be great if you can send a local friend to accept any awards on your behalf, but that is absolutely not mandatory.If you win and you are not at the Festival, we will mail your Award to you after the Festival is over.
Q: Do you give out prizes and cool stuff? Any distributors come to the Festival?
We give out awesome prizes to our winners – in previous years, we’ve awarded winners with a DJI Drone, a one-week engagement at Quad Cinemas and a $5k Tag Heuer watch. Plus, assorted equipment, memberships, software and cool stuff. All attending filmmakers get booze, gaff tape, a tshirt and other cool stuff too. And, we have a number of distributors attend each year – last year, one of our filmmakers got a $100k distribution package to expand his short into a feature.
Q: Do I need to pay to attend the Awards Ceremony? Can I bring my friends?
The Awards Ceremony takes place at one of the loveliest nightclubs in NYC. The event is free and you are absolutely welcome to bring your friends and family. If you need to bring someone under 21, please let the Festival know in advance so we can ensure the club lets them in.
Q: Do I have to pay for my Award? What if I’m not there – will you send it to me?
You do not have to pay for your Award, your statue or your certificate. If you cannot attend the Awards Ceremony, we will send your award and prizes to you at the Festival’s expense.
Q: I really like what WFF is all about and want to give you money or an old computer or a pizza or big box of candy. Won’t you please take it?
A: We can send you our sponsorship package (email us at info@winterfilmawards.com) . If you are local, feel free to bring us nibbles or cash of any sort! It won’t help your chances of getting in, but we would be delighted just the same.
Q: I have more questions! How do I get answers?
Email us at any time at info@winterfilmawards.com and we can answer any questions you have!