How to Submit Your Work

The submission deadline for 2009 has passed. If you would like to inquire about a late submission, please email dave@nwfilmforum.org.

download the submission form

"If SIFF is like getting your kid into the Ivy League, so far as Seattle filmmakers are concerned, the ninth Local Sightings Film Festival represents the honorable fall-back school that might actually deliver a better education. With six features and 50-plus shorts spread out over six days, Northwest filmmakers are less likely to get lost under the institutional weight of SIFF." -Seattle Weekly

Programming & Competition Rules

For your film to be considered for the festival, the director must be a resident of WA, OR, MT, ID, AL or British Columbia, and it must have been completed no earlier than January 2007. Films that play in the festival will be chosen from among the submissions by the festival programmers. Filmmakers will be notified if their film has been rejected or accepted to the festival.

Not all films that play in the festival are included in the competition. Festival programmers will decide which films will be included in the competition. The films in competition will be announced at the beginning of the festival in the festival program. Competing films will be viewed by the Festival Jury. The Jury will decide the two winning films and award the prizes for: Best Feature Film and Best Short Film on the closing night. The jury will base their decision on the sum of the following criteria:
Creativity, Ambition, Story/Subject, Full Realization, Production Value

Submission Requirements

1. A feature is considered to have a running time of 50 minutes or more. Shorts are considered to have a running time less than 50 minutes.

2. Movie must be submitted by director or producer with a completed submission form.

3. Submissions should be on DVD format (we can also accept screeners on MiniDV, DVCam or BetaSP, but it is not preferred.)

4. Screening format of a submitted movie must be available on one of the following formats: 35mm, 16mm, Super 8, DigiBeta, BetaSP, DVCam, MiniDV or DVD.

5. Director must live and/or work in the Pacific Northwest (includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and British Columbia.

6. Submission must have been completed no earlier than January, 2007.

7. All genres of film and video will be considered.

* Films produced by Northwest Film Forum, its board members or its paid employees are not eligible for competition.