- Festival Info
Welcome to VAiFF the 7th Annual Various Artists independent Film Festival!
We’re the festival with the yearlong FALL, WINTER, SPRING, and SUMMER submission season that culminates at our festival competition screening and awards presentations at our LIVE FINALE in Chicago, Il, and virtually for our submitters from around the world.
We are BOTH a TRADITIONAL FESTIVAL if you’re looking to submit your film for screenings as an “Official Selection” and laurel recognition.
We’re also a FESTIVAL COMPETITION if you’re looking to submit your film for a chance to screen your film, in theaters or virtually, win our prizes, crystal awards, one-year mentorship, and the opportunity to win a SHORT FILM PRODUCTION GRANT.
- If you are submitting your short film for inclusion in the competition and the prizes we offer – here’s how it works:
- VAiFF is a quarterly competition (FALL, WINTER, SPRING, SUMMER). It’s at this time you select if you are entering the TRADITIONAL FESTIVAL OR FESTIVAL COMPETITION. All the submissions will have a clip/teaser/trailer of the project created for them if it does not already exist.
- This clip will be posted on our website and there will be a 21 day online voting period where members of your social media community, friends, and family will vote for your film’s teaser to advance in the competition. Voting will take place exclusively on our website,www.vaiff.com
- The projects in each category with the most positive votes will move on to the FINALE COMPETITION.
- Advancing to the FINALE COMPETITION means that your entire project will screen at either the LIVE VAiFF event in Chicago or the weeklong virtual event in October 2023.
- The live VAiFF will consist of film screenings, artist performances, educational workshops, panel discussions, and of course, networking!
Genre categories for both our Traditional Festival and Festival Competition are as follows:
Animation
Black Voices
Children / Family
Comedy
Documentary
Drama
Experimental
Faith-Based
Fan Film
Female Strong
Foreign (subtitled)
Horror/Thriller
Music Video
TV/Web series
*VAiFF DOES NOT enforce a 2-year project stipulation rule. Any project, as long as it’s completed, can submit, regardless of the date of completion.*
*All entries are restricted to 60 minutes and under. VAiFF screens all submissions in their entirety.*
*VAiFF DOES NOT require any premiere status or any specific year of completion.*
Throughout our seven-year history, our judges’ panel has included several Academy and Emmy award-winning or nominated artists as well as working industry professionals and has included:
- Anna Maria Horsford (Actress / “Friday”, “The Last OG”)
- Anjul Nigam (Actor / “Grey’s Anatomy”, “True Detective”)
- Bob Gale (Writer / Producer / “Back to the Future” trilogy)
- Carl Jones (Animation Writer / Producer “The Boondocks”, “Black Dynamite”)
- Chris Walas (Academy Award Winner “The Fly”, “Gremlins”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”)
- Cynda Williams (Actress, Singer / “Mo Better Blues”)
- D.B. Sweeney (Actor / “The Cutting Edge”, “Eight Men Out”)
- Eddie L. Williams (VFX Emmy Award Winner/ “Star Trek: Generations”, “Proud Mary”)
- Kevin Grevioux (Actor, Writer, and Producer “Underworld” series)
- Kevin Kutchaver (Emmy Award Winner/ “Lost”, “Lovecraft Country”)
- Kevin VanHook (Marvel and DC Comics Animator and Writer, Creator “BloodShot’)
- Michael Benyaer (Actor, “24”, “The Flash”, “Modern Family”, “Deadpool”)
- Richard Pryor Jr. (Actor, Singer, Entertainer / “Bustin Loose”)
- Rich Koz “Svengoolie” (8 Time Emmy Award Winner)… and many more.
VAiFF is a year-long celebration of independent filmmaking. We are all Various Artists and we will stand together as one voice, sharing our passion, one screening at a time.
- Awards / Prizes
Awards / Prizes Announcement…
The semiannual Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer genre category winners advance as ‘nominees’ to the yearly grand finale festival and competition held annually every October in Chicago Il.- The individual winners of the grand finale in each category wins an engraved crystal award with the name of the film, its category, as well as the year it was awarded.
- Grand prize winners will also receive a combination of prizes and gift certificates from festival sponsors.
THE GRAND PRIZE!
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SELECT GRAND PRIZE WINNERS will ALSO be awarded a low budget film grant, to produce a short film that must premiere at the following year’s Various Artists independent Film Festival ceremony!
But that’s not all. The selected winner will receive one on one educational and mentorship opportunities with step by step production instruction along the way. From development, through production and all the way to completion and delivery, there is no reason to fear the next step of your career, we are a community of artists and you will not be alone.
You will receive instruction from working industry professionals that will meet you at your skill level and take you further than you thought you could ever go.
The selected GRAND PRIZE WINNER will be announced LIVE at the conclusion of each yearly festival and competition screenings.
- Rules
Rules & Terms
Entrants must agree to all Entry Terms and Conditions, which also include deadline, footage use and entry material requirements. Please read all Entry Terms and Conditions in their entirety as submission fees are non-refundable.- ALL entries, videos, narratives or documentaries, must be completed and considered ‘final’ before submission into the competition.
- ALL entries are allowed to have screened publicly and distributed to other film festivals worldwide. There is no ‘completed by’ date as ALL films are eligible for this festival, whether they’ve been selected for ‘Official Selection’ or denied inclusion in previous festivals. No premiere status required.
- Please follow the details below in order to submit your project:
All films submissions must be submitted via FilmFreeway, a safe and secure platform to upload and stream your film. If you submit via Vimeo, you must provide a link with a download option. Your media must be available for download at its highest resolution.
It is the sole responsibility of the Film’s applicant to provide ALL information asked during the registration process via FilmFreeway.
https://filmfreeway.com/VAiFF
You are encouraged to complete all of the requested fields during your submission process. If there are any setbacks in your application, VAiFF will notify you by email. ALL projects must be submitted via FilmFreeway as a secure digital downloadable link. By submitting your project on FilmFreeway, you accept that this document has been read and understood. You can email programming@variousartists.tv with any festival or programming questions.
- The festival categories are: Animation / Black Voices / Children & Family / Comedy / Documentary / Drama / Experimental / Faith Based / Fan Film / Female Strong / Foreign (Subtitled) / Horror Thriller / Music Videos / TV / Web Series Pilots
- Each submission must be 60 minutes and under. Music Videos must be 8 minutes and under. Each submission is carefully considered solely on its own merit by the festival programming committee. Selected submission may become eligible for distribution opportunities on the Various Artists Foundation streaming service VA Viewz, available on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV and other devices.
- Applicants submitting Films that contain significant non-English spoken dialogue must provide on-screen English subtitles.
- Filmmakers must allow VAiFF the right to use footage / clips from the submitted project to create, edit and produce festival marketing materials, promos and the like. Footage, clips and images will NOT BE USED for any other purpose than promotion of the project in its category, live show elements, festival promotions and marketing.
- GRAND PRIZE WINNER(S) will be selected by the VAiFF Programming board.
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