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!

• 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 & 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.

1. ALL entries, videos, narratives or documentaries, must be completed and considered ‘final’ before submission into the competition. 
2. 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.
3. 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.

4. 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
5. 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.
6. Applicants submitting Films that contain significant non-English spoken dialogue must provide on-screen English subtitles. 
7. 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.
8. GRAND PRIZE WINNER(S) will be selected by the VAiFF Programming board.