Submit Your Film
Calling all film-makers! Want to see your film on the big screen as part of the 28th Cambridge Film Festival?
We are now accepting entries and are eagerly awaiting all your submissions of shorts, documentaries and features to compete for a coveted place in this year’s Festival in September 2008.
Now in its 28th year, Cambridge Film Festival is one of the UK’s most popular, prestigious and well-respected film festivals, bringing an event with a national profile to Cambridge, and delivering inspiring, thought-provoking and challenging cinema to an ever-broadening range of cinema-goers. The Festival’s mission is to showcase the very best international cinema to the widest possible audience, by premiering and previewing outstanding new work as well as acknowledging cinematic classics through retrospectives and revivals. Films receiving their UK premiere at Cambridge have included, VOLVER, THE LAST MITTERRAND, CRASH, GOODBYE LENIN, SILVER CITY, CLEAN, COMME UNE IMAGE, BEFORE SUNSET, SPIRITED AWAY, BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, BARTON FINK, SEX LIES AND VIDEOTAPE, RESERVOIR DOGS and THELMA AND LOUISE. Scores of celebrated international film-makers have visited the Festival, including; Terry Gilliam, John Sayles, Julie Delpy, Jeremy Irons, Sir Richard Eyre, Cate Blanchett, Richard Harris, Joel Schumacher, Robert Carradine, Jane Birkin, Peter Greenaway, Michael Winterbottom, Alex Cox, Timothy Spall, Ray Harryhausen, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Philip Kaufman, Jeunet et Caro, and Hanif Kureishi.
The Festival’s strands include: new features; shorts; documentary; revivals, artist’s moving image work; and a Children’s Film Festival.
The Cambridge Film Festival’s main venue is the state-of-the-art three screen Arts Picturehouse cinema in the centre of Cambridge, with touring events also taking place at numerous locations across the Eastern region. The Festival is supported by the National Lottery through Screen East and the UK Film Council.
The decision of the Edinburgh International Film Festival to relocate to June has provided the catalyst needed for Cambridge to continue its development with new dates outside of the summer festival season in Cambridge. Audience research has established support for this move and this repositioning to September presents a fantastic opportunity for us to relaunch the Festival brand and increase its impact.
Cambridge Film Festival receives a large number of submissions each year and selection represents a public endorsement of your work and a prize in itself. However, the Cambridge Film Festival has two prizes, both of which are voted for by the Festival’s audience:
*ShortFusion Audience Prize for best short film. The winner of this award will gain the opportunity to have their film screened before a main feature at the Arts Picturehouse cinema. Previous winners have included WASP, MUSIC FOR ONE APPARTMENT AND SIX DRUMMERS, BREASTS, and PUPPET ACCESS TV.
*The Audience Favourite Award for best film. This auspicious award is voted for via the Festival website. Previous winners have included VOLVER, BROKEN FLOWERS, STAGE BEAUTY, SPIRITED AWAY, ELLING and last year’s feature submission ROCK PAPER SCISSORS.
Submission Information
Please read the following guidelines carefully - due to the volume of entries we receive it is a huge help to us to have films submitted in this way.
Festival Dates
18-28 September 2008
Submission Deadline
Submissions will be accepted from 1 March 2008. The final deadline is 31 May 2008 and no entries will be accepted if postmarked after this date.
Submission Format
• Films must be submitted on DVD or VHS only and should be clearly labelled with the title, running time and contact information.
• Submitted copies will not be returned (unless you enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope with your film).
• Please do not submit multiple works on the same DVD. Each film submitted must be accompanied by a completed submission form and fee.
• Please clearly write “short” (if under 30 mins), “feature” (over 30mins) or “documentary” (over 30mins) on the outside of the envelope.
Press/Publicity Materials
Should your film be accepted we will request digital images and other press/publicity materials you may have available at that time. Please do not include press kits with your submission at this stage (and we prefer online digital press-kits in any case).
Submission Eligibility
• Films must not have been released in the UK in any format, including online, or shown on UK television prior to 18 September 2008.
• Films completed within the years 2007-2008 are eligible for submission.
• All foreign language films must be subtitled in English.
• Previously submitted work will not be considered unless it has been substantially altered.
• All rights, permissions and clearances must be obtained prior to submission and applicants must ensure that they have the right to submit the work with regard to third parties connected with the production of the film in question. By entering your work, you agree to this and the responsibilities involved. CFF assumes no responsibility for violation of copyright law.
Submission fees will not be refunded if your film does not meet these conditions.
Submission Fees
Cambridge Film Festival is a operated by a charitable Trust and works with an extremely limited budget. We regret that due to the large number of submissions we receive we must charge a small fee to cover our administrative costs:
£20 - feature or documentary (over 30 minutes in length)
£10 - short (30 minutes or less)
However we remain committed to supporting local film-makers and therefore free entry will be granted to film-makers (directors, writers or producers) who are based in the Eastern region. Please enclose proof of address with your entry (photocopy of full UK driving licence, or current utility bill) and tick the ‘fee waive’ option if you use withoutabox.com to file your submission.
No other exceptions will be made, please do not ask.
Payment methods
Payment will be accepted in Pounds Sterling or Euros only – either by cheque made payable to Cambridge Film Trust or International Money Order (payable to Cambridge Film Trust) or please submit your film online with 
Submissions which arrive without the fee (or Withoutabox tracking number/receipt or proof of exemption) will not be accepted.
Shipping
Entries should be sent to:
CFF Submissions
Cambridge Film Festival
Arts Picturehouse
38-39 St Andrews Street
Cambridge
CB2 3AR
All shipping and postage costs incurred in submitting work to us must be paid by the entrant. CFF will not accept Cash on Delivery shipments and will not absorb any fees incurred in customs. Submission packages from outside the UK must be labelled “No commercial value - for cultural purposes only” on any customs label and for customs purposes must be given a value of no more than US$10 or £3 Sterling.
Receipt of Submission
If you wish to receive confirmation of the safe arrival of your submission please enclose a self-addressed stamped postcard in your package.
Selection
Selection will be carried out by the Cambridge Film Festival team. No correspondence will be entered into regarding the selection process and the decision of the Festival Director is final.
We aim to inform successful applicants by mid July 2008. Unfortunately due to the volume of entries we will be unable to offer individual feedback or enter into any discussion about your work.
Festival Screenings and Scheduling
All screenings during the Festival period will take place at the discretion of the Festival and Cambridge Film Festival reserves the right to make changes to the advertised schedule at any time for any reason and will not accept liability for any costs incurred as a result of such changes.
No film may be withdrawn from the CFF programme after its selection/participation has been confirmed and may not be screened elsewhere before its presentation in CFF without the prior agreement of CFF.
The film must be available to screen in 35mm, 16mm, HDCam, Beta SP, Digibeta, DV or mini DV, NTSC or PAL; we cannot consider any other formats.
CFF is not able to cover the costs of any format transfers or subtitling.
Screening copies of selected titles must be received by the Festival by 9 September 2008.
CFF will accept responsibility for technical damage to screening copies of selected titles while they are in the possession of the Festival and will reimburse the value of the print stock (or part thereof) only. Please ensure that you have sufficient insurance to cover your work while in transit to and from the Festival.
The submissions form is available to download here. Please be aware that, due to the volume of submissions we receive, we are unable to enter into personal correspondence about individual submissions.
