FilmDayton Accepting Film Submissions and Award Nominations

The Eichelberger FilmDayton Festival is growing again! This year’s festival (August 22-24) is now accepting submissions of films for consideration to be screened and nominations for the FilmDayton Awards, a highlight of the annual festival that celebrates locally-connected talent.

Submit a Film to the Festival
In 2014, the festival has announced an open submission process for film selection.  In past years, the Dayton-based fest has featured many great award-winning feature films on an invitation-only basis. Opening of the festival for submissions raises the bar as the Miami Valley continues to grow as a film community. Multiple categories allow audiences to enjoy a wide selection of local, national and international films. Categories include:

• Feature-Length and Short Films: Open Category – Whether it’s documentary or narrative, comedy or drama, horror or romance – we’re accepting great features (over 45 minutes) and shorts (under 30 minutes). Filmmakers from across the globe are encouraged to submit.
• Ohio Shorts and Ohio Features – FilmDayton is Ohio Proud! We’re ready to show off our regional talent with special categories that celebrate local work. We accept all genres including narrative, documentary, horror, animation and more. Anything goes – if it’s good and it’s got a significant Ohio connection – it could get seen at the FilmDayton Festival.
• ReInvention Shorts – In partnership with the team from WYSO 93.1FM that created the local ReInvention Stories – we are welcoming short films that highlight how people and communities from around the globe are reinventing themselves through the recent times of economic uncertainty.
• Flick My Clip – FilmDayton welcomes comic Ryan Singer back with his popular Flick My Clip comedy shorts. This special screening is juried by Singer and features comedy shorts less than five minutes. Sometimes reserved, sometimes raunchy, rolling laughter is the goal.

FilmDayton Executive Director Megan Cooper says of the new festival format, “We’re so pleased to take this leap forward in welcoming both features and shorts as part of the festival. The audience has been asking for this experience and with the support of the Eichelberger Foundation, we are able to deliver a great, high-quality festival experience.”

Submissions are accepted via Withoutabox.com – information at FilmDayton.

The FilmDayton Awards
As part of the festival weekend, FilmDayton honors filmmakers and supporters of the film community. The organization is currently accepting nominations for the third annual FilmDayton Awards which will be presented in up to three categories at the FilmDayton Festival:

• The Filmmaker Award recognizes a career of excellence in filmmaking.
• The Key Award for special service to the regional film community.
• The Innovation Award recognizes emerging/innovative artists in film.

FilmDayton Board President Nicole Richter explains that a filmmaker needn’t be an Academy-Award nominated filmmaker or someone with a huge body of professional work. “Any working filmmaker in the Dayton Region can be nominated for these awards. Nominees don’t have to be well-known filmmakers. Part of the motivation for the awards stemmed from FilmDayton’s desire to celebrate those hard-working filmmakers whose dedication and service to their craft may not be widely recognized.”

The Festival Overview
The sixth annual festival continues to feature local talent while welcoming filmmakers from across the state, region, and even the world. The 2014 Eichelberger FilmDayton Festival will be a destination to enjoy great films, workshops, networking, and parties. Cooper says, “After establishing a following as a festival with high standards, savvy audiences, quality films, interesting panels, and great hospitality to filmmakers, this is an important next step. By opening up the festival for film submissions, we audiences meet up-and-coming filmmakers and enjoy their work. It’s a big step forward for film in our region, and we’re excited to bring this to local audiences.”

The festival will be the weekend of August 22-24, 2014 with the majority of the screenings at The Neon in downtown Dayton. In addition to feature-length and short films, the festival also includes panel discussions, Q&As, a Pitch-It competition, and social/networking opportunities.

Information is available at filmdayton.com/festival.