Submit Your Film to the
2020 Maryland Film Festival!
One of Moviemaker Magazine’s 2019
“25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World”
April 29 — May 3, 2020, in Baltimore’s Station North
Earlybird deadline: October 4, 2019
Regular deadline: November 15, 2019
Late deadline: December 15, 2019
Final deadline: January 10, 2020
Submitting your film to MdFF is your chance to be a part of the festival the New Yorker’s Richard Brody calls, “one of the crucial showcases for independent films.”
MdFF works to foster the exchange of ideas between artists and audience while providing a voice to visionary and truly independent filmmakers and a launchpad for their films.
Eschewing red carpets and awards in favor of a more genuine experience based in encounter and discovery, MdFF offers you a fun, low-key and inspiring environment.
“Among the most ambitious and discerning showcases of American independent filmmaking.”
— Richard Brody, The New Yorker
Here are just a few of the filmmakers who have presented at the Maryland Film Festival:
Barry Levinson
David Simon
Kathryn Bigelow
Jonathan Demme
Melvin Van Peebles
Alex Gibney
Matt Porterfield
Joe Swanberg
Amy Seimetz
Lisandro Alonso
Todd Solondz
Barry Jenkins
Greta Gerwig
Bobcat Goldthwait
Alex Ross Perry
Riley Stearns
Julius Onah
Lena Dunham
Come together with other filmmakers in a relaxed, non-competition atmosphere to share in each other’s work, discuss filmmaking in our famously candid, closed-door filmmakers’ conference and engage with some of the best and most thoughtful audiences in the world.
“Judging from the enthusiasm of the surprisingly high number of New York filmmakers and critics this writer met in Baltimore this past weekend, the Maryland Film Festival isn’t seen as a pale shadow of Big Apple filmgoing. Rather, it’s a vital supplement to it” — Carson Lund, Slant Magazine
And of course, there’s great parties and our world-class hospitality. All of it takes place in the historic, culturally vibrant and diverse city of Baltimore (aka Charm City) which is host to a rich community of artists, musicians, and filmmakers — not to mention home to an incredible array of performance spaces, museums, galleries, restaurants, and nightlife.
The festival screens approximately 50 feature films and 80 short films of all varieties—narrative, documentary, animation, experimental, and hybrid—to tens of thousands of audience members.
For every North American feature film screened within the festival, a filmmaker attends the festival to present their work. The festival prides itself on creating a unique, accessible, and competition-free atmosphere.
The Festival also includes a sampling of cutting-edge international features (including such titles as Dogtooth, Post Tenebras Lux, Caniba, The Human Surge, and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives), as well as a vintage silent film with live musical accompaniment.
And every year, legendary filmmaker and Baltimore native John Waters hosts a packed screening of one of his favorite films. Past year’s selections have ranged from Joseph Losey’s Boom!, to Gaspar Noé’s I Stand Alone.
The Festival hub is the SNF Parkway Theatre, a rescued 1915 moviehouse that reopened in 2017 as the year-round home for film appreciation and education in Baltimore.
If you are a filmmaker whose work has screened within prior editions of MdFF or at our year-round Parkway Theatre, a deadline waiver may be possible. Please send inquiries to your MdFF programming contact or contact submissions [at] mdfilmfest [dot] com with questions
SUBMISSION CATEGORIES:
Features
For feature films (50 minutes or longer), please note that it is understood that if their feature is selected, the director will be able to attend MDFF in Baltimore April 29–May 3, 2020, to host their screening(s). The Maryland Film Festival will be able to help defray the costs of travel and lodging.
Also note that, while Maryland Film Festival considers films of all running times, we feel filmmakers should know that films running between 26 and 49 minutes pose a particular challenge for festival programmers; the overwhelming majority of films programmed by Maryland Film Festival have run either less than 25 minutes or more than 50.
Shorts 26 – 49 minutes
PLEASE NOTE: While Maryland Film Festival considers films of all running times, we feel filmmakers should know that films running between 26 and 49 minutes pose a particular challenge for festival programmers; the overwhelming majority of films programmed by Maryland Film Festival have run either less than 25 minutes or more than 50.
Short films with running times 25 minutes or under
Local Features (40 minutes or longer, produced 50% in Maryland)
This discounted category is ONLY for submissions that have 50% or more of the film shot in Maryland. Please include in your FilmFreeway submission info a few sentences about what cities in Maryland the film was produced in. Proof may be required.
Please remember that while we encourage MD-made films to submit with discounted fees, MD Film Festival is NOT a festival dedicated to MD-made films, but rather a general-interest festival located in Maryland that shows films from all over the world.