Savannah, Ga. - The Savannah Film Festival, hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design, is accepting entries for the 2009 festival. The annual festival, to be held Oct. 31 through Nov. 7, presents independent, innovative, and influential films from both award-winning professionals and emerging student filmmakers around the world. Features, documentaries, professional, and student shorts, both live action and animated, will be considered. All entries must be postmarked by July 6.
The Savannah Film Festival screens films before their national release dates at the Trustees Theater, a 1946 cinema house, and the Lucas Theatre for the Arts, a former Vaudeville venue. The week-long event features workshops, panel discussions, and presentations by well-known artists and filmmakers. Films screened at the festival have come from Scotland, the UK, Vietnam, Australia, Switzerland, Ukraine, Israel, China, Germany, Canada, the United States, and Ecuador. Special guests in attendance have included Malcolm McDowell, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Peter O’Toole, Kathleen Turner, Danny Glover, Milos Forman and Alec Baldwin.
Paperless entries submitted via Withoutabox’s International Film Festival Submission System are preferred. Visit www.scad.edu/filmfest for more. Entries will also be accepted in prepaid and packed containers; contestants should submit work for preview on DVD or NTSC for Region 0 and 1. Entries must be in the English language or subtitled in English. To be eligible for the festival, feature films must be no less than 40 minutes long, and short films must be 5 to 25 minutes long. Submitted films and materials will not be returned unless a self-addressed, postage-paid return envelope is included with the submission. Regardless of original format, all competition films screen on DigiBeta, Beta SP format, or 35mm for festival presentation. Incomplete submissions or "works in progress" will not be considered.
A screening committee will view all entries, and a select panel will choose films for the festival competition. The Savannah Film Festival and the Savannah College of Art and Design do not assume liability for damage to entries due to mishandling or poor packaging during shipping.