Submission Deadlines Approach for Ottawa Film Festivals

Deadlines approach for Ottawa film festivals like CDFF!

Now that Cannes is over, let’s get down to business: the Ottawa film festival scene is really exploding. Most of these festivals and others including the Ottawa International Film Festival and the Cellar Door Film Festival (of which I’m a programmer) are still looking for films and deadlines are approaching! (The Ottawa International Animation Festival, the biggest film event in town, has passed its deadline for entry forms but is still taking preview DVDs and URLs.) The culture of cinephilia in this town is growing and there are plenty of good events to showcase films, including the European Union Film Festival, Asinabka, and other film fests with a specific regional or cultural focus.

The Ottawa film festival scene is kind of exploding with several new film festivals launching this year including Mirror Mountain; Lights, Camera Cure!; and the St. Lawrence Film Festival. These festivals add to the other local events that kicked off this year, including the Ottawa Irish Film Festival, the Ottawa Digital Film Festival, and last week’s The ONEFF. Simply put: October is f*cked. (But in a good way.)

Here are the deadlines for Ottawa film festivals with an open call for submissions:

(Festivals are listed in order of next approaching deadline.)

Ottawa International Animation Festival

(39^th year)

Deadline for entry forms: Friday, May 15th, 2015

Deadline for preview DVDs or submission URLs: Friday, May 29th, 2015

Submissions page.

Festival dates: Sept. 16 – 20.

Venue: The ByTowne

St. Lawrence International Film Festival

(1^st year)

June 1, 2015 - Earlybird Deadline

July 1, 2015 - Regular Deadline

August 1, 2015 - Late Deadline

Submissions page.

Festival dates:  October 22-25, 2015

Venue: TBA

Ottawa International Film Festival

(6^th year)

June 10, 2015 - Regular Deadline

July 11, 2015 - Late Deadline

August 10, 2015 - Extended Deadline

Submissions page.

Festival dates: October 14 – 18, 2015

Venue: The Mayfair, Cineplex Lansdowne

Lights! Camera! Cure!

(1^st year)

June 14, 2015 - Regular Deadline

Submissions page.

*Female Filmmakers only

Festival date: October 22, 2015

Venue: Algonquin Commons Theatre

Cellar Door Film Festival

(2^nd Year)

June 30, 2015 – Early Bird deadline

June 30, 2015 – Deadline for free local shorts submissions

July 31, 2015 – Regular deadline

Submissions page.

*Speculative films (ex: horror, sci-fi, fantasy)

Festival dates: November 5-7, 2015

Venue: The Mayfair, LIVE on Elgin

*Pays screening fees to artists!

One World Film Festival

(26^th year)

June 30, 2015 – Regular deadline

Submissions page.

Festival dates: end of September

Venue: TBA (previously at Library and Archives Canada)

*Pays screening fees to artists!

Mirror Mountain Film Festival

(1^st year)

July 31st 2015 – Extended deadline

October 31st 2015 – Final deadline

Submissions page.

Festival dates: December 4 – 6, 2015

Venue: Club SAW

*Please note that this list does not include past events, film challenges, or film festivals without an open call for submissions... but Cinemablographer loves them too and looks forward to covering them!