Transparent Film Festival (5)

Festival start: 18 May 2023      Festival end: 19 May 2023

Website: TransparentFilmFestival.com
YouTube: Youtube.com/TransparentFilmFestival
Facebook: Facebook.com/TransparentFilmFestival
Cable: Every Friday Night at Midnight in Manhattan Ch. 33 (Fios), 34 (Spectrum) 82 (RCN)

Our commitment to watching every film and providing our review notes on Facebook is something frankly EVERY FESTIVAL should do if they're accepting a submission fee. We're starting to add original content, script contests, readings here in NYC, filmmaker spotlights and more.

The 5th Transparent Film Festival will take place live Thursday Night May 18th and Friday Night May 19th at the Theater Under St. Marks in New York City's funky & fun East Village.

Some important things you should know.

We watch every film - PERIOD. Then we a) post screen grabs on Facebook with the Director's name, Country of Origin, Date we watched the film and a blurb about what we saw; and, b) Fill out the ratings card on Film Freeway and send to the filmmaker with a note saying that we're either moving to the next round for judging, passing or putting in the maybe pile.

From that point, our judges (who have either an Emmy, Grammy or Oscar award and/or nominations will decide whether or not a film is selected, and determine the winners.

Best Short
Best Foreign Film
Best Feature
Best TV Pilot
Best New York Film
Best Documentary
Best Mobile Film
Best Musical Video/Performance
Best Faith Based
Best 1 Minute Film Challenge
Young Filmmaker Award
Best TIK TOK

If there are less than 3 submissions in a category, we may at our discretion move films that are selected to a different category for competition. Further we may add any selection to another category at our discretion.

IMPORTANT:
1. Films earning the status SELECTED, DO NOT NECESSARILY SCREEN. Films that earn nominations (Best Short, Best NYC Film, Best 1 Minute Film), DO SCREEN.

2. We DO NOT SCREEN FEATURES live - only online with the permission of the Filmmakers.

3. We provide a hi-res Laurels ONLY UPON REQUEST.

PLEASE READ ALL RULES AND TERMS CAREFULLY PRIOR TO SUBMITTING YOUR FILM. BY SUBMITTING YOUR FILM TO THE TRANSPARENT FILM FESTIVAL, YOU HEREBY AGREE TO THE BELOW TERMS.

The 4th Transparent Film Festival (“TFF”) will take place at The Theater Under St. Marks in New York City's funky and fun East Village. It doesn't get any better during Spring Time in New York. Although unlikely at this point, due to the Pandemic, the venue operators may at their discretion choose to reschedule or cancel the event. If this happens, any money for ticket purchases will be returned to the method of payment used.

IMPORTANT: All films selected can not be shown live due to time constraints. If your film has been selected to screen live, it may be removed from its live program if we are unable to reach you (by email, facebook, text message, phone, app, etc.), or otherwise communicate with you. We recommend following us on Facebook if possible at https://www.facebook.com/transparentfilmfestival.

REALLY IMPORTANT: BY SUBMITTING YOUR FILM TO THIS FESTIVAL YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND GRANT TRANSPARENT FILM FESTIVAL THE NON-EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO PROMOTE YOUR FILM ON SOCIAL MEDIA (including YouTube, Instagram and Facebook). YOU FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WE MAY AT OUR DISCRETION INCLUDE A SHORT CLIP FROM YOUR FILM AS PART OF OUR WEEKLY TELEVISION SERIES IN NEW YORK (Transparent Film Festival Presents). WE ONLY SHOW MUSIC VIDEOS IN THEIR ENTIRETY. NO FILM IS SHOWN ON OUR WEBSITE (transparentfilmfestival.com) OR ON YOUTUBE WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE CONTENT CREATOR.

WE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WE OWN NO RIGHTS TO YOUR FILM, AND THAT YOU MAY REQUEST US TO REMOVE YOUR FILM FROM OUR WEBSITE AT ANY TIME AND FOR ANY REASON.

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT OUR POSTING YOUR FILM ON OUR WEBSITE IS FOR PROMOTIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND THAT THERE IS NO MONEY DUE YOU OR ANYONE ELSE INCLUDING BUT NOT NECESSARILY LIMITED TO: THE SUBMITTER (or submitters as the case may be); THE PRODUCERS; ACTORS; ACTRESSES; CREW; INVESTORS; SPONSORS, etc., OR ANYONE WHO WORKED ON OR IS ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR FILM.

1. Submission Deadlines
Submissions will be accepted beginning June 1, 2022. The final deadline is Sunday April 30, 2023. Early entry is encouraged but in no way guarantees acceptance. Last season, literally the very first, AND very last submissions were selected.

2. Submission Format
Films must be submitted via online screener ONLY. We do not accept films sent over by DVD. If selected, you must provide a theatrical quality screener that is HD and 2K in size dimensions as we will be showing on a 2K projector. Anything less than HD at a minimum of 1920 x 1080 will not be screened.

IMPORTANT ITEM 1 - We will review EVERY film. Due to the number of submissions we can no longer guarantee (as we did with the first three seasons), that we will watch every frame. We will provide our notes TO ALL FILMMAKERS along with our Festhome Rating, and post a date stamped viewing receipt on our Facebook Page so you know when we viewed your submission.

IMPORTANT ITEM 2 - Please do not submit to our festival and make your film available for download if you are worried that a conflict will arise with other festivals. Our cable TV Show (audience reach of 620,000 people), in Manhattan NYC. Our streaming online has been gaining in popularity since launching last year. It will not affect your acceptance status. We own no rights to your film. We just just think it’s cool at a minimum and think people should see it.

3. Submission Eligibility
(A) All submissions must have begun production after 1 January 2020.
(B) Transparent Film Festival reserves the right to disqualify any film for any reason. For instance, nudity is fine, children appearing in a film naked is not material we are comfortable with receiving and/or reviewing. Violence, even graphic violence in a narrative context is fine. However video footage of someone being pummeled is not.

4. Premiere Status
- There is no premiere policy.

5. Submission Fee
All submissions for The Transparent Film Festival are to be paid through Festhome platform. The submission fee is non-refundable.

6. Shipping - We no longer accepted snail mail. Use WeTransfer, Dropbox or Google Drive to send us content to: transparentfilmfestival@gmail.com

DOUBLE MAKING SURE YOU UNDERSTAND
By submitting your film to Transparent Film Festival, you acknowledge, and grant us permission to upload your film to our website for exposition and promotional purposes. We acknowledge that the operators of this website own no rights to your film, and you may request at any time to have it removed.

8. Selection of Films
Every submission will be screened and reviewed under the following criteria, and given a score between 1 and 10 according to our customized rating system on Festhome - which you will receive a copy of. Note we post all ratings on Facebook, not the reviews.

9. Notification
TFF will complete all selection procedures by May 1, 2023, and inform all submitting parties, in writing, if their film has been successful or not after that time. Filmmakers whose submissions are accepted into the festival will be given two weeks to prepare, and will immediately receive information on how to make the most of participating in the Festival.

10. Festival Screenings
As selected films will be shown on 2K Projection Screen, selected films MUST provide an .MOV file that must be at least 1920 x 1080 HD quality. The film title and running time MUST be included in the file name. All foreign language films MUST contain English subtitles files.

IF YOU DO NOT PROVIDE A HI-RES HD COPY - YOUR FILM WILL NOT SCREEN AND THE STATUS WILL BE CHANGED TO NOT SELECTED.

11. Scheduling
Screenings are scheduled at the discretion of TFF. The festival organizers will make every effort to adhere to the published schedule, however, TFF reserves the right to make changes at any time for any reason. TFF will not be liable for any costs claimed as a result of a change in scheduling.

No film may be withdrawn from the festival after it is selected.

12. Preference for live screenings will be given to those filmmakers who are selected, actively promote their screening and commit to attending the festival. International Selections are screened online UNLESS THEY ARE IN CONTENTION FOR A BEST IN CATEGORY award (such as Best Foreign Film).

SUPPLEMENTAL RULES (PLEASE READ)

THERE ARE NO LONGER COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS DUE TO THE FACT THAT FILMMAKERS REQUEST THEM AND THEN DO NOT ATTEND (thereby limiting tickets available for purchase).

We reserve the right to disqualify any film and or filmmaker for any reason such as dishonesty, violating our terms and conditions, or for any reason whatsoever. This includes the use of any unlicensed material (music or video footage).