Immigration Film Fest (12)

Festival start: 19 September 2025      Festival end: 12 October 2025

Celebrating its 12th year, the Immigration Film Fest (IFF) will be held in Washington, DC in Fall 2025!

The Immigration Film Fest is a festival hosted by KAMA DC, a volunteer-run nonprofit that is dedicated to promoting cultural exchange and celebrating the skills and stories of immigrants in the DMV area. We believe that immigrants bring unique perspectives and experiences that make our community stronger and more vibrant.

In the 12th year of the Immigration Film Fest, we seek thoughtful films that tell the stories of ordinary and extraordinary immigrants and refugees. The Immigration Film Fest is dedicated to bringing the power of film to spotlight and honor the stories of immigrants in society. We particularly encourage immigrant and student filmmakers to submit your films.

The 2025 Immigration Film Fest will be a hybrid festival with live screenings at DMV area venues and hosted online. Selected films will be provided exposure in Washington DC, where policy discussions about immigration are held by decision-makers, international media & thought leaders and where there is an enthusiastic audience for unique, creative films.

We appreciate your interest and encourage you to be part of the Immigration Film Fest in 2025.

We welcome you. Submit your film now!

For the 2025 festival, we will be awarding Laurels for all selected films.

The Immigration Film Fest (IFF) is delighted to have you submit your film for consideration to be shown in private live hosted online events and at various theater venues in the greater Washington DC area. Here are the rules and terms you agree to with your submission:

All films must be submitted on Festhome. The rules and terms of the Festhome web site are incorporated into the Terms and Conditions.

Films must deal with the topics of immigrants and refugees living or working in a new country, legally or undocumented, or their host communities. We seek works that recognize how deeply immigrants affect the lives of those around them. These films are ultimately creative works about people's lives, as such, comedy and imagination are greatly encouraged.

Films must be respectful and sensitive to the human needs and issues that arise. They may provide different points of view and show entrenched prejudice but films that have a hate motivation will not be selected and should not be submitted. The IFF is under no obligation to screen any of the films submitted and may reject any entry at its sole discretion.

Films must be available for screening in MP4 format in English or with English language subtitles. Official selections will be screened at venues or online events on dates set by IFF organizers.

By submitting your film to IFF, you grant the Immigration Film Fest, at no charge, the right to view, show, advertise, and make internal copies, if necessary, for the evaluation, showing and other functions of the Festival's mission and for promotion of the Festival and its educational purposes.

IFF may charge or accept donations for the viewing of the films at the Festival. All proceeds related to IFF’s promotion and showing of the films will be the property of IFF.

IFF will issue laurels to selected films, so the filmmaker may use them for further promotion and advertisement of the film.

In 2025, the Immigration Film Fest seeks thoughtful films of human endeavor and accomplishment - ordinary and extraordinary - in the communities in which they live. The IFF also seeks a cross section of nationalities, issues and other criteria in making a final selection. Thus, a very worthwhile film may not be selected. We may consider a film that is not selected for future years. We encourage you to take the IFF into account on any new or on-going projects. If your film is selected for the festival, we may show a preview of your upcoming work, if it meets with the general objectives of the IFF. Pre and post film discussions and workshops are an integral part of our programming, the availability of filmmakers and persons associated with a film during the Festival may also be a selection factor.