The Library

Audience Award:

Tami Tushie’s Toys Team: Minnesota Docuclubbers

Jury Winners

Best Film: Legend: A Film About Greg Garing Team: Kamikaze Chickadee

P.O.V. Award Winner: Grounded By Reality  Team: Shed Collective

You can watch all of the 2010 finalists in there on the Doc Challenge website. This challenge seems like so much fun, I hope to participate some time in the future.

Call for entries! The 2011 Big Sky Documentary Festival will take place in Missoula, Montana in early February. Big Sky has an award for Best Documentary Short (15-50 minutes) and an award for Best Mini-Doc (under 15 min). Send ‘em in.

BendFilm is currently accepting submissions for its 2010 festival in the following categories: Narrative Feature, Documentary Feature, Conservation, Animation, Short Films, and Student Short Films. Short documentary projects can be included in both the short film or student short film categories. The BendFilm festival, a showcase of independently produced films, will take place in October in Bend, Oregon.

So, I made this short documentary, now what? You might want to consider submitting your short film to festivals or other video contests. Here is a list of festivals that accept short documentary (30 min. or less) submissions. Please note that this list is just the tip of the iceberg so for more information on additional festivals and current “call for entries” visit these sites, Withoutabox.com or The International Documentary Association. Also, please note that the dates included are festival dates—festival committees generally begin accepting submissions several months prior to the festival so check each website for submission dates.

1. Big Sky Film Festival, February

2. Florida International Film Festival, April

3. Full Frame Documentary Festival, April

4. Sarasota Film Festival, April

5. Seattle International Film Festival, May

6. Reel Facts Short Video Contest (films less than 5 min.),  June

7. Docuweeks, July

8. Atlanta Shortsfest and Docufest, August

9. Chicago International Film Festival, October

10. Hot Springs Documentary Festival, October

11. Syracruse International Film Festival, October

12. Red Rock Film Festival, November

13. IDA Documentary Awards, December

Do you have other festivals to add to the list? Let me know.

Viva Doc is a lovely website run in association with The Michael Rabiger Center For Documentary Film at Columbia College in Chicago. The website offers many great resources for documentary filmmakers and students including a glossary of documentary terms, downloadable production releases, articles on relevant topics, and documentary news and reviews.

We just missed the deadline for Viva Doc’s International Student Documentary Competition but it is not to early to start getting ready for next year! Here is a description from their website: “The competition is a celebration of student filmmakers from around the world. Students from recognized institutions of higher education with instruction in filmmaking at the undergraduate or graduate level are invited to submit documentaries which have been completed as course work. The work can be originated in any format, style and on any subject, with a maximum length of 30 minutes. Entries must fit into one of the five categories of the competition. Films are pre-selected by a panel of Columbia College documentary faculty and graduate documentary students.”  The entry fee is $20, so start saving.