Submit your films before December 5th and the early submission fee is just $9 (just $4 if you are a member of WAB). Plus, everyone who submits will receive TWO free tickets to a regularly priced Rooftop Films screening (an $18 value). Submitting your film early costs even less than buying the tickets, so send in your work now and save.
Submissions may be submitted directly to Rooftop by downloading the submission form: http://www.rooftopfilms.com/
OR can be submitted via Without A Box:
https://www.withoutabox.com/
Deadlines:
Earlybird: $9, postmarked by December 5, 2009
Regular: $15, postmarked by January 15, 2010
Late: $20, postmarked by February 15, 20010
Without A Box Extended: $20, March 1, 2010*
* Without A Box members only.
Submitting to Rooftop Films
“The screening atmosphere itself is one-of-a-kind, like nothing I’ve ever experienced, and once we showed the film a lot of doors opened for us in the film world, and continue to. It’s safe to say that without this festival we wouldn’t have the opportunities we now have to get our film out there.”
--Michael Palmieri, October Country
Rooftop Films is committed to helping filmmakers get their films screened and we believe that it is the responsibility of a film festival to make it as easy as possible for filmmakers to submit their films and get them screened. That is why we don't demand that filmmakers send us exorbitant submission fees. We have a low recommended submission fee that must only be paid once regardless of how many films you send in.
At Rooftop we believe that the role of a festival is to help filmmakers bring their work to bigger audiences, not to profit off of their ambition, so we do everything that we can to make it easier for filmmakers to send in their work. We keep our submission and admission fees low so that filmmakers and audience members can, at least in one small way, contribute equally to the Rooftop community and neither need be saddled by any unfair expense. And a struggling filmmaker need never despair: no film will ever be turned away due to lack of funds. Furthermore, if you submit a work to Rooftop Films you automatically get 2 free tickets to any one Rooftop Summer Series show, whether or not we are able to screen your film.
The Festival
“Rooftop Films screenings, without question, and year after year, are the biggest screenings of my films. The audience numbers are mind-boggling. Most of the industry people I've met at other festivals seem to have seen my film at Rooftop, yet I think Rooftop is perhaps the only truly populist screening venue for underground movies in America.”
--Benh Zeitlin, Glory at Sea!
The 2010 Summer Series will run from May through September and will feature more than 200 daring new films, all screened outdoors, in front of big, loyal audiences in parks, on boats, and on rooftops overlooking the greatest city in the world. More than 25,000 people attended Rooftop screenings in 2009, making it one of the most popular festivals in New York City and one of the biggest festivals for underground films in the world. The 2010 Summer Series will surely feature even bigger crowds, even more beautiful venues, and more incredible films.
For the past 13 years, Rooftop Films has been committed to providing a venue, an audience, and a community for the wide array of short and feature length films that are underserved by conventional commercial distributors, industry-run festivals, art galleries, and repertory theater retrospectives. We show comedies, dramas, experimental shorts, animation, videos, short and feature documentaries and political films, and home movies and found footage, as well as many of the most interesting new independent narrative feature films. We want films that tell us about where you live and how you live, and we seek independent movies with original ideas, regardless of production values. We screen the work of experienced professionals, long-time amateurs and first-time filmmakers alike. We also strongly encourage submissions by women and people of color. We show films of all genres, formats, and lengths, as long as they're daring, creative, and unique.
“Rooftop Fits into that rare and precious category of film festival that knows how to treat the artist right. From the online catalog description of my (which ranks as one of the most well-written and thoughtful reviews of that work EVER) to their handling of my flight arrangements, to the event itself which made me feel as celebrated as some famous person, Rooftop is stand-out from the point of view of the artist.”
--Lynn Shelton, Humpday and My Effortless Brilliance
Curating our Programs
“For filmmakers this a wonderful way for their films to be seen in a unique venue, with high quality projection, doing a service for the community, and just hanging with great people. I wish I lived in New York so I could be at all of your screenings. They are truly special.”
--Peter Gilbert, At The Death House Door, Hoop Dreams
Having been around for 13 years, Rooftop has carved out a niche for itself in the independent film world. We received over 2,800 submissions in 2009, and every single one of those films was watched and apprised by one of our 3 programmers, so the Rooftop staff gets to see a good portion of the best the festival circuit has to offer. But while our primary goal is to screen the best new films we can find, we also believe that our mission entails more than just choosing great films. We believe that a film festival has a responsibility to present films in exciting and innovative ways so that we can reach wide audiences and show interesting work in a manner that maximizes the impact of the films.
This is, of course, why we choose to show films outdoors in New York, among the tall buildings and towering trees, on tar roofs and green grass, and amid the subtle sounds of street traffic and whirring crickets. A film framed by the city skyline becomes more than just a film, it becomes part of the neighborhood, and we try to choose films that will add to the environment in which they will be screened, just as we try to choose venues that will enhance the films that we show. We strive to find the perfect location for each film or program, seeking out idyllic spots along a canal for a romantic program or film, or mounting a screening of a documentary about industry atop the roof of a 100-year-old factory. The result is that the films take on new meanings in these unique environments and nuances come to the fore, making a lasting impression.
We also work harder than most festivals to program films together in such a way that the films complement one another. That is why most of our programs are organized around themes, moods, regions, genres. While some festivals tend to toss unrelated shorts and features into disorganized bundles, Rooftop believes that strategically programming complementary films together can add to the impact of all the works included and that a carefully curated show can bring out subtle resonances in even the most textured and accomplished films.
For questions regarding submissions, please email program director Dan Nuxoll at:
submit * at * rooftopfilms * dot * com
