Submission Guidelines

We hope you’ll join us at the festival!

Filmmakers who have submitted will be notified by June 2nd.

At least one director, screenwriter, cinematographer, and/or producer of your film must identify as Disabled, d/Deaf, chronically ill, neurodivergent, mentally ill, and/or mad. No proof will be required.
Short films and video art are invited to be submitted. If your work does not fall into one of these categories but you’d like to submit, please reach out.
Films do NOT have to be about disability or illness, but they can be.
There is no restriction on completion date, premiere status, country, genre, or public availability of your film.
Works in progress may be submitted, but final versions must be available prior to notification date.
Submission fees are optional donations to help us make the festival happen. To opt out of this donation, use code “RFF24SUBMISSION” at checkout on FilmFreeway. The use of this fee waiver will not impact the judging process.

The preferred method of submitting is via FilmFreeway.
If you would rather not to use FilmFreeway, please email restfestfilmfestival@gmail.com to discuss other options.

Please reach out to us about any and all ways we can make this submission process more accessible for you.
The festival will be entirely virtual at this point. Films will be available to watch at any time throughout the duration of the festival.
All selected films will be required to provide closed captioning and audio descriptions. Support to do this can be provided, financial or otherwise.
Any Q&As or virtual events will provide automated closed captioning and/or ASL interpretation.
Please reach out to us about any and all additional ways we can make the festival events more accessible to you.

If there is someone who you would like to see give a virtual talk or lead a remote workshop at the festival (including you!), please reach out. This could be a Disabled, d/Deaf, chronically ill, neurodivergent, mentally ill, and/or mad artist of any medium, an academic, activist, or anyone else who seems right for the event! These do not have to be film/video related.
We would be so grateful if you could help us spread the word!
Note: RestFest is entirely volunteer run. All funds collected from submissions, donations, and ticket sales will go directly toward making the festival happen.