Memphis, Tennessee / October 19–24
Indie Memphis Film Festival. Photo by Andrea Morales
Celebrating its 25th edition, Indie Memphis turns up on this list year after year in part because it represents a perfect mix of location and festival. With its blend of style, swagger, grit and sheer character, Memphis is one of the most enthralling cities in the world — and Indie Memphis captures, harnesses, and adds to its glory. What it does best, says artistic director Miriam Bale, is “celebrate brilliant films that fall through the cracks of the other festivals and in the film industry.” She adds that it “values diversity and artistry equally, as inextricable elements.” The festival is generous with travel, accommodations and transportation, and draws so much industry notice that distributors have been known to pick up films from Indie Memphis even without attending the festival. Its 20 awards include the Soul of Southern Film Award for the best Southern film, one for scriptwriting, another for best poster design, and several awards for Hometowners, including the Best Hometowner Music Video, because no one does music like Memphis.
Entry Fee: Free for Memphis-area filmmakers; $30-75 for non-Memphis filmmakers
Julien Dubuque International Film Festival
Dubuque, Iowa / April 20-24
One of the only festivals that will be entirely in-person this year, Julien Dubuque is known for hospitality. It’s quite generous with travel, transportation and accommodations, which include its HomeStay Program, in which locals warmly welcome visiting filmmakers into their homes. All meals are free for the duration of the festival. “I believe that filmmakers and films that screen at JDIFF, no matter how large or small in budget, are important and deserve to be treated the same. From the minute our filmmakers arrive, they are treated as VIPs,” says executive director Susan Gorrell. If it sounds like the ultimate festival for Main Street, U.S.A, we can’t argue: Almost the entire festival takes place on Dubuque’s charming Main Street. But the festival has even more going for it than its considerable homespun charm: It draws top distributors, good media attention, and notable films like the acclaimed documentary The Cave. It offers more than $40,000 in prizes and hosts helpful panels, coffee talks, one-on-one conversations, and workshops on writing, directing, costumes and more. Also, if you’re looking for a quick getaway? It starts tomorrow.
Entry Fee: $35-100
Locarno, Switzerland / August 3-13 / A
Established in 1946, Locarno is one of the oldest and most prestigious festivals in the world, but its focus is very much on the future. Set in the Swiss-Italian town of Locarno, it is devoted to auteur cinema, and embraces the youthful, the experimental, and the audacious. Thousands of film fans flock to Locarno to enjoy films on the Piazza Grande, which offers Europe’s largest screen, while enjoying the joys of Lake Maggiore and the Alps. Last year, roughly half of its more than 200 films were world premieres. It draws top distributors, from Netflix to Pathé Films, and its press department is an awe-inspiring operation that includes agents dedicated to France, Germany and Austria, Italy, Switzerland and International. Even more impressive are the staggering prizes, totaling well over $300,000. The networking and learning opportunities are endless, and the location to die for. “You can’t describe it, words don’t do it justice. You have to come and experience it,” director Alejandro Jodorowsky said of Locarono when he received its lifetime achievement award, the Pardo d’onore, in 2016. The festival is quite selective, but give it a shot: Locarno favors the bold.
Entry Fee: $32-172
Shreveport, Louisiana / September 24-October 3
This rollicking, well-organized event has probably the most original concept on our list: It’s open to all short films made in Louisiana. From the total entries, the selection committee chooses 20 finalists who receive $250 each. The festival audiences and judges then choose five finalists who receive $1,000 each. From there, the festival gives out a $50,000 cash prize to the winning film, if it’s shot in Caddo Parish, where Shreveport is located. If it’s shot anywhere else in Louisiana, it gets $25,000 cash. It’s different, but it works: The big prize is just the centerpiece of a year-round program that includes industry meetups and other events, a free, online, eight-course program in filmmaking, and a four-hour panel workshop with mentor judges who include filmmakers, producers, programmers and critics. “Film Prize is the closest thing you can get to working in the real world as a festival can get (and then some),” says director Chris Lyon. “We provide financial incentive, provide assistance to filmmakers who need it, work with them to ensure they are staying on schedule for delivery, work with them to finalize their project for screening, help them promote their film, and provide them with opportunities to advance their career.”
Entry Fee: $50
Mammoth Lakes, California / May 25-29
This Eastern Sierra festival could coast on its majestic location, but instead works hard to discover and foster new talent. It especially values “unique, innovative, personal filmmaking” and prides itself on programming “risky films,” notes Shira Dubrovner, the festival’s ever-approachable and boundlessly enthusiastic founder and director. “We have a warm, family atmosphere at our festival where everyone feels taken care of — starting from the moment our director of programming personally calls every accepted film,” she says. The festival also works hard to assist with airfare, lodging and transportation, even coordinating carpools from Los Angeles International Airport to Mammoth Lakes so attendees can start getting to know each other almost as soon as they land. After programming safe and successful in-person events last year, the festival plans to remain live this year, but also to offer some virtual screenings. As warm and friendly as the festival is, there’s nothing casual about its presentation: It makes sure pictures and sound are state of the art. That’s especially important for its latest category, music videos.
Entry Fee: $20-70
Miami, Florida / January 12-26, 2023
This year’s festival under the stars put the magic in Magic City. Rather than go all-virtual for its 25th anniversary, it innovated through pandemic challenges by holding its entire program outdoors, premiering 108 feature films and 40 shorts, some of them at popup screenings in eye-catching spaces across the city. It also had a virtual component, bringing in a total of more than 60,000 film lovers. The festival offers impressive prizes totaling more than $40,000, but even better, it regularly sees six to 10 films go directly to distributors. More than 50 cast and crew attended the festival to celebrate their films at the live premieres, and the festival is generous in providing airfare, lodging, transportation and more. It isn’t the easiest festival to get into, but those who make it in often see results quickly. “I just don’t know how to express in words my incredible experience with this festival, its staff, and the connections I made. I got such value out of the entire process and experience,” says American Birthright director Becky Tahel Ben David. “I had a couple of distributors reach out about my film immediately after seeing it got into the Miami Jewish Film Festival, and many other fests solicited my documentary as well! Truly such an incredible experience and I cannot wait to be back! This festival is the real deal.”
Entry Fee: $8-40
Los Angeles / July 11-17
Micheaux Film Festival
Named for groundbreaking author, director and independent producer Oscar Micheaux, who began making films a century ago when opportunities for Black filmmakers were nearly nonexistent, Micheaux is the newest festival on our list — its 2022 edition will be its fourth. But the festival, which has received the backing of The Oprah Winfrey Network, Sony Pictures Entertainment and IMDb, among others, has already gained wide attention for its filmmaker-first approach and commitment to discovering new artists. There’s a big opportunity here to get involved in a very fast-growing festival: Last year’s edition garnered so much interest that it moved up from a smaller venue into the TCL Chinese Theatre. Besides drawing top distributors and press, it offers extensive networking opportunities and very big prizes — it partnered last year with Panavision to provide $75,000 in grants. “The Micheaux Film Festival is a multicultural and BIPOC film festival that showcases and celebrates diverse representation, gender, and identity parity in the entertainment and media landscape. We are an organization in living color — inclusive, intersectional, and disruptive,” say co-founders Noel Braham and Courtney L. Branch. Okema T. Moore, who wrote and starred in the short film “Shh…,” calls Micheaux “one of the top indie fests in the game” thanks to “constant and CLEAR communication, high-level classes and installations that get you the intel and industry info that will progress you.” She also praises “a great energy that makes you feel like family. I’m so so proud of this team and even more proud to say I am in the family!”
Entry Fee: $15-100
Nashville / September 29-October 5 / A
Nashville Film Festival
“Film is thriving in Music City!” says program director Lauren Ponto, and she speaks the truth. Nashville fares very well in our rankings thanks to the many opportunities for press, access to distributors A24, Neon, and Kino Lorber, and the many networking opportunities in one of the best places on earth for a fun night out. The festival hands out 26 awards that include cash prizes ranging from $500 to $2,000 — 18 awards in its film competition, and eight in its screenwriting competition. Nashville is also generous in providing airfare, lodging and travel to guests when possible, and hosts events all over town, including at famed locales like The Bluebird Café and Third Man Records. Other highlights include the Creators Conference, in which filmmakers, executives and attendees discuss industry trends and resonant cultural issues. And there’s a top-notch program from music supervisors, because of course there is.
Entry Fee: $35-95
Nevada City, California / August 26-28
Nevada City Film Festival
There’s a magical quality to Nevada City, a former Gold Rush town of about 3,000 people, situated roughly an hour north of Sacramento near Tahoe National Forest. Its film festival is conscientious, detail-oriented, and cares deeply about the experience of all who attend. “We see NCFF as an opportunity for filmmakers to find respite, recharge and be creatively inspired,” says executive director Jesse Locks. “We try to tailor our film festival to the filmmakers. If that means accommodating filmmakers who are traveling with their families, filmmakers who are looking to extend their stay with camping options, or filmmakers who have specific networking needs, we do our best to make it happen.” One of its best and most surprising attributes is a fairly favorable ratio of submitted to accepted films — if your film is great, you have a real shot. Nevada City is inventive at using podcasts and Zoom interviews to promote filmmakers, and offers films online, sharing virtual screening revenue with filmmakers. It will also host online discussions this year around the roles of different filmmakers. But to truly appreciate Nevada City, you need to go out and inhale its fresh mountain air, and history.
Entry Fee: $15-50
New Orleans / November 3-8 in-person; November 3-13 online / A
New Orleans Film Festival
Crescent City’s signature film festival, celebrating its 33rd year, scored high in our rankings thanks to its bucket-list location, devotion to launching new filmmakers, strong commitment to movies that matter, and generosity in helping invited filmmakers get to the festival. It’s also excellent in terms of access to press, distributors like HBO and Netflix, and prizes: It handed out more than $120,000 last year. Prominent recent screenings included the documentary Socks On Fire, Bo McGuire’s very personal look at a property dispute between his now-homophobic aunt and out-and-proud gay uncle. The fest says it is emblematic of the kinds of films it celebrates — those from marginalized directors with strong connections to their stories, and an emphasis on justice, sensitivity, and a little humor. New Orleans’ diverse 12-member programming team recently created Programming Practices that detail its values and decision-making process. The festival has also started asking filmmakers submitting through FilmFreeway about the inclusivity of their production teams, and personal connections to the communities and stories in their films. The festival says this has led to a significant loss in overall submission numbers, but also allows people who don’t share the festival’s values to save their money.
Entry Fee: $30-80
Continue for more of the 50 film festivals worth the entry fee in 2022
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