FAQs
email to festival@thesmalls.com
Entry
To enter The Smalls Film Festival you must do two things: complete the online submissions form and pay the applicable entry fee. But please also make sure that you review the rules for entering before you complete your submission.
Anyone, from anywhere, can enter.
At the moment we prefer to receive entries via our online submissions form. Should you run into any problems, please email festival@thesmalls.com and we will provide you with alternative ways to submit.
Deadlines and fees
The submission deadline is July 8th, 2013. In case you are wondering, that is a Monday.
Early Bird Submissions: 22nd April - 5th May
Fee - £10
Regular Submissions: 6th May - 16th June
Fee - £18
Late Submissions: 17th June - 8th July
Fee - £22
When you complete your online submissions form you will be prompted to make your payment. Our submission form accepts all major credit cards. Please – please – do NOT forward us any cheques or cash, as we cannot accept these for any reason.
Film submissions
When you are logged into your account, go to http://www.thesmalls.com/festival. From there simply follow the instructions in The Smalls Film Festival submissions section. Please make sure that you are only uploading films that you have created and/or own all the rights to the materials and music used. If uploading your film takes a little time, please be patient. It can be because many people are uploading at the same time. Not a member yet? Sign up and get started with showcasing your films.
The categories are: Comedy, Drama, Documentary, Animation, Music Video and Foreign Language Film. We also award a Grand Prize, which is selected from all categories. So you only need enter once.
Absolutely. But as with any live action film you submit though, you must own the rights to use anything you submit. So your clever mash up of other people’s films won’t fly.
After your submission form has been completed and confirmed, you will not able to edit it. If you need to inform us of any changes to your address, etc., please email festival@thesmalls.com directly with your request.
We are reviewing and judging films as if they are complete and polished works. So we recommend that you submit the version of your film that you are most proud of and you feel you want to showcase. We will not accept multiple versions.
As long as your film follows the rules of The Smalls Film Festival you can submit it again. You will still need to complete the online submission form and pay the entry fee for this year.
Your film can be up to 15 minutes long.
Yes, actually. We ask that your film file is no more than 500MB in size.
You need to have all rights and clearances BEFORE you submit your film. Make sure that you read the rules of The Smalls Film Festival again before you enter.
Using the online submission form, please supply a Quicktime (.mov) with H.264 compression. Please note that if your film is shortlisted, then we will request from you a DVD-quality file saved at 720x576 D1/DV PAL 1.4587 aspect for 16:9, 1.0940 aspect for 4:3 m2v+a.
Once you have completed the submission form, you will receive a confirmation email from The Smalls. But don’t worry if it takes a little time (sometimes the elves are sleeping). If you have not received an email from us within 24 hours, send festival@thesmalls.com an email to confirm your entry has been received.
Award Categories
Yes, but make sure that your film fits into the category as described under Awards. As you complete your submissions form, you will get to mark the category you want to enter. You can only choose one category. Should the judges feel that your film is better suited for a different category, someone from The Smalls will contact you and offer you the option to move your film into that category. Note that you cannot submit your film just for the Grand Prize – this award is given out at the discretion of the judges and will be selected from all films in all of the categories.
Notification
We will notify all successful entrants of their status by August 2013. Please make sure your contact details are correct and if you have not heard from us by August 10th, please email festival@thesmalls.com for a notification.
We will notify you of this shortly after you have received the notification of your status. We want you to have enough time to make travel plans, if necessary.
Festival
The Smalls Film Festival takes place on August 30th - September 6th 2013 in London, UK. Specific venues for screenings and events will be announced closer to the festival start date.
Directions will be available closer to the festival, after all events and venues have been finalized.