The Ann Arbor Film Festival is the longest-running independent and experimental film festival in North America. Internationally renowned as a premiere forum for film as an independent art form, the AAFF screens works across a broad range of genres including: experimental, animation, documentary, narrative and hybrid works. The AAFF is steeped in a rich tradition of ground-breaking cinema as thousands of filmmakers screened early work at the AAFF, including luminaries such as: Kenneth Anger, Agnes Varda, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Gus Van Sant, Barbara Hammer, James Benning, Bruce Conner, Chick Strand, Les Blank, Lawrence Kasdan, and George Lucas.
The Ann Arbor Film Festival serves as an Academy Award®-qualifying festival in the United States for the Short Films category. The AAFF presents over $20,000 in cash awards to filmmakers in competition, as determined by the awards jury. The AAFF is highly competitive, receiving over 3,000 submissions annually from more than 60 countries. All submissions are reviewed by a minimum of 3 trained screeners, with many films watched and discussed collectively by 4 – 7 members of the festival screening team.
The festival main venue, the Michigan Theater, is a gorgeous 1920s movie palace with a historic organ that is performed prior to many of the programs. The theater has two screening spaces: the impressive 1,700-seat main auditorium and the state-of-the-art 200-seatscreening room. The AAFF is committed to high quality exhibition of all films at the festival and presents work on 16mm, 35mm, super 8mm and digital formats.
Categories: Narrative (Features & Shorts), Documentary (Features & Shorts), Experimental (Features & Shorts), Animation (Features & Shorts), and Music Videos
Official Deadline: October 7, 2013
Late Deadline: November 7, 2013
