HOW TO SUBMIT TO ROOFTOP FILMS
Rooftop Films is no longer accepting submissions for the 2009 Summer Series. We will begin accepting submissions for 2010 in the fall. If you would like to inquire about a deadline waiver, please email submit * at * rooftopfilms * dot * com
Click here for DEADLINES, GUIDELINES, RULES and SUBMISSION FEES!. Then you can mail any submissions to:
Rooftop Films
PMB 401
285 Fifth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
Please read all of our guidelines
and regulations prior to sending in your submission.
Submit!
I think that Rooftop has a true understanding of the filmmaker. The low- to no-cost entry fee, the grants handed out, and the familial attitude make it a joy to be a part of Rooftop.Submit your movies! We are currently accepting submissions for the 2009 Summer Series. In June 2009 we will begin celebrating our 13th year of bringing the best underground films in the world outdoors and to the rooftops of New York. Submit your films and videos now and participate in one of the most unforgettable, unique, filmmaker-friendly, independent film events in the world!
—Kat Candler, Texas Filmmaker
Submitting to Rooftop
The experience of submitting to Rooftop was GREAT! Submitting was easy and fair, the entry fee is lower then at any other festival and the Rooftop people are kind and understanding.Before you submit, please read all of our guidelines and regulations HERE.
—Signe Baumane, Animator
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
I have been to a Rooftop screening and I have to say the sunset and view from the roof is incredible. Sitting in the night air watching great films outdoors is such a pleasure. It really is a lovely experience.The 2009 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 18,000 people attended Rooftop screenings in 2008, 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 2009 Summer Series will surely feature even bigger crowds, even more beautiful venues, and more incredible films.
—Susan Youssef, Filmmaker
For the past 12 years, Rooftop Films has been committed to providing a venue, an audience, and a community for the wide array of short films and feature-length documentaries 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. 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.
Curating our Programs
I enjoy the blend of strong and at times controversial pieces, a combination of sweet and spicy that work well together.Having been around for 12 years, Rooftop has carved out a niche for itself in the independent film world. We received over 2,100 submissions in 2008, 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 optimizes the impact of the films.
—Jen Sachs, Animator
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 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, race or gender. 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.
Past programs have included:
+ New York Non-Fiction
+ Home Movies/Found Footage
+ Films from the African Diaspora
+ Animation Night
+ Women Make Movies
+ Rural Route Films
+ World Documentaries
+ The Un-American Film Festival
+ Music-Themed Films
+ Youth-Produced Films
+ Midnight Movies
+ Regional programs from the Midwest, Texas, and the Pacific Northwest
Co-Curating with Rooftop
Rooftop plays smart, funny, and moving works that you're not likely to see anywhere else. If I could pick one other festival/film series to go see, besides the one I direct, it would be Rooftop.Rooftop Films also encourages curators to send entire programs of films. In the past, other festivals, venues and programmers from around the world have hosted nights of their movies as part of the Summer Series. If you have a program of films which demonstrates the work being done in your community—be it regionally based, ethnically based, aesthetically based or thematically based—send it in. We want to work with other groups who want to show off their unique cinematic visions. For detailed information about submitting a curated program, please email Rooftop Films Program Director Dan Nuxoll at
—Alan Webber, Rural Route Film Festival
dan * at * rooftopfilms * dot * com.
If you have any questions regarding submissions, please email program director Dan Nuxoll at
dan * at * rooftopfilms * dot * com.
