All submissions must be:
* Documentary films. We cannot accept fiction work, celluloid films, or scripts.
* We ONLY show films about people, places, history, or current events in Greater Washington DC (Washington DC; Maryland; and the Virginia counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William, and Loudoun, or the Virginia cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, and Falls Church). If your film is about some other place, that's nice, but we are not the festival for you.
* In 2020, we are accepting short documentaries and feature documentaries (up to 90 minutes maximum).
* We prefer films created within the past two years, but will also consider older works.
* Entries must be submitted online through FilmFreeway, Vimeo, or YouTube. We do not accept DVD submissions. If you include a password-protected link, please ensure that the password stays the same through October 31. If our review committee is unable to access a film because the password has been changed, it will not be considered.
* If selected for the festival, we will require you to send us the film as an .MP4 or .mov file.
* Filmmakers must have rights to use all music and images presented in the films or be using under fair use (see http://www.cmsimpact.org/fair-use/best-practices/documentary-filmmakers-statement-best-practices-fair-use#statement).
* We ask that at least one of the filmmakers is available for a virtual Q&A to encourage interaction between the audience and the filmmaker.
* Films with non-English dialogue must be submitted with English subtitles.
* Submissions which do not meet these guidelines will be automatically disqualified. Submission fees will not be returned if you do not follow the guidelines.