What makes Freedom Festival International a one-of-a-kind festival is, not only do we highlight underrepresented groups, have additional awards for Best Fight/Stunt Choreography and Best Score/Original Composition, but we are centrally located in the heart of the city surrounded by amazing amenities and great social networking opportunities for independent filmmakers from around the world. We kick off the festival with an amazing music concert followed by a torch lighting ceremony the next morning before the first screenings. There will be seminars throughout the festival such as scoring/music composition, SFX makeup, writing, and the only hosted fight/stunt choreography seminar at a film festival in the world. In addition to this, there will be panel discussions with leading industry professionals and awesome after party mixers at the end of each day the festival concludes.
This international festival's Official Selections will be screened and compete for the "Torch Awards" at Spotlight Cinemas in the international corridor of Columbia, South Carolina. With over two dozen categories, these prestigious awards are just the tip of the iceberg. We will also be giving cash prizes, software, critique and feedback, streaming opportunities, and entry for competition into the Rising Star Academy Awards for the winner of the Best of the Fest Torch Award. In addition to this, representatives from PMG Studios, an exclusive distribution studio for independent film, will be in attendance selecting film(s) for possible theatrical distribution opportunities in select theaters.
Freedom Festival International is a festival dedicated to showcasing, promoting, and networking independent filmmakers and the great films they've made from around the world. With the additional highlighting of women and veteran filmmakers, we will honor an influential woman and veteran with the coveted Woman Torchbearer of the Year and Veteran of Freedom Torch Award. This is fitting in conjunction with the month of August celebrating the holidays of Purple Heart Day and Women's Equality Day right after the festival concludes.
We are seeking films and screenplays that coincide with the categories listed such as Action, Drama, Comedy, Horror, Music Video, Documentary, Student, and Unproduced Screenplays. With all of the Official Selections that will be screened at the festival, we will provide two VIP passes for each selected film so that they can attend the entire festival and see firsthand how everyone responds to their beautiful work, which will give a great opportunity for the filmmakers to network with other filmmakers, fans, and potential investors and distributors.
Our coveted "Torch Award" trophies will be awarded for:
Best Feature
Best Short
Best Producer
Best Director
Best Cinematographer
Best Fight/Stunt Choreography
Best Score/Original Composition
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best SFX
Best Unproduced Screenplay
Best Documentary
Best Student Film
Best Music Video
Best Action
Best Drama
Best Horror
Best Comedy
Best South Carolina (Feature)
Best South Carolina (Short)
Audience Choice Award
Best Veteran (Feature)
Best Veteran (Short)
Boss Female (Feature)
Boss Female (Short)
Best of the Fest