PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ()

Festival start: 11 January 2023      Festival end: 15 January 2023

Pacific International Film Festival is an annual international film festival, a live event with in-person screenings, workshops, and public seminars. The festival’s mission is to promote film industry talents for another step up in their careers. This festival is located in the city of Vancouver, utilizing the worldwide cinematic quality of this phenomenal location to promote its event. Vancouver, the third-largest Film & TV production center in North America, is known for the quality of its crews, locations, and competitive production environment. Some of the recently completed projects in the region are BFG, Deadpool 1 & 2, Game Over, Man, The Mountain Between Us, Okja, Overboard, The Predator, Star Trek Beyond, Superman: Man of Steel, Tron 3, Twilight Saga, War of the Planet of the Apes, and World of Warcraft.

Best Feature Film
Best Short Film
Best Documentary
Best Short Documentary
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Original Score
Best Screenplay
Special Jury Award

SUBMISSION PROCESS

Rules & Terms:

Festival welcomes Feature Films, Short Films, Documentaries and Animated Features and Shorts.

Short films must be between 8 and 15 minutes in length.

A Canadian production is defined as any production which would qualify as a certified production under current regulations applied by CAVCO.

All entries must have been completed in the period between January 1st 2022 and December 31st 2022.

We only accept digital submissions. We accept no hardcopy submissions. Link us to your film on Vimeo or another hosting sites. The recommended submission specifications are mentioned below.
Please send any related press materials, including electronic press kit, and photos to info@pacificfilmfest.com

Each submission must be accompanied by a submission fee paid in full and a working screener in order to be considered. Once we have all necessary materials, the submission will be marked “In Consideration”. It is the submitter’s responsibility to make sure that all submission requirements are met. If your submission is marked “Incomplete” and you’re unsure why, please email admin@pacificfilmfest.com

Press kits and cover letters are not required but are appreciated. If you wish to submit either, please attach it to your submission. DO NOT send hard copies to our office; they will be recycled. Any submissions that are incomplete by our final deadline will be disqualified without refund of submission fees. Reasons a submission will be considered incomplete include (but are not limited to) the following:

SCREENERS
All projects must be submitted via secure online screener – either as a password protected Vimeo link attached to your submission or uploaded directly to Festhome. Online screeners must be available to stream; we do not accept any screeners that must be downloaded (ex: Dropbox, Google Drive, WeTransfer, etc.). We DO NOT accept DVD or Blu-Ray screeners. In addition, we cannot accept screener links via email, they MUST be attached to your submission. The submitter is responsible for ensuring that their screener link and password are active throughout the entire submissions cycle (at least to January 1st 2023). In the event of a password or URL change after submitting, email us immediately. If we discover an error with the screener before our final deadline, we will attempt to email the submitter for an update. Failure to respond by the final submission deadline (December 25th 2022) will result in disqualification without refund of submission fees. If we discover that a screener is incomplete after our final deadline, it may be directly disqualified without refund of submission fees.

SUBMISSION TO FESTIVAL
All festival submissions are handled through Festhome. If you are unable to submit your final copy in digital form and would like to submit your film via an alternative method, please contact the festival office.

Entrants are responsible for the technical quality of their submissions. Entries which cannot be adequately judged because of technical problems prior to upload/submission will be deemed ineligible

Recommended video specs for export:

Bit rate: 8Mbit
Codec: H.264
Resolution: 1920x1080p, or 1280x720p
Frame rate: 23.98, or 29.97 fps
Audio: 48khz 2 channel, stereo audio

CANADIAN FILMS
A Canadian production is defined as any production which would qualify as a certified production under current regulations applied by CAVCO.

A qualified Canadian Production can submit at a discount. To obtain the discount option, applicants will need to email qualifications to admin@pacificfilmfest.com before submitting. Please allow up to 7 business days for a response, particularly when approaching a submission deadline.

All Canadian films submitted must adhere to the rules of the festival at large and the category to which they submit. If you submit using this code without meeting the necessary criteria, you will be disqualified from consideration for the festival and will not be issued a refund.

Please note, submitting as a Canadian Film makes no difference to the chances of being accepted into the festival, as all local films must stand alongside the other films in Festival’s programming. This code is intended as a way to support our local filmmaking community by offering a low-cost means of entry (and also makes it easier for us to identify local films within the thousands of submissions we receive each year).

ACCEPTED FILMS
All works selected must have the final version available by January 1st 2023 for inclusion in the festival. Upon acceptance into the 2023 Pacific International Film Festival, you grant the festival the right to utilize an excerpt from your film for promotional purposes. Festival will not guarantee screening all the selected submissions, but any appropriate film/short blocks will be used upon availability in any venues. All scheduling, screening venue, digital platforms, and time slots are at the discretion of the festival staff and are subject to change.

Invitations may be extended to films for virtual only presentation, in-person only presentation, or both.

Festival cannot accept or return any hard copies, so we highly recommended sending all the screening materials online.

Schedule and screening venues are decided solely at the discretion of the programming staff. Please prepare a digital file for the screening purpose.

SUBMISSION CATEGORIES
Please review all submission categories carefully before submitting your project. All entrants are required to pay the submission fee of their film’s appropriate category. If you believe you have submitted your film to the wrong category, contact us immediately. While we can typically facilitate a change in category, the entrant will be responsible for any changes in submission fees. We cannot offer partial refunds for categories with a smaller fee. If the new category has a higher fee, the entrant is responsible for paying the difference.

Please read category descriptions carefully to determine where your submission belongs. If the entrant wishes to submit to multiple categories, a separate submission fee must be paid for each category. The festival reserves the right to determine eligibility of a submission in each respective category. Refunds will not be offered for submission to an inappropriate category. Categories are defined by film format rather than genre. We accept a variety of genres and film themes in every category, including but not limited to comedy, drama, horror, sci-fi, kid friendly films, and more. If you have questions about any of our submission categories, please email admin@pacificfilmfest.com. Festival will not pre-screen or evaluate films prior to submission for the purpose of recommending a category for submission.

THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE
Festival regularly uses private, secure third-party software to organize, track, and review submissions. By submitting to our festival, you are authorizing us to include your film in that third-party software.

CODE OF CONDUCT
Please be advised that the Pacific International Film Festival has instituted a code of conduct by which all attendees of the festival are expected to follow. Those who fail to follow the terms of this code of conduct will face possible dismissal from the festival. Possible grounds for dismissal may include, but are not limited to, the following: gross misconduct or insubordination, theft of property or misuse of agency materials, abuse or mistreatment of clients, guests, staff or other volunteers, failure to abide by agency policies and procedures, any form of harassment or assault.

COPYRIGHT & LEGAL TERMS
By entering your film for consideration to the 2023 Pacific International Film Festival, you authorize that your work is cleared for festival exhibition and accept full legal responsibility for the intellectual property therein. The submitter and all filmmakers associated with the project shall indemnify and hold harmless the Pacific International Film Festival, Canadian Film Society, and any representative or affiliates from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney’s fees and costs of the court) which may be incurred by reason of any claim involving copyright, trademark, credits, publicity, screening, and loss of or damage to the screening videos entered.

REFUNDS & DISQUALIFICATION
Once a project is listed “In Consideration” on Festhome, we are unable to offer refunds for any reason, including (but not limited to):

* Submission to the wrong category
* Change in premiere status or distribution
* Duplicate submissions
* Failure to pay the full submission fee by the final deadline
* Failure to provide a working screener by the final deadline
* Project’s failure to comply with submission Rules & Terms
* Improper use of a discount code or waiver
* Rejection from the festival
* Withdrawing your submission for any reason (including changes of heart)

Pacific International Film Festival reserves the right to disqualify any submission without refund, even after a film has been invited or final programming has been announced, at the sole discretion of Festival staff. Festival also reserves the right to decline any submission for consideration for any reason.