WorldFest - Houston International Film / Video Festival ()

Festival start: 27 April 2022      Festival end: 30 April 2022

WORLDFEST NOW ACCEPTS ONLINE FESTHOME SCREENERS! WE HAVE LG & SHARP 110" DIGITAL BIG SCREENS FOR JURIES! WE DO ALSO ACCEPT DVD, BLURAY OR USB FLASH/PEN/JUMP DRIVE FOR JUDGING AND FOR THEATER SCREENING! Region Zero! (If you win a Remi, you may be screened on big Cinemark Theatre screens to 600+ theater audience!! So we need a BluRay, DCP or Jump Drive for the DCP screening! Large juries view your entry on a big digital screen, not a little laptop! We will personally confirm your entry's arrival.

WorldFest is the only film festival in the world that gives your entry a grade, a score! Your score can earn you a Remi Award! We do not believe that there can just be three winners in a category, a Gold, Silver and Bronze - so we assign your entry a score from the jury! An A+ wins a Special Jury Award and is considered for the Grand Remi! An A score wins a Platinum Remi, an A- wins a Gold, a B+ wins a Silver and a B wins a Bronze Remi. No Awards are made below a B level score. With more than 4,750 category entries, only about 10-15% actually win a Remi Award, but we feel it is the best possible way to run a festival awards system!

55th WORLDFEST-HOUSTON SETS FEST DATES, CALLS FOR ENTRIES!

“FORGET SUNDANCE! …WorldFest is one of the best conceived festival productions on the planet!” ~ Craig Outhier, film critic, Phoenix press; Tempe Times.

The 55th Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival continues its totally dedicated Independent Film screening format for the upcoming April 20-24, 2022 unspooling. WorldFest will screen just 60-80 feature film premieres and over 130 Shorts with a total and absolute emphasis on the American and International Independent feature film and a continuing annual spotlight on award-winning short films and documentary films. Entries Officially Open Aug. 15, 2021. The EarlyBird Entry Deadline is Nov. 15th 2021 – A Mail-By/Enter By/Ship-By Deadline! Entries do not have to arrive by this deadline. The Main Entry Deadline is December 15, 2021. The Late Entry Deadline is Jan 15th 2022!

WorldFest Artistic and Program Director, Kathleen Haney, stated, “We are fiercely dedicated to the Indie Feature and Short Film and look for a quality selection of individual films to maintain a smaller, yet effective program rather than an overly large and unwieldy slate of 150-300 films. Haney continued, “For the 2020 WorldFest we continue to use ‘A good story, well told’ as our time-tested approach to film selection”. WorldFest-Houston now accepts Online, Thumb-Drive & DVD/BR format entries.

This year WorldFest presents its 8th Annual Panorama Asia, the largest survey of new films from all of Asia & China in the whole, wide world! More than 200 directors and filmmakers will attend from Beijing, Shanghai, Korea, Taiwan, Mongolia, VietNam, Cambodia, the Philippines & Japan. China is now the largest box-office and production revenue country in the world, surpassing the USA. There is a special Panorama Asia theater and a dedicated section of the program book.
WorldFest Grand Remi Award Winner, Ridley Scott commented “WorldFest is in the business of validating excellence!” We are delighted to agree! The mission of WorldFest is to recognize and validate creative excellence in film & video production in every facet and category of filmmaking. Many filmmakers report that a Remi Award from WorldFest opens doors to advance their careers.

WorldFest will continue with its annual Short Film Showcase, a special review of 130+ new short and student films...from the festival that gave first top honors to Spielberg, Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Randal Kleiser, The Coen Brothers, Ridley Scott, Robert Rodriguez, Spike Lee, Gavin Hood, John Lee Hancock, John Frankenheimer, Michael Cimino, Leslie Linka Glatter, Oliver Stone, Ang Lee, Atom Egoyan and David Lynch, among many others! Few other festivals have such a “Discovery” track record. WorldFest has emerged as the oldest continuous film festival management in the world with the same executive director, serving with a special vision for 53 consecutive years. A few other festivals are older, but they have had as many as ten different directors. It is the oldest film festival in The South, and the 3rd oldest International Film/Video Festival in North America, after San Francisco & NYC.

The 55th Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival highlights include a Red Carpet Opening Night Gala, the Remi Awards Banquet with top honors presented to more than 1,000 up-and-coming attending filmmakers from over 75 countries from round the globe, there are 9 Master Classes in Film & Video Production, a nightly Festival Club at the HQ Westin-Memorial City Hotel, Indie Panels, a VIP tour of NASA with a special police escort and an exciting Houston Yacht Club Sailing Regatta & Texas BBQ. All offer superb networking opportunities!

WorldFest began in August 1961, as Cinema Arts, an International Film Society. It began screening Independent, foreign & art films. It became an officially competitive International Film Festival seven years later, in April 1968, and has been in continuous operation since. It is one of the original three film festivals in North America, with San Francisco and New York as the first two events. Following WorldFest was Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, and Seattle. Then Sundance and SXSW, Toronto and Tribeca. Now there are more than 3,500 USA film festivals of various types, levels and quality, most being simply non-competitive screening events! WorldFest is international, competitive and invites filmmakers worldwide.

The 55th Annual WorldFest offers International Competition in; Features, Shorts, TV production, TV commercials, unproduced Screenplays & Teleplays, Experimental, Student, Documentary, Business & Industry, New Media, and Music Videos. You may enter the Feature, Short, Student, Experimental, Student, Music Video, and New Media-Websites via FestHome. You must go to our main website (worldfest.org) to enter the TV Production (100 series), TV Commercials (400 series), Film & Video Production (200 Series) and the Screenplay Competition (700 Series). WorldFest is the largest film & video competition in the world, in sheer number of actual category entries, with more than 4,750 category entries received in 2020. There are almost 200 sub-categories for competition, allowing each film to compete in its own individual genre.

WorldFest-Houston is sponsored by Memorial City Mall, Cinemark Theatres, Boxer Properties, the State of Texas, the City of Houston, HBU Fitness Center, Kodak, NASA, Lopez Negrete Communications, the Houston Yacht Club, Maggiano's Ristorante, Avis/Budget, The HQ Hotels Westin & Zaza, The Houston Chronicle, Regent University Film School, the Houston Yacht Club, and the Houston Film Society

The 55th WorldFest-Houston – 9898 Bissonnet, Suite 650, Houston, Texas 77036, 713-965-9955, Fax is 713-965-9960 – Email is – info@worldfest.org – The website is https://worldfest.org

Cash Prizes: 3,000$

The Grand Remi Statuette, Best of of Show.
The Remi Special Jury Award
The Remi Platinum Award
The Remi Gold Award
The Remi Silver Award
The Remi Bronze Award
The WorldFest Liftoff Prize for use of NASA footage

WE NOW ACCEPT FESTHOME ONLINE STREAMING ENTRIES! BUT IF YOU WIN REMI AWARD, WE DO REQUIRE A BLURAY, USB FLASH DRIVE OR DCP FOR THEATER SCREENING OF YOUR ENTRY! WE JUDGE ON 110" SHARP DIGITAL FLAT SCREENS AND WE SCREEN WINNERS ON BIG AMC THEATER SCREENS, WITH BIG JURIES - NOT ON LITTLE LAPTOPS BY INTERNS!

All filmmakers understand and accept that if their film is accepted for presentation and screening at the film/video festival, they grant full and unrestricted permission for HIFF, Inc. to screen the film/video at times of the festivals choice and to charge an admission fee for the presentation of the digital video program. All the presented film/videos do win a Remi Award from the festival (HIFF). WorldFest only screens Remi winners.

The Filmmaker understands and accepts that they do not participate in receiving any funds from the Box-office proceeds which are fully retained by the festival to help cover the cost of the festival presentation. It should be noted for the record, that box-office proceeds never cover the cost of presentation of the Features and Short Film Programs. The Festival (HIFF) is a non-profit, 501-c-3 Educational/Cultural Organization with Federal, State, County & City Tax-Exemptions.

Required Legal Stuff: The filmmaker releases the festival (HIFF) from any and all liability for damages or destruction of the entered DCP/DVD/BluRay/USB. The Filmmaker understands that the entered DCP/DVD/USB or BluRay will be retained in a secure facility by the festival, and every effort will be taken to protect and control the viewing of this production. The festival assumes no liability whatsoever for theft, copyright violations or piracy of the entry.

The Filmmaker accepts and understands that the festival, in conjunction with Cinemark Theatres will do everything possible to present the video in the best possible manner but the festival (HIFF) is not responsible for any and all malfunctions during the presentation of the production at its festival screening. We use Professional Sony & Pioneer BluRay/DVD International playback systems, all formats, all regions, including Region 0. All entries are carefully pre-screened prior to the public showing to assure that the BluRay/DVD, Jump Drive or DCP does perform to industry Standards. The Festival (HIFF) assumes no responsibility for any technical difficulties in the presentation of this video at the actual event.

The Film Festival (HIFF) reserves the complete right to make changes in the program dates and times and to possibly not screen the video, despite it’s being selected for screening.

The filmmaker will endeavor to present to The Festival (HIFF) a new and pre-checked BluRay/ or DCP/DVD/USB-Thumb Drive for the actual presentation of the video at the festival.

You may send just one DVD/BluRay for multiple category entries. You may combine multiple TV commercial entries on a DVD, with no color bars, no automatic looping feature to begin again and a 5 second break between spots. Make sure their titles and order/sequence are correct on the DVD.

Screenplays must be properly bound in some way, and can be optioned but not currently produced, and there is no limit to the number of screenplays that can be entered. DVD Entries can be NTSC, PAL, or SECAM, – any and all regions. There is no extra charge for PAL or other formats. We accept all regions and all formats. We also accept Thumb Drive and Blu-Ray discs, any region.

A short paragraph, 50-100 word synopsis, is required for all scripts and all entries (except TV commercials, music videos), which is for the jury and if selected, for the program book. Shorts and features are to provide (when selected into program) a color or B/W production digital still photo (resolution of 300 Dots per square inch DPI or higher, higher is much better) for the program book jpeg photo files are OK. (Photos not required for video, cable, TV commercials, website entries, or screenplay entries). If accepted, feature entries should also send several production still photos of a high resolution (300 DPI or better), a press kit, and short CV (resume) with photo of the director(s).