Film Submissions for CEFF 2025 Now Closed

Our mission, to celebrate the power of film to inspire, educate, and motivate audiences on environmental topics, is an excellent starting point in considering if your film is relevant for CEFF. We watch hundreds of films each year to find the best and most inspiring environmental films.  Films should cover environmental topics, but can certainly overlap with social, economic, spiritual, or other themes. We welcome shorts and features related to the environment including those about nature, activism, conservation, health, water, energy, climate change, wildlife, environmental justice, food and farming. This is an open forum designed to inspire awareness and action on a myriad of worldwide environmental topics. The quality of the film production will also be considered and weighed. All genres, including documentaries, narratives, shorts, children’s films, and experimental films are all welcome and will be given equal consideration.

We screen all lengths, from 30 seconds to 100+ minutes. Please let us know if shorter versions of your film are available – our audiences appreciate films that convey their storyline in an engaging and concise way. We typically accept fewer longer films overall. We are mostly concerned with the content and quality of the film. We will adjust our viewing schedule to accommodate different lengths of films, though some films may be “blocked” together for viewing.

Colorado Environmental Film Festival proudly accepts entries on FilmFreeway, the world’s #1 way to enter film festivals and creative contests.  FilmFreeway is very user-friendly, but we’re happy to offer pointers to get you set up. Submit now.

1. First, you need to create a FilmFreeway account.
2. Next, create a “project” within the site. Generally, a project will be a film.
3. Once you have created your film project, add a digital version of your project (like a Vimeo link or direct upload to FilmFreeway).
4. Once your film project is complete, you can submit your film to any festival.
5. To submit to CEFF, search for “Submit now.” in the search bar.
6. Click the green button that says “submit now.”
7. Just pay the submission fee and you’re done!

If you have questions along the way, Contact Us!

We encourage you to submit your work early. We offer discounted entry fees the earlier you submit.

• Early Bird deadline:  $35
• Regular deadline: $45
• Late deadline: $55
• Extended deadline: $65

*Student fee applies to anyone submitting as a student of an accredited school.

*Students under the age of 19 are eligible to submit in the Youth Category for $10 anytime before the Late Deadline in September. Fees go up if submitting after the Late Deadline.

As CEFF is an environmental and educational non-profit, we are only able to offer a limited number of fee waivers, and we cannot guarantee them from year to year. We do offer a limited number of submission fee waivers to filmmakers for whom the entry fee presents a barrier to submission. Complete the waiver form here. Please note that Colorado Environmental Film Festival is a non-profit environmental film festival, and we select films that closely match our mission. The availability or number of fee waivers is not guaranteed.

Youth and Student: CEFF also offers a student discounted fee for students age 19 and older who are enrolled in an accredited school and a Youth rate for filmmakers under the age of 19.

Alumni and CO Filmmakers: We love to work with our local Colorado filmmakers and CEFF alumni – please contact us if you have a new project!

Our Notification Date is November 15th. You will receive an email with information regarding your submission status on that day. If we need to move the Notification Date for any reason, we will notify you in advance.

If requested, yes. However, we cannot guarantee a timeframe as we receive many requests for feedback and are not always able to respond in a timely manner. We’re grateful for your patience.

We present five unique awards each year created by local artist Rik Sargent of Sargent Studios. Awards presented annually include:

• Best Short Film
• Best Feature Film
• Best Youth Film
• Spirit of Activism
• Best of the Festival

Check out our Past Festival Award Winners

If selected for the festival, your film will be screened by a diverse group of people who understand the importance and value of environmental film making. Additional benefits include:
*Your film will be considered for a festival award, including the Best of Festival award, the Best Short award, the Best Feature award, Best Youth film and the Spirit of Activism award.

*You will be able to market your film with the Colorado Environmental Film Festival official selection and, if selected for an award, an award logo (which will be made available at a later date).

*You will receive (2) Free Festival Passes to the festival

*VIP treatment: You will be invited to record and/or participate in a Q&A session following the screening

*You may sell copies of your film through the festival platforms

*Your film will be considered for the CO Environmental Film Fest touring package (CEFF Caravan) offered to local Colorado communities each year.

*Some forums and parallel discussion-related programs are in development in which you may be invited to participate.

If you have a film to suggest for our consideration, please contact us or suggest the filmmaker apply here before the final October deadline!