Film Submissions for CEFF 2023 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 2 minutes 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:  $30
• Regular deadline: $40
• Late deadline: $50
• Extended deadline: $60

*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 rely on our submission fees to keep our event successful and ensure we can continue to offer a platform to screen films. We do understand that some filmmakers are unable to make the financial commitment to pay the full submission fee, so we do have a waiver request process. To request a waiver consideration, please contact us and provide:

1. A detailed explanation as to why you are requesting a fee waiver
2. Explain why you feel your film is a good fit for our festival – please specifically address how your film is an environmental film. Please note – CEFF is an environmental film festival and we select films that closely match our mission.

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

While a difficult decision, the CEFF team is excited to announce that we will be hosting the 2021 version of CEFF primarily online. Until it is safe again to gather in theaters and experience films on the big screen as intended, we are looking forward to the opportunity to expand our filmmaker benefits and reach new audiences! Here are a few of the opportunities we are planning for CEFF 2021 for filmmakers:

• Live and recorded Q&A sessions – A fan favorite! We anticipate being able to provide all accepted films the chance to conduct a more extensive Q&A session with audiences – something our physical festival has to usually limit due to time restraints!
• Interactive filmmaker virtual lounge 
• Check back for more details we unveil them closer to the festival!

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, and the Spirit of Activism/Local Colorado 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.