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2020 Sundance Film Festival

Park City, United States of America, January 23 to February 2, 2020

CALL FOR ENTRIES

(Feature-length, all genres)

 

Telefilm Canada is currently accepting Canadian entries on behalf of the Sundance Film Festival for the selection screenings of feature films to be held in Montréal from September 1st to 5th, 2019. Telefilm Canada invites the senior programmers of the selection committee of the Sundance Film Festival to screen Canadian features in a theater in Montreal.

Open to narrative and documentary feature-length films (50+ minutes), world and international premieres only.

Entry fees are waived for Canadian feature-length films submitted to the selection screenings held in Montréal.

 

The Festival

 

Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, the Sundance Film Festival is organized by the Sundance Institute, a non-profit organization that actively advances the work of independent storytellers in film. Each year, the Sundance Festival highlights new trends in independent filmmaking and introduces emerging filmmakers and artists.

The Sundance Festival selects around 120 feature films, 70 short films, 12 episodic projects, and 25 New Frontier performance and exhibition projects to play within its Festival programs.

 

INTERNATIONAL SECTIONS

 

  • World Cinema Dramatic Competition: a selection of 12 world premieres.
  • World Cinema Documentary Competition: a selection of 12 world premieres.
  • Premieres (fiction/documentaries): a selection of world premieres from established American and international directors.
  • Spotlight (narratives): a tribute to impressive films that have screened on the festival circuit in 2019.
  • Park City at Midnight: an eclectic mix of horror, sci-fi, over-the-top-comedies, surreal tales, and bizarre stories that defy categorization.
  • New Frontier: celebrates experimentation and the convergence of film, art, and new media technology as an emerging hotbed for cinematic innovation.
  • Kids: dedicated to a family audience.

 

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA for the feature films

 

  • Have a world or international premiere status.
  • Be completed after January 1st, 2019.
  • Have a running time of 50 + minutes.
  • Not have been exhibited publicly at one or more non-festival screenings (ticketed public theatrical exhibitions), broadcast or streamed on television or the Internet, or released via any home video or other public distribution platform (VOD, etc.) before February 3, 2020.

 

SHORT FILMS need to be submitted directly to the festival. They must be under 50 minutes and do not need any premiere requirements. They may have screened at festivals or public theatrical exhibitions anywhere in the world, be broadcast or streamed on television or the Internet, and still remain eligible for Festival consideration.

 

NEW MEDIA: If your project is not an experimental film that could play in a traditional theater, but a VR/AR/MR/XR project or a proposal for a media installation or a cinematic piece that incorporates a live performance or other interactive elements beyond traditional filmed media, it needs to be submitted online to the Festival’s New Frontier section.

 

Registering your film with Telefilm Canada

 

  • Fill out the simplified form (use Chrome instead of Explorer) on our platform.
  • Accepted formats for the screenings in Montréal: DCP, Blu-ray or a screening link.

 

Shipping address

TELEFILM CANADA
International Promotion – Sundance 2020 – A/S Myriam Blais
360 St. Jacques Street
Suite 600
Montréal, Québec
H2Y 1P5

 

*For messengers deliveries, please note that our office is closed between noon and 1 p.m.

 

Selection process

 

  • During their stay, the programmers will screen eligible narrative features, and if times allows, documentaries as well. If the schedule does not allow us to screen all the films, they will be screened in L.A. by the programmers between September and October.
  • By end of September, the programmers will let us know the films that are on their “shortlist” and that will be considered further by the rest of the committee. Telefilm will then email you a notification to inform you if  you film is on the shortlist or not.
  • If your film is selected and invited by the Festival, you will be notified directly by the festival between mid-October and end of November.

 

Your contacts at Telefilm Canada

 

 If you have any questions regarding the festival or the screenings, please contact Danielle Bélanger (danielle.belanger@telefilm.ca) at  438-469-1129  or 1-800 567-0890.

If you have any questions about the application process, please contact Myriam Blais at  438-469-1133 (myriam.blais @telefilm.ca) or 1-800 567-0890.