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Here’s why you should submit to the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival

**The Melbourne Documentary Film Festival is amongst the world’s newest documentary film festivals and is one of the most fun and interesting stopovers on the international documentary film festival circuit.

Each year we curate world class feature and short documentaries direct from some of the hottest most prestigious documentary film festivals in the world, such as Sheffield Doc Fest, Traverse City Film Festival, Doc NYC, SXSW, Doc Edge, and IDFA.

But what matters to us most is documentaries that are well-made, compelling, thought provoking, passionate, and relevant to Australian audiences. We are currently recruiting for more than 90 films, fitting into the categories of Feature Documentary, Short Documentary, Micro Documentaries, Documentary Webseries, and Documentary Photography. Here’s some big reasons why you should submit…

 

We’ve got a strong track record for launching films to bigger success

In 2 years we’ve seen:

  • 6 x Feature Documentaries picked up by Netflix
  • 2 x Limited Theatrical Releases in Australia after their festival debut
  • 2 x Documentaries on the Oscar long list
  • 70% of our feature documentaries were offered distribution deals on VOD in Australia after their festival run

That’s not it. Winning and finalist short documentaries have been given fee waivers to other likeminded festivals and have been showcased at other festivals in both Italy and the UK.

We’re innovative:

Categories like Documentary Photography, Documentary Web Series and Micro Docs are brand new and innovative.

We are looking for:

  • Australian documentaries
  • Music documentaries
  • Environmental documentaries
  • Pop culture documentaries
  • International documentaries and compelling stories
  • Topical issues and cause based documentaries

Here’s five reasons to submit to our Melbourne Documentary Film Festival:

  • The Melbourne Documentary Film Festival represents a great opportunity to showcase your documentary with an audience, in a theatre, in one of the best postcodes on the planet.
  • We’re one of Australia’s largest showcases of local Australian documentaries, having showcased a massive 36 features and shorts in 2016.
  • The Melbourne Documentary Film Festival curators assess all documentaries and provide feedback on documentaries (upon request).
  • 70% of our feature documentaries were offered distribution deals on VOD in Australia after their festival run.
  • We have a wide array of prizes ranging from cash prizes and distribution deals, to DVDs, wine and industry passes and memberships.

It is competitive to get selected, but there are big rewards…

Successful entries:

  • 1 x Open Access Pass to all festival documentaries 
  • 10  x tickets to selected documentaries at the festival (not redeemable for cash) 
  • Feedback on your documentary (upon request)
  • The opportunity to win cash prizes, distribution deals, wine, and DVD’s

Unsuccessful entries:

  • Complimentary double pass to selected documentaries at the festival (not redeemable for cash).
  • Feedback on your documentary (upon request).

Become a part of Melbourne documentary film history and submit your Reel Stories’ today!

Lyndon Stone
Festival Director
Melbourne Documentary Film Festival
Jul 06 – Jul 15, 2018
Melbourne, Australia

Submit to Melbourne Documentary Film Festival on FilmFestivalLife:

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Early Bird Deadline: Dec 31, 2017

**Content provided by the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival


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Simona Patrizi

Simona Patrizi is project and communication manager at FFL. If you wanna join FFL as a contributor, share your expertise in festival submissions management and film festival career just reach her at simona@filmfestivallife.com

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