Films submitted will be nominated for inclusion in the seventh annual PBS Online Film Festival, a showcase for powerful and engaging stories from filmmakers across the country. The festival has become a popular annual online event, attracting more than 8 million video views over the past six years, as well as nominations in the Webby Awards.
Since its launch in 2012, the PBS Online Film Festival has featured diverse films from PBS member stations, Independent Lens and POV. Collaborations with public television producers, including the Center for Asian American Media, Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB), National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC), Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC), Wisconsin Media Lab and Vision Maker Media have also been included.
Submissions should be 3-15 minutes in length and can be documentary or narrative. There are no requirements about the short films having premiered elsewhere, though they should be no older than 3 years old. PBS also needs to have non-exclusive rights to stream the films on all PBS platforms, including social platform.
Austin-area filmmakers, to have your short films considered, submit the following via email to JJ Weber jweber@klru.org with the subject line “2018 PBS Online Film Festival submissions” by February 14th:
- Title
- Brief description
- Online screener link
- Information about the filmmaker
Filmmakers from other areas should contact their local PBS affiliate.
Dates for the 2018 PBS Online Film Festival and the featured films will be announced at a later time. The festival will be available for streaming via PBS and KLRU, Austin PBS digital platforms, including PBS.org, YouTube and PBS social media channels. The films will also be available via the PBS app on iOS, Android and a wide range of OTT devices.
