Above:  Tessa Papas (producer) and Heather Harlow (writer/director) of Nous Deux Encore, which won the Best Foreign Language Documentary and Saturday Afternoon Audience Favorite Awards

Festival Information

Congratulations to all official selections!  The complete list of movies and screenplays is available HERE .

The screening schedule and award-winners will be posted the week of September 6.

All screenings will take place in the Maya Deren Theater at Anthology Film Archives, Second Avenue and 2nd St. in Manhattan; you can read more about Anthology at www.anthologyfilmarchives.org 

There will be 4 screening blocks:  Friday at 7 PM, Saturday at 2 and 7 PM, and Sunday at 2 PM.

Each official selection will receive one ticket to the complete block in which their movie is screening.  Additional tickets are $10 per block of movies; they will be available via PayPal in mid-September, and remaining tickets will be available at the door (cash only).

Each block of movies will run approximately 2 1/2 hours, including a brief intermission.  There will be a brief q&a with attending filmmakers at the end of the block, and audience members will vote for the Audience Favorite Award (one is given out for each screening session).  Awards will be presented at the conclusion of the q&a for the movies in that block.

Awards for full-length screenplays will be presented at the conclusion of the Saturday afternoon block, and short screenplay awards will be presented at the conclusion of the Sunday afternoon block.  All official selection screenwriters will receive one ticket to a complete block of screenings as well. 

Prizes and Awards:

We are very pleased to announce that this year, for the first time, we will be presenting a $100 cash award to the best movie and also to the best screenplay (either short or full-length).

Medals will be presented for the best movie in each category (see below); and the Audience Favorite Award will also be presented at each screening session.  We’re delighted to have   Delicious Italian Gifts back as a sponsor of the Audience Favorite Award; they will again provide baskets of Italian goodies to the winner of the Audience Favorite Award at each screening session. 

We will once again present the Italian-American Heritage Award to the movie or screenplay that best exemplifies the Italian immigrant experience.

We’re very pleased to have Final Draft as a sponsor of the Screenplay Competition.  The winner of the Best Short Screenplay Award and the Best Full-length Screenplay Award will each receive a certificate for a download of Final Draft 8 (value $289).

We are also delighted to welcome Ink Tip as a sponsor of the Full-length Screenplay Award, as follows:

Grand Prize and Best in Genre Winners can place their winning script on InkTip’s password-protected website marketplace for 6 months free (a $60 value).  To redeem this prize, winners must at least place their winning title, logline and synopsis, and can opt to place their script and/or treatment.

All winning titles and loglines that are listed with InkTip will also be featured in one of InkTip’s weekly newsletters emailed to entertainment professionals (a service not available to the public).

The Grand Prize winner will also receive a free title and logline listing in the InkTip Magazine mailed to nearly 4500 entertainment professionals and e-mailed to thousands more (a $40 value).
*The winning title, logline and synopsis (at least) must be listed with InkTip.

General Information:

Movies can be submitted in the following categories:

Very short fiction (15 minutes or less)

Short fiction (16-30 minutes)

Very short documentary (15 minutes or less)

Short documentary (16-30 minutes)

Very short animation (15 minutes or less)

Short animation (16-30 minutes)

Music video (15 minutes or less)

Screenplays may be submitted in in the following categories:

Short (60 pages or less)

Full-length (more than 60 pages)

They must be submitted in proper screenplay format.  All screenplays must be unproduced, unsold, and unoptioned.

Important note:  if you pay the student fee, you MUST provide a copy of your current student ID

Early bird Deadline:  March 5, 2010

Very short movies:  $20 (student:  $10)

Short movies:  $30 (student:  $20)

Music videos:  $20 (student:  $10)

Short screenplays:  $25 (student:  $15)

Full-length screenplays:  $35 (student:  $25)

Regular Deadline:  June 15, 2010

Very short movies:  $30 (student:  $20)

Short movies:  $40 (student:  $30)

Music videos:  $30 (student:  $20)

Short screenplays:  $30 (student:  $20)

Full-length screenplays:  $45 (student:  $35)

Late Deadline:  July 15, 2010

Very short movies:  $40 (student:  $30)

Short movies:  $50 (student:  $40)

Music videos:  $40 (student:  $30)

Short screenplays:  $35 (student:  $25)

Full-length screenplays:  $55 (student:  $45)

Notification date:  September 1, 2010

Mail entry form (see page “Submission form”),  fee, and dvd or screenplay to:

GIAA Festival of Short Films and Videos

Mara Lesemann, Festival Director

277 Fourth Street

Jersey City, NJ  07302

IMPORTANT NOTE:  DO NOT SEND BY ANY DELIVERY METHOD THAT REQUIRES A SIGNATURE!

For more information, e-mail:    filmfest@giaa.us

Above: Letty Serra & Jon Freda,  co-writers of the screenplay Say Nothing, which won the Italian American Heritage Award as well as the Best Full-length Screenplay Award

Above:  Frank Monteleone (producer, left) and John Monteleone (writer/director, center) of Valley of the Moon, which won the Best Movie Award as well as the Sunday Audience Favorite Award.  At right is GIAA President Carlo Fiorletta