CineFestival San Antonio Early Bird Submission Deadline Approaches

by Jessica Fuentes January 10, 2022
A photograph of the Guadalupe Theater marque with the text, "43 CineFestival San Antonio July 6-10" superimposed.

43rd Annual CineFestival San Antonio, Image: Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center

Submissions are currently being accepted for the 43rd annual CineFestival San Antonio, which will be held at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (GCAC) from July 6-10, 2022. A celebration of independent Latino cinema, this is the nation’s first and longest-running Laltino film festival. While it does include works from Latinx and Indigenous filmmakers working in the United States (including Puerto Rico), the festival centers on local and regional filmmakers. The festival also includes a limited number of international works by Latin American and Spanish filmmakers, with an emphasis on Mexican films.

According to the event’s website: “For over four decades, CineFestival San Antonio has hosted many of the industry’s pioneering U.S. Latino and Mexican films, actors, and directors. Highlights from past editions include appearances by Marcela Arteaga, Gina Rodriguez, Guillermo del Toro, Edward James Olmos, Benjamin Bratt, Jesse Borrego, Esai Morales, Aurora Guerrero, Raúl Castillo, Luis Valdez, Lalo Alcaraz, Cruz Angeles, Hector Galan, Adán Medrano, and some of the fresh voices in Latino film including Fernando Frias de la Parra, Cristina Ibarra, Alex Rivera, Chelsea Rendon, and Steve Acevedo.” See the 2021 CineFestival film guide here

The call for entries opened December 6 with rolling deadlines and tiered fees:

  • Early Bird deadline: January 15, 2022 – $10
  • Regular deadline: April 1, 2022 – $15
  • Late deadline: April 22, 2022 – $20

Please note all submitted films must have been completed after January 2020 to be eligible for the festival. Works in progress will be accepted with the caveat that filmmakers guarantee that the film is complete by June 2022. Films submitted in languages other than English are welcome, but must include English subtitles. 

CineFestival San Antonio hosts a wealth of programming around the weekend, including film screenings, Q&A sessions, and panel discussions at the Guadalupe Theater, as well as workshops, receptions, and after-parties at the GCAC and the festival’s other partner venues. In addition, the festival includes an annual Family Day featuring family-friendly film screenings, a showcase of work by San Antonio student filmmakers, and Senior Cinema — matinee screenings for elderly patrons. 

Eugenio del Bosque, the CineFestival Film Programmer, shared in a press release, “We are looking forward to serving a growing festival audience and to continue supporting the work of local and regional filmmakers, learning from their artistic process and production needs, and programming their work in context with national and international films.”

As the date of the festival approaches, CineFestival will rely on public health guidelines to determine if the event will be held in-person, as a hybrid of in-person and virtual events, or exclusively in a virtual format. 

To learn more about and apply to the festival, click here.

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