The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center has announced an open call for its 44th CineFestival, featuring films made by Latinx and Indigenous filmmakers.
Touted as the nation’s first and longest-running Latino film festival, for over forty years CineFestival has hosted groundbreaking U.S. Latino and Mexican films, actors, and directors. Since 2017, the festival has made concerted efforts to prioritize local and regional filmmakers, while retaining space for international works made by filmmakers from Latin America, Spain, and Mexico.
The festival will take place July 12 through 16, 2023. While the deadline for submissions is April 15, 2023, an early bird entry deadline of January 15 reduces the application fee from $15 to $10. The late entry deadline is May 15, 2023 with a fee of $20. Youth filmmakers can submit their entries at no cost. Filmmakers will be notified if their film has been selected by June 5.
Filmmakers can submit their work in a variety of categories, including feature films made in San Antonio, feature films made in Texas, feature films made in the U.S., short films made in San Antonio, short films made in Texas, short films made in the U.S., short films – international, and youth films (where the director is 18 years old or younger). A panel of industry professionals and scholars will choose winners for the Best Texas Short Film, Best Feature Film, and Special Jury Awards.
In a press release announcing the open call, CineFestival Programmer Eugenio del Bosque said, “CineFestival is honored to be able to continue serving a growing community of local, regional, and national film and media artists of all levels of experience. The spirit of the festival is to foster the work of San Antonio and Texas based filmmakers as their voices mature, while keeping our finger in the pulse of what nationwide filmmakers are producing and offering international context.”
Mr. del Bosque added that beyond providing opportunities for CineFestival’s local audience to watch culturally relevant films they might not otherwise see on the big screen, the organization will also host professional development opportunities like workshops and master classes.
Learn more and submit your film for consideration via the CineFestival Film Freeway page.