RULES AND TERMS
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The Ann Arbor Film Festival is open to experimental films as well as films that demonstrate a high regard for the moving image as an experimental art form, no matter the genre. Each year the AAFF selects 100-145 shorts and features for exhibition in the awards competition portion of the festival.
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Films previously submitted may not be re-entered unless there has been a significant change to the edit. Later versions of a film may be reviewed and/or selected at the programmer's discretion.
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Short and feature-length entries are accepted.
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Short films run no longer than 60 minutes. Feature films run 60 minutes or more.
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Entries not in English should have English subtitles.
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Works in progress may be submitted, but are juried in the same pool as all other submissions.
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Work must be contemporary - completed within the last three years.
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Entry fees are per film entered, and must accompany the entry form for confirmation. Entry fees are non-refundable.
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Make checks and money orders payable to the Ann Arbor Film Festival.
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The Ann Arbor Film Festival does not give waivers or discounts.
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Entries are accepted via secure online screening and 16mm only. We do not accept DVD, VHS or video data files for screening purposes.
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16MM
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If you would like the festival to preview a 16mm print of your film, please contact the festival directly at submissions@aafilmfest.org to make arrangements.
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FREE EVENTS
With numerous opportunities to attend AAFF events over the six-day festival, juror programs and Off The Screen programming are free and open to the public, ensuring there is something for everyone to experience and enjoy.
Juror Programs
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Every year the AAFF invites three distinguished artists to jury and confer awards to deserving films and filmmakers. This year, the jury consists of accomplished filmmakers, educators, and arts leaders Kristin Reeves, Christopher Harris, and David Lebrun. Each of the three jurors will also present a specially curated program of their own work during the festival.
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Wednesday 3/27 | 1pm | Michigan Theatre Screening Room
David Lebrun: Ritual and Symbol
David Lebrun’s films blend anthropology, historical documentary, animation, and experimental techniques. With over 50 years of filmmaking, he has a long history with the Ann Arbor Film Festival. This program features Sanctus (1968), an experimental ethnographic film; Tanka (1977), a psychedelic animation; and four shorts from Transfigurations: Reanimating the Past, his ongoing cycle of animations exploring artistic forms and symbols from the Paleolithic era to the Middle Ages and beyond.
Thursday 3/28 | 1pm | Michigan Theatre Screening Room
Christopher Harris: Inventory of Black Roses
Each of Christopher Harris’s projects rethinks cinematic aesthetics and explores new techniques to examine complex social and political issues. Working primarily in 16mm, his films manipulate celluloid, employ optical printing, and alter film stock to disrupt representations of Black people. Whether revisiting found footage or challenging the racial narratives of films like Birth of a Nation, Harris’s work critiques anti-Blackness, neglected histories, and misrepresented landscapes. Through radical visual forms, his films forge a space for an alternate vision of the past, present, and future.
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Friday 3/29 | 1pm | Michigan Theatre Screening Room
Kristin Reeves: Bodies for Strength and Power: 9X16mm grid-films and experimental shorts
This program is a single-channel theatrical adaptation of a feature-length event, featuring two nine-projector 16mm grid-films alongside experimental short films, video, and interstitial loops, with live narration. Exploring media as body/material, this work, developed over twelve years, exhumes found footage and reanimates it through lasers and bleach to emphasize loss. Film processed via video synthesizers mimics brain signal overload. This project seeks material processes to reflect contemporary trauma, blending medical and artistic uses of media across history.
Off The Screen
New media, video, live performance, and art installations that are either ongoing during festival week or happen at a specific time. Off The Screen also includes panel discussions, workshops, and presentations by friends and artists of the Ann Arbor Film Festival.
TUESDAY 3/25
Reception
4–6pm | North Quad Space 2435
Attack from Space! with Live Score
4:30pm | North Quad Space 2435
Performance by Joo Won Park
WEDNESDAY 3/26
Programmers Roundtable
11am–12pm | North Quad Space 2435
Roundtable moderated by Bree Andruzzi
Film Art Forum
3–5pm | North Quad Space 2435
Lightning rounds, moderator TBA
THURSDAY 3/27
Exhibition Viewing
3–5pm | Ann Arbor Art Center
Off the Screen Artist Panel
3:00-4:30pm | Ann Arbor Art Center
Panel discussion moderated by Scott Northrup
FRIDAY 3/28
New Voices Film Jam
10:30am | North Quad Space 2435
Salon moderated by Chris McNamara
Student Lunch Mixer
12pm | North Quad Space 2435
Students only, RSVP in advance at aafilmfest.org/students
Reanimating the Past: From Analog to Digital
3pm | North Quad Space 2435
Presentation by David Lebrun
Neurogenesis
7:30pm | Michigan Theater Main Auditorium | ticket required
Live cinema performance by Allison Leigh Holt & Kit Young
SATURDAY 3/29
The Joy of LOOPing
9am–12pm | North Quad Space 2435
All ages workshop by Pickle Fort Film Collective
Scattered Light
3pm | Michigan Theater Screening Room | ticket required
Live cinema performance by Joshua Mastel & Nicolas Cadena
To the Stars (Parable of the Now)
7:30pm | Michigan Theater Main Auditorium | ticket required
Performance by Quinn Hunter
SUNDAY 3/30
AAFF Screener Social
10am | North Quad Space 2435
Salon hosted by Angela Lenhardt
What the Hell Was That?
10:30–11:30am | North Quad Space 2435
Panel moderated by Daniel Herbert
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Off The Screen Installations
Free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.
OFF THE SCREEN INSTALLATIONS (ONGOING)
Ann Arbor Art Center | Yazmin Dababneh, Paul Echeverria, Maddie Shubeck
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Escape and Puddle Portal I by Yazmin Dababneh – Mixed-media sculptures challenge perceptions of reality and create hypnotic experiences.
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HOW’S IT HANGING: 100 Hours with LP by Paul Echeverria – A poignant recounting of intimate moments shared with experimental filmmaker Luther Price.
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Holding and I’m Hungry by Maddie Shubeck – Video installations that comment on analog sentiment and media consumption.
North Quad 2435 | JB Ghuman, Jr.; Kym McDaniel; Rory Scott; plus New Voices
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paSSive poWer 4D 360 VR by JB Ghuman, Jr. – A sonic visual VR experience exploring human existence.
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If I Could Take Me from That Room, I Would Never Give Me Back by Kym McDaniel – Mixed media installation with 3-channel video and salvaged extension cords symbolizing a body in constant transformation.
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Impermanence | 13 by Rory Scott – Augmented reality compilation of works from 2010-2023, reflecting both personal and technological growth.
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New Voices screening room with student work from AAFF partnering colleges and universities
Michigan Theater Lobby | What We Saw
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Blank cards are provided for you—the audience—to write down what you observe at the festival, onscreen and off. Leave your card in the box provided at the What We Saw station to be photographed and added to the ongoing slideshow. This presentation is an experimental remix documentary made possible by you: the savvy, diverse, and experimental-film-loving AAFF audience. All are invited.