Call For Entries: 2021 PBS Online Film Festival

Howdy Texas independent filmmakers! Send us your short films!

Films submitted may be nominated for inclusion in the tenth annual PBS Online Film Festival, a showcase for powerful and engaging stories from filmmakers across the country. The festival is a popular annual online event, attracting millions of video views over the past ten years, as well as nominations in the Webby Awards.

Since its launch in 2012, the PBS Online Film Festival has featured diverse movies from PBS member stations, Independent Lens and POV. Collaborations with public television producers, including the Center for Asian American Media, Latino Public Broadcasting, Black Public Media, Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC), 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 three years old. PBS also needs to have non-exclusive rights to stream the films on all PBS platforms, including social platforms.

Texas filmmakers, to have your short films considered, submit the following via email to JJ Weber jweber@klru.org with the subject line 2021 PBS Online Film Festival submissions by February 23, 2021:
- Title
- Description (up to 90 characters including spaces)
- Long description (up to 400 characters including spaces)
- Online screener link
- Flags/Time-code for any suggestive language or scenes (we are PBS, remember!)
- Summarized information about the filmmaker(s)

If selected, you will need to provide info about funders to comply with PBS commercialism rules, and may be asked to re-edit credits or bleep offensive language.

Filmmakers in other states should contact their local PBS affiliate.

The 2021 PBS Online Film Festival will take place in mid-July (dates TBD). The festival will be available for streaming via PBS and Austin PBS, KLRU-TV 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.