Projects of various running times and in all genres will be accepted and made eligible for awards consideration and will be posted in their entirety during the online film festival run, from December 1 thru 15, 2018. Both, short form and feature length project applicants will have the option to decline online posting of their complete works if they choose to participate for awards consideration but prefer to only showcase their trailers to retain "premiere status" on their complete works.

Thanks to our 18-year tradition of "promoting domestic filmmaking" as one of the country's more highly regarded film festivals for quality of programming and exhibition, we truly understand the value and significance of providing artists with an opportunity to have their work viewed, voted upon by a jury of industry professionals, and getting a solid shot at coming away with prestigious "awards laurels" and recognition for their work. For this reason, all submitted entries, regardless of running time and online showcasing eligibility, will be considered in all appropriate categories for a chance to win our classic IVA Statuettes and/or other cash and/or goods and services prizes.

This newly rebranded, competitive film and screenwriting forum, offers artists a specialized and exclusive online showcasing platform where subscribers sign up to view excerpts or full versions of projects in competition, the same way audiences would attend film screenings at a film festival... Except that now, the viewing and voting can be done from anywhere in the world, during the online event from December 1 thru December 15, 2018, at visionfest.com, which will also host a “live streamed” awards announcement on December 22, 2018. VISIONFEST is currently accepting short and feature length submissions for consideration in the following categories: Narrative, Documentary, Experimental, Animation, Web Series Pilot, Music Video, Proof of Concept Trailers, in the Motion Picture Section, and Feature and Short Subject Scripts for the Screenwriting Competition. Projects of any genre may be submitted, 1-45 minutes for shorts; 45 minutes and longer for feature length works in the film competition.

In the Screenwriting Competition: 3-30 pages for short scripts; 80-130 pages for feature scripts. “Official Selections” will be included in the VISIONFEST Online Film Festival Line-Up (for screenplay finalists, selected sample excerpts only will be posted) and will be made eligible for award consideration, with viewers voting for the “VISIONFEST You Really Really Like Me Audience Award” and a Festival Jury voting for all other prizes.

On November 30, VISIONFEST will publish an official nominations list on its website and social sites. Awards consist of ‘Outstanding Achievement’ cash and sponsored prizes in some categories (InkTip.com is a primary sponsor of the Screenwriting Competition) and Commemorative Statuettes and Certificates for all winning projects.

ON RE-BRANDING

Following the sudden closure of New York’s Tribeca Cinemas in 2015, the original film festival’s public venue, the Domani Vision Film Society decided to put its annual live event into a hiatus in an effort to prepare a new, globally accessible version of its flagship film festival. Over the next two years, Domani Vision Film Society would continue to hold its annual VF Screenwriting Competition, issuing cash prizes and sponsored awards, while preparing this new, online film and screenwriting competition. Partnered with howtube.com, the “official” site that will host the competition films and scripts, and powered by DigiBro, a new concept in web design and content delivery, VISIONFEST will also showcase a plethora of past film festival favorites, promo trailers, and other fun, “I.R.L.” media content to pave the way for what is certain to become the most entertaining and unique experience of its kind on the Web.

THE NEW VISIONFEST FORMAT

Our first 15 years gave our participating filmmakers and screenwriters the opportunity to showcase their work in a “live” New York City forum that provided a theater environment and a live audience. Our film festival held its screenings at the Tribeca Film Center, the Tribeca Grand Hotel, the NYU Cantor Film Center, Tribeca Cinemas, and in 2003, we were the first film festival ever to be held on the legendary U.S.S. Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum. These screenings were very successful and completely interactive, as each program would be followed by a Q&A with cast/crew in attendance, but they still had a limited maximum of viewers they could engage at one time, as our largest venue capped out at 330 seats. A large number of the selected films being showcased were made by artists residing outside the New York area and that, of course, meant that these films’ creators and collaborators often had to make very extensive travel and lodging arrangements just to attend the film festival and promote their screenings in person. And that’s a great thing, especially because it allows for filmmakers to get out and network and promote their work outside of and beyond their own city limits. But pair that with the expenses related to such travel and the marketing assets (posters, one sheets, press kits, promo postcards, etc.) needed to get the proper attention and focus to one’s work, and any budget dedicated to making a splash on the film festival circuit would begin to deplete quite rapidly.

Today, people are watching films on desktop computers, tablets, cell phones, and other streaming devices that are flooding the market in droves. Only big budget studio films have built in theatrical distribution campaigns and, occasionally, a handful of indie works that are ‘discovered’ at some of the higher profile film festivals (i.e. Sundance, Toronto, SXSW, etc.). But for those filmmakers whose works come to realization by way of crowdfunding, private fundraising, and in some cases, donating blood, the hope of getting a film noticed, let alone distributed, is an uphill battle. Many filmmakers are now focusing their efforts on making a strong enough impression with their work to be able to lure the attention of streaming services like Netflix and Amazon, whose “development and production” divisions are frequently on the hunt for new talent, and there are several others moving in that general direction. And with filmmaking technology becoming more accessible in the mainstream, artists are employing groundbreaking methods of acquiring content and setting new trends while maintaining a grip on the traditional rules of creating cinematic works. Enter VISIONFEST, the online, competitive exhibition forum designed to pave the way for these new artists and to be “the Ultimate Springboard to the Mainstream.”

VISIONFEST is for content creators and filmmakers making projects in all genre categories. Submitted works may not have a completion date that is earlier than January 2015 – coinciding with the last year that VISIONFEST accepted films for its original 15-year run. The VISIONFEST “Official Selections” will be chosen by a panel of industry professionals and a list of nominations of projects vying for awards in approximately 15 categories will be published on the VISIONFEST website on November 30, 2018. A Special Jury will then vote for the assignment of awards honoring Outstanding Achievement. For the “VISIONFEST You Really Really Like Me” Audience Award, the “subscribing” audience will have access to the film festival’s line-up, and will then determine, by watching and voting online, what project will walk away with the prize. The VISIONFEST Web Team will keep track of total unique views and the overall time viewed for each project in the Official Selections Line-up. Merely refreshing a web page will not aid a particular Selection in earning higher scores; only “full” project views will be counted toward the final viewership tally. Projects that are only posted as "excerpts" are not eligible for Audience Awards - only Jury Prizes.

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