Independent Film Blog
Est. 2010 · Indie Cinema Daily
Vol. XIV · No. 287
Submit a Film · Intake Window Open · Response 4–6 Weeks
This is where films enter the editorial pipeline of Independent Film Blog — the longest-running dedicated indie cinema publication on the web, now in its fourteenth year of uninterrupted coverage. We accept submissions for independent features, shorts, festival screeners, and press kits from publicists, filmmakers, and distributors working outside the major-studio system. Coverage is editorial, not guaranteed; every submission is read by a working critic, not an algorithm.
Before you proceed, please read the four steps below. Roughly two hundred submissions arrive each month and the form is the only way to reach the intake desk — incomplete or off-topic pitches cannot be considered.
Begin a SubmissionThe Submission Path · In Five Chapters
A working publicist or first-time filmmaker should be able to walk through the process without a phone call. These five chapters describe, in order, what to send, in what format, and what happens next.
The film must be independently produced — no studio-backed features, no branded content, no work-for-hire commercials repackaged as shorts. Features run 40 minutes or longer; shorts fall between 1 and 39 minutes. Festival screeners are accepted year-round; theatrical releases are reviewed on the publication's editorial calendar.
A working screener link (private Vimeo, Vimeo OTT, or password-protected Google Drive) that remains active for at least ninety days, a one-page press kit in PDF, three high-resolution stills (300 dpi, 16:9 or 2.39:1), a director's biography under 150 words, and a brief synopsis of no more than 200 words. Stills must be cleared for editorial use.
Four categories are accepted at the intake desk: feature film, short film, festival screener (for accredited programmers and press), and press kit or stills only (for awards-season archival work). Each tier carries its own required deliverables — see the four cards further down the page before opening the form.
Every required field must be filled. Screener links must resolve without a download; expired or geo-locked links are returned unread. Submissions from publicists should arrive on company letterhead in the synopsis field; submissions from filmmakers should include a one-line note describing the project's origin.
Features receive a response within four to six weeks; shorts within two to three weeks. A brief acknowledgment email arrives within five business days of submission. If the film is selected for review, the assigned critic will follow up directly to schedule an interview with at least two members of the creative team.
Editorial Policy · Updated January 2025
Independent Film Blog receives in excess of two hundred submissions each month. The eleven-person editorial board — three of whom currently serve on festival juries at Telluride, Tribeca, and Locarno — triages each one against the publication's coverage priorities. These priorities favor first features, second features, and work from filmmakers whose previous films were covered here before they appeared in the wider critical press.
Coverage is not guaranteed. The publication reserves the right to decline a submission without detailed feedback, to request additional materials, or to schedule a review for a later editorial window. Reviews are not paid placements, and the publication accepts no payment in exchange for coverage under any circumstance. A submitted film will not be assigned to a critic with a disclosed conflict of interest.
Response timelines run four to six weeks for features and two to three weeks for shorts, measured from the date the acknowledgment email is sent. Festival screeners submitted inside the thirty-day window preceding a major festival are triaged within seventy-two hours. Films that arrive without a working screener are not entered into the queue. Personal appeals, follow-up calls, and revised pitches do not accelerate the timeline.
— The Editorial Board, Independent Film Blog
The Four Categories · Choose One
Each submission falls into exactly one category. Selecting the correct tier ensures the materials are reviewed by the appropriate critic on the rotation. Please do not submit a film under multiple categories.
Category 01
Response window: 4–6 weeks from acknowledgment.
Category 02
Response window: 2–3 weeks from acknowledgment.
Category 03
Processed within 72 hours during active festival windows.
Category 04
No review assigned; archived for editorial reference.
The Intake Form · Fields with a Hairline Rule Are Required
Screener links must remain active for at least ninety days. The acknowledgment email arrives within five business days. Direct correspondence may be addressed to [email protected].
Frequently Asked Questions · The Intake Desk
The following six questions account for the majority of correspondence that arrives in the editorial inbox each week. If your inquiry is not addressed here, write to [email protected] and the managing editor will respond.
Features receive a response within four to six weeks from the date of acknowledgment; shorts within two to three weeks. Festival screeners submitted inside an active festival window are processed within seventy-two hours. An acknowledgment email is sent within five business days of arrival — if it has not arrived, the submission did not reach the intake desk and should be re-sent.
Yes. Independent Film Blog accepts self-distributed features and shorts on the same editorial footing as films represented by sales agents or publicists. The submission form is open to filmmakers without representation. Self-distributed work should include a brief note in the Submission Note field describing how the film was made available to audiences.
No. Independent Film Blog does not accept payment for coverage under any circumstance, and the publication has never run paid editorial content in its fourteen-year history. The site's 2022 Online Film Critics Society Award for Outstanding Online Publication, its coverage of eight thousand four hundred independent features, and its 42,800-subscriber newsletter are funded entirely by reader-supported subscriptions — not by filmmaker fees. Any party offering guaranteed coverage in exchange for payment is not affiliated with this publication.
Independent Film Blog attends twenty-two international festivals annually under media accreditation, including Sundance, TIFF, Cannes, SXSW, Berlinale, and Rotterdam. The publication is a press-credentialed outlet, not a festival partner, and editorial coverage is independent of festival programming. Three members of the editorial board currently serve on festival juries at Telluride, Tribeca, and Locarno; submissions from those juries' programming teams are routed around those critics.
Expired or geo-restricted screeners are returned unread and the submission is closed. If a screener must be withdrawn before review, send a replacement link to [email protected] referencing the original film title and submitter name; the file will be re-entered into the queue with the original response window preserved where possible.
Detailed feedback is not provided on declined submissions due to the volume of submissions and the small editorial board. A short note indicating the editorial reasoning — coverage priority, festival window, prior reviews elsewhere — is included in the decline email where the assigned critic has time to write one. The publication's annual Indie Pulse Awards, now in its sixth year, considers overlooked features from the previous twelve months regardless of original submission status.