Deadlines
About festival
Chicago Underground Film Festival
Chicago Underground Film Festival
The Chicago Underground Film Festival is the longest-running underground film festival in the world. Established in 1994, CUFF champions unruly, risk-taking cinema that breaks rules, challenges conventions, and refuses safe options.
As Roger Ebert wrote, “What you get for your money is not just admission to the films but admission to a subculture.”
In 2026, CUFF received 2,904 submissions from 100 countries and territories, selecting approximately 100 films for five days of screenings, performances, conversations, parties, and events.
CUFF programs experimental work alongside documentaries, narrative films alongside hybrids, and emerging artists alongside established voices. We care less about category, polish, or commercial potential than originality, ambition, and artistic necessity. A CUFF film doesn’t have to resemble anything we’ve shown before. In fact, we’d prefer it didn’t.
The question isn’t simply, “Is this a good film?” It’s, “Is this a CUFF film?”
CUFF34 takes place June 9–13, 2027, at the historic Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Avenue in Chicago. Opened in 1929, the independently operated Music Box is one of the city’s great movie houses and a longtime center for independent, international, repertory, and cult cinema. CUFF’s return to the Music Box begins a new chapter for the festival.
CUFF will make use of three distinct auditoriums:
- Theater 1: The original 700-seat atmospheric auditorium, with 4K digital cinema and 16mm, 35mm, and 70mm film projection.
- Theater 2: An intimate 60-seat, digital-only screening room with excellent acoustics, variable masking, and 2K digital cinema projection.
- Theater 3: A new 98-seat auditorium with 2K digital cinema and 16mm and 35mm film projection.
CUFF is built around the belief that a festival should create encounters—not simply screenings. Attending filmmakers participate in Q&As and discussions whenever possible, but some of the festival’s most important conversations happen afterward: in the lobby, over drinks, at parties, or between filmmakers who might never otherwise have met.
Selected filmmakers receive a screening fee, all-access festival pass, filmmaker hospitality, invitations to festival events, professional theatrical presentation, festival laurels, and press and promotional support when available. Limited need-based travel assistance may also be available.
We want filmmakers to be part of the festival—to see one another’s work, meet audiences, argue about movies, discover collaborators, and leave Chicago having encountered people they didn’t know before they arrived.
Still weird. Still independent. Still underground.
Trailer
Festival Amenities
Accepted Content
Submission Categories
Narrative Short Film
Fiction-driven work 40 minutes or less. Formally experimental and hybrid approaches are welcome. If the film is primarily scripted or staged, choose this category.
Narrative Feature Film
Fiction-driven work over 40 minutes. Formally experimental and hybrid approaches are welcome. If the film is primarily scripted or staged, choose this category.
Documentary Feature Film
Nonfiction, hybrid, and essay films over 40 minutes. If the work is primarily rooted in real subjects or events, choose this category.
Documentary Short Film
Nonfiction, hybrid, and essay films 40 minutes or less. If the work is primarily rooted in real subjects or events, choose this category.
Experimental Short Film
Form-first work 40 minutes or less, including personal, structural, collage, found-footage, video-art, and expanded-cinema approaches.
Experimental Feature Film
Form-first, experimental, and avant-garde work over 40 minutes, including personal, structural, collage, found-footage, video-art, and expanded-cinema approaches
Animated Short Film
Animated or primarily animated work 40 minutes or less, including 2D, 3D, stop-motion, rotoscoped, cut-out, and mixed-media animation.
Animation Feature Film
Animated or primarily animated work over 40 minutes, including 2D, 3D, stop-motion, rotoscoped, cut-out, and mixed-media animation.
Music Video
Music videos and other short-form works created for or in response to music, 40 minutes or less. Live-action, animation, experimental, and mixed-media approaches are welcome. Music-driven works over 40 minutes should enter Music Film / Visual Album (Feature).
Music Film / Visual Album (Feature)
Music-driven works over 40 minutes, including visual albums, concert and performance films, music narratives, and hybrid forms.
Festival Team
Bryan Wendorf
Programmer and Artistic Director
Taila Howe
Production Director
Eden Wening
Associate Producer
Emnet Abera
Events and Sponsorship Manager
Festival Rules
Screeners:
Vimeo links are preferred, including password-protected links. Unlisted or private YouTube links are also accepted. Please ensure that your link and password remain active throughout the selection process.
Foreign-Language Films:
Films containing dialogue that is not in English must include readable English subtitles. English-language films with captions or SDH subtitles are strongly encouraged to provide them.
Premieres:
CUFF does not impose blanket premiere requirements. A Chicago premiere strengthens a feature’s chances because our audience values discovering new work, but all submissions are considered on their merits. Shorts have greater flexibility; we believe strong short films benefit from being seen. If your film has previously screened in Chicago, please disclose where and when.
Digital Exhibition:
A DCP is not required when submitting your film. The following requirements apply only to films selected for exhibition.
DCP is strongly preferred for digital presentation. Selected filmmakers who do not have a DCP may be connected with an affordable conversion vendor. Blu-ray or another digital playback format may be accepted by prior arrangement, depending on the assigned auditorium and program requirements. DVD is supported but not recommended.
Both 2K and 4K DCPs are accepted. Theater 1 supports native 4K presentation; films assigned to Theaters 2 or 3 will be presented at 2K. Stereo and 5.1 audio are supported, with 7.1 available in selected auditoriums. Exhibition files should be correctly formatted for theatrical presentation with 48 kHz audio.
Unencrypted DCPs are strongly preferred. Encrypted DCPs and KDM delivery must be arranged in advance, with keys valid throughout CUFF’s full testing and exhibition period.
A ProRes 422 HQ backup file with 48 kHz audio is strongly recommended. Standard theatrical frame rates and aspect ratios are accepted. Filmmakers should notify CUFF in advance of unusual technical or playback requirements.
Film Prints:
Theater 1 supports 16mm, 35mm, and 70mm projection. Theater 3 supports 16mm and 35mm projection. Theater 2 is digital-only.
Film-print presentations are subject to scheduling, print condition, projection requirements, and final approval by CUFF and the Music Box. A DCP backup is strongly recommended for all film prints. Please identify the print format, aspect ratio, sound format, reel configuration, shipping location, and any special projection requirements in your submission.
Choosing a Category:
Hiike requires every submission to be entered in a single category, but we understand that many CUFF films resist easy classification. Choose the category that best describes the work’s primary approach. Categories help us organize the review process; they do not limit how we understand or program a film. Hybrid and boundary-crossing work is welcome.
Narrative: Scripted, staged, or fiction-driven work, ranging from conventional storytelling to formally adventurous, loosely structured, and character-driven films.
Documentary: Nonfiction, essay, reenactment, collage, and hybrid work primarily rooted in real subjects, people, or events.
Experimental: Form-driven work, including avant-garde and personal cinema, punk film, found footage, structural film, video art, expanded cinema, and work that resists conventional narrative or documentary forms.
Animation: Work created primarily through animation, including hand-drawn, CGI, stop-motion, clay, cut-out, rotoscoped, and mixed-media techniques.
Music Video: Music videos and other short-form works created for or in response to music, 40 minutes or less.
Music Film / Visual Album: Music-driven works over 40 minutes, including visual albums, concert and performance films, music narratives, and hybrid forms.
If your film fits more than one category, choose the one that most closely reflects how the work operates. You may provide additional context with your submission.
Length Guidelines:
CUFF follows the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ runtime definition: Feature: over 40 minutes. Short: 40 minutes or less.
Waivers and discounts:
Waivers and Discounts
CUFF offers a limited number of discounts and waivers. All requests must be made before submitting; discounts and waivers cannot be applied retroactively after payment.
CUFF alumni: If your work has screened at CUFF before, you’re family. Email info@cuff.org with the title and year of your previous selection to request an alumni discount or waiver.
Students: Currently enrolled students may request a 20% submission discount. Email us from a current school address or provide simple proof of enrollment. Please conceal student identification numbers and other unnecessary personal information.
Financial hardship: Filmmakers for whom the submission fee presents a significant barrier may contact us for consideration. When possible, we generally offer a discount rather than a full waiver.
Exceptional circumstances: Filmmakers facing substantial barriers related to sanctions, armed conflict, currency restrictions, or regional economic conditions may request case-by-case consideration.
Please direct all requests to info@cuff.org before submitting.
Privacy:
Your submission remains between you and CUFF. Screener links and submission information are accessible only to authorized festival programmers and staff. CUFF does not share private links or filmmakers’ personal contact information with sponsors, donors, press, or other third parties without permission.
Schedule Changes & Updates:
If a schedule, screening room, or venue change becomes necessary, CUFF will notify affected filmmakers promptly and update its public listings. Technical problems are rare, but if one occurs, we will communicate with the filmmaker and work toward the best available solution.
Accessibility:
The Music Box’s first-floor box office, restrooms, Theaters 1 and 2, lounge, and garden are accessible to patrons using wheelchairs and other mobility devices. Theater 1 has a T-Coil hearing loop, and CaptiView and Fidelio devices are available in Theaters 1 and 2 when compatible tracks are supplied. Accessibility details for individual screenings will be published with the final program. Questions may be directed to access@cuff.org.
