San Francisco Independent Film Festival

Thank you for considering our festival for your film!

We are looking for the best features, shorts, docs and animation we can find to present in San Francisco. For 29 years SF IndieFest has developed a great reputation for eclectic, adventurous programming, getting great press for our films and filling theaters with enthusiastic film fans. Dozens of festivals and distributors have requested and received industry accreditation to view SF IndieFest titles at our festivals over the years.

All submissions are viewed by a salaried programming professional. We do not use AI or volunteer pre-screeners for evaluating films.

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"The San Francisco Independent Film Festival—a complete, formal name I’ve never heard anyone call it by—celebrates the offbeat, DIY and fun amongst feature-length, short, narrative and non-fiction cinema. It’s easier to pinpoint what you likely won’t get than what you will: This is not an event likely to invite (or attract) Hollywood stars, mount tributes to venerable directors, or show posterior-challenging obscurantist arthouse epics. Instead, there’s a spirit to IndieFest that’s not unlike days of yore when you picked the most outlandish-looking box off the video store shelf for a night’s home viewing with friends—the goal is surprise and adventure, not prestige." - Dennis Harvey, 48Hills

“I’m certainly happy that IndieFest exists, because it is a celebration of films that don’t necessarily get distributed widely,” HITS director David Cross says, “I’m happy to be a part of it with my film, which is very much in the category of a low-budget, little indie movie. I’m glad there’s a place for it.” – SF Chronicle

"The movie business is in a perennial state of constant tension between ambition and collaboration, joyful inventiveness and jaw-dropping paydays. This roiling undercurrent, usually invisible to the public, gushes to the surface in the run-up to the Academy Awards ceremony. There is an antidote, however, to Hollywood’s annual backslapathon: SF IndieFest. The San Francisco Independent Film Festival is a beacon to anybody excited by the basic impulse of making movies. In its heart of hearts, IndieFest is a celebration of the minor miracle of finishing a film and getting it up on a screen in front of a live audience." - Michael Fox, KQED

“For many independent filmmakers, festivals such as SF Indiefest—aka the San Francisco Independent Film Festival–are the only way to bring their works before an audience. For filmgoers, SF Indiefest is the place to see original cinematic works created by directors who want to tell edgy stories which come from their hearts and souls. While some have bemoaned the death of cinema, the curators and filmmakers at SF Indiefest are keeping the craft of film alive.” – David Elijah Nahmod, SF SOUNDS