2021 St. Louis International Film Festival Invited Films
We’re excited to screen your film at the 30th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF), held Nov. 4-21, 2021. This page is a portal to assist with inbound print-traffic delivery of your film file, secure images from you, and provide festival laurels and links to additional resources.
Because of the Covid-19 crisis and the ongoing need to ensure public health and safety, we made the decision in early that this year’s festival would be a hybrid live and virtual event. The live portion of the festival in theaters will primarily occur from Nov. 4-14, with some additional screenings on the weekend of Nov. 19-21; online access to films will be available throughout the fest's full run, from Nov. 4-21.
We will be presenting the virtual portion of the festival — films, master classes, and awards ceremony — via a secure, DRM-protected service called Eventive. SLIFF will be geoblocked to Missouri and Illinois for most feature films, although access can be geographically wider if the filmmaker is open to it. We are asking shorts filmmakers whether they are willing to allow wider geographic access to shorts programs. We strongly prefer that all films are available during our entire festival run, but shorter ranges within those dates are possible for feature films.
DELIVERY OF IMAGES FROM FILMS
DEADLINE: Oct. 10, 2021
For the purposes of the virtual program, website, and local press (TV, web, print, and radio), we need a strong set of images from the various films in the festival. Please upload a MAXIMUM of 3 images from your film. Acceptable file formats are JPG, PNG, or TIF. Each image should be titled with the name of your film followed by the numbers 1, 2 and 3 (e.g., FilmName1.jpg). Try to make No. 1 your favorite of the set. All images sent will not be used, but having alternatives is helpful. We look for striking visuals that stand out and tell part of the story they represent. What we ultimately use are the best images we receive quickly so we can get the website up and the program designed. Click on the link below to upload images directly to our Dropbox. DO NOT send posters unless requested, anything with text on it, or behind-the-scenes or crew shots. Provide only still images from the film itself.
DELIVERY OF FILM FILES
DEADLINE: Oct. 20, 2021
It takes a great deal of time to assemble and test all of the features and shorts programs in advance, so please don't wait until the very last second to send in your projection file. Contact Chris Clark (chris@cinemastlouis.org) for additional questions about how/where to deliver your film.
GUEST TRAVEL
Because of the uncertainties caused by the surge of the Covid-19 Delta variant, we don't believe it's wise to encourage filmmaker travel to the festival this year. Unfortunately, given the circumstances, we will not be hosting guests as we normally do and will not be holding any parties during the live portion of this year's festival. Except for a very small number of invited guests for special presentations, we will therefore be unable to assist with airfare or hotel rooms. However, if you do choose to attend on your own, we will have a discount available at our host hotel, The Cheshire, and can offer festival passes, airport pickup/drop off, and transportation from the hotel to the venues.
For many in-person screenings, we still intend to hold Q&As by Zoom, and we will reach out to feature filmmakers to make those arrangements once the schedule is set. For virtual presentations, we plan to conduct and record Zoom interviews in advance with as many fest feature filmmakers as realistically possible, but time limits will prevent us from speaking with everyone. We’ll contact filmmakers individually to set up Zoom sessions. These recordings will be part of the stream of the film during the festival dates, and they’ll then be archived on our SLIFF YouTube channel.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Keep track of festival happenings by following us on Twitter and Instagram. Both the SLIFF and Cinema St. Louis Facebook pages will also have up-to-date info on the festival. Spreading the word about your screening will certainly help with the overall success of the festival.
Website: https://www.cinemastlouis.org/festival-home
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StLouisInternationalFilmFestival
Twitter: @stlfilmfest
Instagram: @stlfilmfest
We’d love to also have social-media and website info for you and your film if available. Fill out this Google form with the appropriate info.
AWARDS (8 PM Sunday, Nov. 21)
The staff of Cinema St. Louis and members of various juries will announce an array of awards for the Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival. The awards presentation, which will be a livestream on Eventive, is free and open to the public, but there will be a virtual tip jar for contributions to help pay the nonprofit bills. The link for the awards presentation will be in the Special Events section of the SLIFF website.
STAFF CONTACTS
Cliff Froehlich, Executive Director, Documentary Features and Shorts Programming
cliff@cinemastlouis.org O: 314.289.4151 C: 618.558.9005
Chris Clark, Artistic Director, Narrative Features Programming
chris@cinemastlouis.org O: 314.289.4152 C: 314.448.3456
Brian Spath, Operations Supervisor, Narrative Shorts Programming
brian@cinemastlouis.org O: 314.289.4153 C: 314.401.8715
Marla Stoker Ballenger, SLIFF PR Specialist
marla@marqueemediastl.com C: 314.973.5525
