SCAD Savannah Film Festival

The festival presents best-of awards in its competition categories, with cash prizes in various categories. A jury of film industry professionals selects the competition awards, announced at the awards brunch during the festival's closing weekend. The Katie Spikes Legacy Scholarship is a jury-awarded cash prize of more than US$7,500 for a SCAD student documentary short. The program also includes audience awards and juried honors for professional, student, animated, Global Shorts Forum, and Shorts Spotlight films.

2026 submission rules Entries for the 2026 edition are closed. These conditions apply to that edition. Eligibility and distribution Films must be completed after 1 August 2025, subject to the specific SCAD documentary scholarship conditions below. Earlier festival screenings and films in the process of obtaining distribution are considered. Competition films must not have a theatrical release, digital downloads, or public streaming before the end of the 2026 festival. Screeners and submissions Submit an online screener in English or with English subtitles. Closed captions are appreciated. Passwords must be correct and remain usable: the festival notifies applicants of a failed password, and a film is not considered if an updated password is not received within the allotted time. Third-party submitters must provide the filmmaker's contact details, including a telephone number; selected filmmakers are contacted directly. Works in progress are considered, but films should be submitted in their most complete state. A second and final screener may be supplied only once after the initial submission, only at the festival's request, and by 31 July. Accepted competition films must provide a direct, password-protected Vimeo link for judging. Categories Narrative Features: independently produced narrative features, considered for storytelling, writing, direction, acting, cinematography, and editing. Documentary Features: nonfiction features considered on their individual merits, including films addressing current events, environmental issues, and other subjects. Narrative Shorts: professionally produced narrative shorts of no more than 40 minutes. Films completed for a university or film-school program belong in a student category. Senior programmers may place films in themed shorts blocks. Documentary Shorts: professionally produced documentary shorts of no more than 40 minutes. Films made for a degree program belong in a student category. Senior programmers may place films in themed shorts blocks. Animated Shorts: professional animation, including hand-drawn, stop-motion, and digital techniques. Student animation and projects completed for a degree program are excluded from this category. Films may be considered for themed shorts blocks. Student Shorts: live-action narrative or documentary shorts directed and produced by students for university or film-school degree requirements. SCAD student narrative shorts and documentary shorts by students at other institutions must enter this category. Films may also be considered for themed shorts blocks. Student Animated Shorts: animation directed and produced by students for university or film-school degree requirements; films may also be considered for themed shorts blocks. SCAD Student Film — Katie Spikes Scholarship: live-action documentary shorts directed and produced by current SCAD students for their degree program. Projects must be completed between 1 August 2025 and 30 June 2026 and directed by a SCAD student. Submit a current SCAD student ID, a short statement about the project's origins, a detailed expense budget, shooting timeline, and additional supporting documentation as a PDF to sbolda@scad.edu, with “Spikes Scholarship” in the email subject. Works in progress may be considered, but final versions must be complete by 15 July; no extensions or exceptions are granted. Deadlines, fees, and waivers The 2026 FilmFreeway submission calendar opens on 5 January; its deadlines are 30 March (early bird), 1 June (regular), 30 June (late), and 17 July (extended). Screeners must be uploaded by the selected deadline; late uploads are disqualified and require submission at the appropriate fee. Fees below are in US dollars, ordered early bird / regular / late / extended. Narrative Features and Documentary Features: standard $20 / $25 / $30 / $40; FilmFreeway Gold $15 / $17.50 / $20 / $30. Documentary Shorts and Animated Shorts: standard $20 / $25 / $30 / $40; Gold $15 / $20 / $25 / $30. Narrative Shorts: standard $20 / $25 / $30 / $40; Gold $15 / $20 / $25 / $33.50. Student Shorts and Student Animated Shorts: standard $15 / $20 / $25 / $35; Gold $10 / $12.50 / $17.50 / $22.50. The SCAD Student Film — Katie Spikes Scholarship category is free at every deadline. Waivers are by invitation only; unsolicited waiver requests are not accepted. SCAD students, SCAD alumni, and festival alumni must request a waiver code from sbolda@scad.edu before submitting through FilmFreeway. Submission fees are nonrefundable. Exhibition and judging All competition films must be supplied as DCPs, regardless of their original format. No other exhibition format is accepted. Subtitles must be embedded in the film file. Filmmakers supply their own DCP by uploading it to the festival's secure server. Presentation scheduling is at the festival's discretion and may change. A panel of active industry professionals judges the competition. Awards are at the judges' sole discretion; a committee appointed by the festival director makes any necessary rulings. Awards are announced at the awards brunch during the closing weekend. The rules give filmmaker notification as on or around 14 September 2026, subject to change, while the platform's calendar lists 15 September. Applicants are asked not to contact organizers for a status update before 14 September. Requests contingent on premiere status are considered as far as possible.