QCFF 2017 Call For Entries

The Queen City Film Festival (QCFF), Western Maryland’s premiere film festival, is held each year in early Fall in Cumberland, Maryland. Founded in 2012, and currently in our sixth year, QCFF 2017 will be held October 5-8 at The Venue At Mezzos in Cumberland, Maryland. QCFF offers a four-day program of screenings and educational panels, and welcomes filmmakers from around the world. Located in Allegany County, Cumberland offers a delightful blend of hospitality and history; mingled with charming shops, delicious dining, arts and entertainment and lots of events and activities.

Previous festival favorites include Record Paradise, Led Zeppelin Played Here, Underbelly Blues, M Cream, Lady Be Good: Instrumental Women In Jazz, Bounty Momma, How Sweet The Sound: The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Subterranea, Australiens, and CADES: Forestglade Of Death.

Our educational panels focus broadly on Appalachia, historic preservation, and redevelopment for the arts, and often include film presentations such as LowerTown Paducah, Farewell To Factory Towns?, and Through The Place.

Last year’s festival was our most successful to date, and presented 69 selections including such highlights as  Better Half, Peelers, Nighthawks On The Blue Highway, and There Is No Such Thing As The Record Label Fairy.

Our categories for 2017 are Animation, Appalachian, Cult, Documentary, Horror/SciFi, Kids/Family, LGBT, and Music, including the return of and our popular Happy Hour music video block.. We welcome eclectic fare and encourage submissions that qualify in as many categories as possible. QCFF also embraces and promotes films by Maryland filmmakers and films made in Maryland. We have been pleased to introduce visiting filmmakers to local media.

Submissions are being accepted via Withoutabox and FilmFreeway. Volunteers for production crew, event staff, or screeners should contact info@alleganyalliedarts.org for more information, or visit us on Facebook.

Awards & Prizes
Award Certificate for short and feature in each category plus Audience Award for short and feature.

Winners of the Audience Award will receive an InkTip Script Listing: A listing of your script on InkTip so that producers and reps can find you. InkTip: Where everyone goes for scripts and writers. Producers have made more than 200 films from scripts and writers they found through InkTip.

Rules & Terms
We are pleased to announce the categories for QCFF 2017:

Categories include: documentary, cult, lgbt, music, horror/scifi, appalachian, animation, and kids/family.

Here are the submission rules for QCFF 2017:

Films that have previously screened publicly in Cumberland, have aired publicly on US broadcast television, or are available for free online viewing in their entirety are NOT eligible.

Films with distribution agreements which may require a screening fee may not be submitted without specific prior approval.

Films completed more than three years before the festival dates are NOT eligible. Works in progress are NOT eligible for a Category Award.

You may also submit by mail on NTSC DVD or Blu-ray disc, or on USB drive (.MP4 max 1920×1080). No other formats will be accepted by mail. Submissions will not be returned.

Please include a trailer (preview). Please include a press kit including full cast/crew credits. You may include a filmed introduction to the film, not to exceed 1/10th of the running length of the submission.

If your submission is not in English, English subtitles must be included (hard subs preferred).

You grant rights for royalty-free exhibition within the festival dates. You grant rights to royalty-free use of trailers.

Click HERE for downloadable copies of the rules and submission form.