Downtown Tyler Film Festival Accepting Entries [VIDEO]

The fourth annual Downtown Tyler Film Festival scheduled for September 24-27 is now accepting entries. The festival, a celebration of storytelling through film, will take place in the City of Tyler's Liberty Hall.

Seeking to encourage local East Texas filmmakers, it has grown into an international film festival of short films. Films that are 15 minutes or shorter of any genre are accepted, but they must have been completed before Jan 1, 2012 and acceptable for a general audience (PG-13).

A student category is also featured for films that are produced totally by filmmakers under the age of 18.

“Students are the perfect model of independent film making: endless creativity, lots of experimentation, and no money,” said Film Festival Chairman Justin Reese. “We want to encourage them to hone their craft by providing an audience they can impress and a cash prize they can use to fund their next film."

Cash prizes will be awarded to Best of the Fest, Best East Texas Film, Best Student Film, and Audience Favorite. Films may be submitted through the website, FilmFreeway.com, now through July 31. Earlier entries are accepted for at a lower entry fee.

East Texas filmmakers will also receive a 25 percent discount off of the entry price by entering the TEXASFOREVER2014 code into FilmFreeway.com. For details, see Film Freeway or TylerFilmFest.com.

“The Downtown Tyler Film Festival has doubled the number of entries received each year and 2014 is expected to be bigger and better than ever,” said Main Street Department Leader Beverly Abell. “It is amazing what our Tyler filmmakers are producing and how much they improve."
'Recommended Reading' won the first festival, "Show Us Your Shorts" in 2011.