OFFICIAL BEST OF FEST is a series of annual awards.

By way of its vast network of film festival curators from the world’s top festivals, OFFICIAL BEST OF FEST sees the majority of films completed each year through the film festival submission process and seeks to identify the top 5% made in each a category. Winning an OFFICIAL BEST OF FEST award seal lets the consumer know that this is a film and filmmaker to watch. It gives an underappreciated and overlooked film the distinction it deserves.

Qualifying:

1. Most OFFICIAL BEST OF FEST films are nominated through qualifying film festivals and have already won a number of awards.
2. Because sometimes great films get overlooked, OFFICIAL BEST OF FEST has employed the services of Withoutabox to democratize the process.

Judging:

While any form of judging is subjective, OFFICIAL BEST OF FEST relies on the wisdom of film festival audiences, juries and programmers, award-winning filmmakers, and industry experts to identify the best films.

Any film submitted through Withoutabox that has not already been nominated will be viewed by at least three OFFICIAL BEST OF FEST curators and a screening group—hence the higher cost of submission.

Awards:

Each year, a new group of winning films in various categories will be granted the OFFICIAL BEST OF FEST award seal and announced in the press and on the website (www.OfficialBestofFest.com).

What will this award do for you?

This award, if granted, puts you in the top 5% of indie films made in any given year and lets the public know that your film is worth seeing/buying.

A qualifying filmmaker can use the Award seal in connection to the film and automatically becomes eligible to be considered for OFFICIAL BEST OF FEST traveling film festivals, compilation gift sets in stores, curated cable series, and a number of other outlets. In all cases, OFFICIAL BEST OF FEST carries 100% of the costs and provides a royalty to the filmmakers while leaving the filmmaker/rights holder fully in control of the rights.

If you feel like you have or know of an overlooked gem, submit it through Withoutabox and get OFFICAL BEST OF FEST to consider it. All applicants will be notified via email within four months of submission.

Submissions are always open for films from previous years, and are accepted in the following categories:

• Feature: A film with a running time of 40 minutes or longer.
• Short
• Animation (Feature)
• Animation (Short)
• Documentary

Organizers: Rick Stevenson (Producer/Director/Writer); Serena Evers (Assistant)