GIRAF18 Call for Submissions

First things first: While GIRAF is normally an in-person festival, we have been online only for the last two years due to COVID. For this year, we aren't sure if we'll be online, in person, or some mix of the two. We've added a couple questions where you can let us know what kinds of screenings you'd be comfortable with.

With that out of the way: We're looking for independent and artful animated films to share with our audience in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. That's intentionally pretty general: it can mean abstract or narrative, hand-drawn or computer-generated, student films or well-established professionals, or anywhere in between. We want films we can be excited about, films that are expanding what animation can do, and films that make us feel things.

There are two ways to send us your film: Via FilmFreeway, where there's technically a $3 submission fee, but you can submit free as a "Friend of GIRAF" with the password IREADTHERULES, or via our Google form, which is 100% free. Go with whichever is easier for you. And if you want to spread the word about the call, just tell people to go to https://linktr.ee/giraf.

If you want a better sense of what we love, feel free to check out our Vimeo channel (https://vimeo.com/channels/indiemixtape), our festival site (https://giraffest.ca) and our ongoing Monday Short blog series (https://quickdrawanimation.ca/discover/monday-shorts).

No commercial work, please — there are definitely commercials, trailers, mo-graph pieces etc that we love, but commercials, explainers, festival stingers and those sorts of things fall outside our mandate. The festival is also aimed at an adult audience, so children's films aren't the right fit. Music videos are admittedly a bit of a grey area; we don't book them very often but have made exceptions in the past.

Submissions close May 31, 2022, but early submissions are always appreciated. It's a lot easier for us to bunker down and watch these in winter than when the sun's inviting us outside. And we will try to notify you of results by mid-October. Because we pay every filmmaker we show, we're a pretty small fest—don't take it personally if we don't select your film, it doesn't mean we didn't absolutely love it. At the best of times we can only include about 10% or fewer of the films we receive, and it kind of breaks our heart.