A Festival to Celebrate the Art of Independent & Youth Filmmakers
Santa Barbara, CA
Three Days of Independent Filmmaking
Hosted at the Alhecama Theater
Oct 4th - 6th, 2024
Check out our social media channels to stay up on the latest news!
Come celebrate the art of Cinema with us at the historic Alhecama Theater in downtown Santa Barbara! We are nestled between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean about 1.5 hours away from Los Angeles. Santa Barbara offers breathtaking views of the ocean and mountains. The city is known for its Mediterranean climate, Spanish-style architecture, and its many beaches, parks, and trails.
The festival is a great reason to visit the city and experience its vibrant culture and arts scene. With its diverse selection of films and networking opportunities, the Santa Barbara Indie Film Fest is a great event that celebrates the art of filmmaking.
We are changing our format for year 2. We are splitting up our year into four seasons, "Winter", "Spring" and "Summer" and "Fall". Our year end live event will be our "Fall" season October 4-6 at the Historic Alhecama Theater in downtown Santa Barbara. This is the big event of the year where we will have screenings, parties, Q&A sessions and give out awards and prizes.
Winners of of the Winter, Spring or Summer seasons that lead up to the final event gain free entry & qualify for the year end live festival.
14 categories to choose from
-
Narrative Feature Film
-
Documentary Feature Film
-
Narrative Short Film
-
Documentary Short Film
-
Animated Short Film
-
Music Video
-
Local Filmmaker
-
Narrative Short Film - Youth
-
Doc Short Film - Youth
-
Animated Short Film - Youth
-
Music Video - Youth
-
Local Filmmaker - Youth
-
Feature Length Sceenplay
-
Short Story Screenplay
Submissions start at only $20!
Santa Barbara Indie Film Fest proudly accepts entries on FilmFreeway, the world's #1 way to enter film festivals and creative contests.
Awards & Prizes
*TBD for the 2024 season
Santa Barbara Indie Film Festival has partnered with the Sunn Stream online streaming network to showcase the winners, honorable mentions and other worthy submissions to air on the network. This is a great way for filmmakers to gain exposure and grow their career!! *This is a no obligations offer, filmmakers can choose not to participate*
Winners of the 2023 season Narrative Feature Film & Short Film, Documentary Feature Film & Short category will win a Davinci Resolve studio license valued at $295
Tickets & Passes
The Santa Barbara Indie Film Fest couldn’t take place without the help of our incredible volunteers! We are always looking for enthusiastic folks to help support us in our mission of bringing independent film to the Santa Barbara area. We are thankful for your interest!