WorldFest Houston's blog

FORGET SUNDANCE! 
 "WorldFest is one of the best conceived festival productions on the planet!" ~ Craig Outhier, film critic, Phoenix press; Tempe Times.

 WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival (now in it’s 45th year!) continues with its totally dedicated Independent Film screening format for the upcoming April 13-22, 2012 unspooling at the flagship AMC Studio 30 Dunvale Theaters. WorldFest will screen just 55-60 feature film and 100 Short Film Premieres, with a complete and absolute emphasis on the American and International Independent feature films and with a continuing annual spotlight on an individual country and its films. WorldFest also offers competition in TV Production, Documentary, Corporate & Business Films, Student & Experimental, TV Commercials, Film & Video Production, Music Videos, New Media (Interactive & Web Sites) and unproduced Screenplays.

Entry forms & complete entry information are on the website (www.worldfest.org) “ 
Click on Enter Film Festival, then on History, FAQ, Categories, Entry Form

 WorldFest is one of the oldest and largest film & video competitions in the world, with more than 4,500 category entries received from 37 countries in 2008. Actually WorldFest is 12 Major film & video competitions in one event, unlike Cannes, Sundance and Toronto, which are just 2 competitions for shorts and features only. Because of our 12 major competitions and the 200+ sub-categories, WorldFest does give a lot of awards, but they are both earned and deserved. No awards are given in any category unless the scores from the juries are high enough to place for honors. Overall only 15-20% of the total category entries actually win an award at WorldFest. However, everyone attending the Grand Awards Gala wins an award, as we only invite the actual winners, which makes for a delightful and enjoyable evening, since there are no disappointed "nominees" that do not win anything. Those that do not win an award are informed by email or a personal letter prior to the festival.

 WorldFest Artistic and Program Director Kathleen Haney stated, “We are fiercely dedicated to the Indie Feature and Short Film and look for a quality selection of individual films to maintain a smaller, yet effective program rather than an overly large and unwieldy slate of 150-300 films. Haney continued, "For the 2012 WorldFest we are using 'A good story, well told' as our time-tested approach to film selection". (For complete winner info from the past 2011 WorldFest, go to – http://www.worldfest.org – click on View the 2011 Remi Winners). 
After he received the Grand Remi Award in 1985, Ridley Scott commented "WorldFest is in the business of validating excellence!" The mission of WorldFest is to recognize and validate creative excellence in film & video production in every facet and category of filmmaking. Many filmmakers report that a Remi Award from WorldFest opens doors to advance their careers.
WorldFest will continue with its annual Short Film Showcase, a special review of 100 new short and student films...from the festival that gave first top honors to Spielberg, Lucas, The Coen Brothers, Ridley Scott, Robert Rodriguez, Spike Lee, Gavin Hood, John Lee Hancock, Michael Cimino, Steven Poster, Oliver Stone, Ang Lee, Atom Egoyan and David Lynch, among many others! Few other festivals have such a "discovery" track record. WorldFest has emerged as the oldest continuous film festival management in the world with the same executive director, serving for 44 consecutive years. A few other festivals are older, but they have had as many as ten different directors. It is the oldest film festival in The South.
The 44th Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival concluded with a good 10% upturn in box office. Highlights of the 44th Annual WorldFest-Houston were: several hit films, a Gala Awards Banquet with top honors presented to up-and-coming attending filmmakers from over 35 countries from round the globe, Indie Panels, a VIP tour of NASA and an exciting Houston Yacht Club Sailing Regatta & Texas BBQ. Attendance at the 10-day Fest was over 25,000, up from 2010 box office figures. The overflowing Awards Dinner at Houston's Hotel Marriott Westchase hosted the WorldFest Gala, on Saturday night (April 16) with a record number of more than 550 international filmmakers, award winning international dancers, and a special hi-energy dance presentation by Shawn Welling's ELCX Planet Funk.

By having a small, highly selective schedule of new Indie Short & Feature films, the festival can help the film gain reviews and a distributor, rather than merely act as a preview platform for an upcoming release from a large US distributor. Most of the so-called ‘Independent Films’ featured at Sundance are quite frequently fairly large-budget films produced by special “Indie” divisions of the major studios. In fact, the majority of films featured at Sundance and other “Indie” Festivals actually already have their distribution in place. The 120-page WorldFest program book is distributed free of charge to the public, all attending filmmakers, all studios and every major film festival in the world and to every known major film & video distributor in the world. The WorldFest program book has become an invaluable reference document for film acquisition and review.

 45th WORLDFEST HOUSTON CALL FOR ENTRIES

2012 WorldFest-Houston Remi Awards 
International Competition Categories: check online for all category numbers before you fill the form.

 Download the entry form here (PDF file)

 The call for entry document (PDF file)

DIRECT SUBMISSION THROUGH  FEST21.COM

Filmmakers can also apply online on fest21.com in order to enter theHitflics.com database and complete the submission process on hitflics.com

Click here to register .

Submit on fest21.com for free and finalize your festival-ready film entry on fest21.com, just one click away from 4 500 festivals in the festival circuit .worldwide.

Award Nominees by 03/31/2012 - We will post nominees on the festival's website!

Early Bird registration November 15, 2011
Main Entry deadline is December 15, 2011
Final Brickwall deadline is January 16, 2012
Online entry on the site 

All entry forms, photos, entry fees and entries should be sent together in the same pack to: 
Entry Team WorldFest - 2012
45TH ANNUAL WORLDFEST-HOUSTON
ENTRY COORDINATOR
9898 Bissonnet Street, Suite 650
HOUSTON, TEXAS USA 77036

QUESTIONS? (713) 965-9955 – Fax: (713) 965-9960 or simply email at: entry@worldfest.org 
In the USA – Toll Free – (866) 965-9955