Hey, you! Yes, you—the stressed-out indie filmmaker hunched sleeplessly over a hot laptop like some sort of 19th-century French bell ringer, pupils dilated to the width of Junior Mints as you stare into the bright plasma-screen glow of that lingering Adobe Premiere timeline, Final Draft document or ulcer-inducing email thread with financiers.

If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you clicked on over to the Film Independent website in search of distraction from more pressing filmmaking obligations. But unfortunately what I’m about to tell you will probably have you scurrying back to those time-sensitive obligations to finally finish up that all-consuming feature project, short or episodic series. That’s right: the 2017 LA Film Festival is now accepting submissions!

Remarkably, 2017 will mark the LA Film Festival’s 23rd year, returning once again to ArcLight Cinemas in Culver City. 2017 Festivalgoers can once again expect nine more action-packed days of innovative storytelling, intimate filmmaker panels, networking opportunities, parties and (last but not least) nine whole more days of unusually heated games of cornhole out on the Festival Lawn. Cornhole! If that’s not incentive enough to hurry up and lock picture, what is?

The early deadline for 2017 submissions is October 28. The regular deadline is November 18, and the late deadline is January 6. Film Independent Members have until February 8 for the Exclusive Late Deadline. For more information, including how to submit your film, please click here. We’re rolling out the welcome mat for everyone, and particularly for films by queer filmmakers, filmmakers of color and female filmmakers. We’re also super excited to see your horror films, or films inspired by the city of Los Angeles (or horror movies inspired by the city of Los Angeles).

Look, we know there’s only so much that can be conveyed about the LA Film Festival and why you should submit your film to it within the space of a single blog. So don’t take our work for it. Listen to our Programming Team:

But maybe the thing holding your project back from finally being completed is its lack of an original score. Well, good news: we’ve got you covered! As announced earlier in the summer, yet another unique addition to the 2017 Festival is the online filmmaker challenge Danny Elfman Project: Rabbit and Rogue, in partnership with Danny Elfman and Indi.com.

To recap: legendary film composer Danny Elfman is offering free licenses of his latest album, Rabbit and Rogue, for up-and-coming filmmakers to be used as the inspiration and soundtrack to their original short films. Winning films will screen at the 2017 LA Film Festival, which runs June 14-22. Learn more here, or from Danny Elfman himself in the below video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5i3Ul0Kx4M

So firm up those post-production milestones and prepare to get your project into good enough shape to submit! Go ahead and close this browser tab and get back to work. Here’s to raising a glass together next June in Culver City!

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