Maybe you haven’t heard, but the submissions process for the 2016 LA Film Festival is well underway. As we speak, the various branches of our selection committee have retreated to the warm glow of their laptops and DVD players to furiously cram as many movies as possible into their eyes and ears.

But don’t worry if you’re still stuck fretting over those pesky Final Cut Pro timelines, making final tweaks to color correction and sound mixing. There’s still time. The final deadline for submissions is January 15th. That’s still plenty of time—right?

The fact is: we want your films. Whether your movie is an intimate character drama, raucous comedy, documentary or blood-splattered genre piece, there’s a section of LA Film Festival waiting for you.

We recently spoke with LA Film Festival Director of Programming Roya Rastegar, Head Short Film Programmer Landon Zackheim, Senior Programmer Jenn Wilson and Screening Committee Member Hal Harvard—about their experience working on the Festival and what they look for when putting together the Festival program.

See what they had to say…

Think your film has what it takes? If so, click here to learn more about how to submit your film to the 2016 LA Film Festival.

For more information about Film Independent, please visit our website. To learn how to become a member of Film Independent, click here.

Matt Warren / Film Independent Digital Content Manager