Now in its ninth year, the UNT Media Arts Festival is including the works of North Texas student filmmakers! This event will include student film screenings, and panels with professionals, culminating in a competitive student block and awards ceremony on April 13th, 2024.
Our goal is to provide a platform for UNT students and local Denton High school filmmakers to show their work. We want to create a festival that not only the UNT Media Arts program can be proud of, but also UNT and the city of Denton.
The festival features four separate student competitions:
- Short film
- Documentary film
- Screenwriting
- Mixed media/music videos/Audio
- News/Promo
- High School student film
With broadly set categories, we hope to put together a program that encompasses a variety of genres, mediums, experiences, and cinematic journeys. All UNT and Denton high school student filmmakers are encouraged to submit work!
Entry Deadline
Films must be submitted by March 8th, 2024
Submit your entries through Film Freeway here.
This is a hard deadline.
Awards & Prizes
We have six categories and the top two in each category will receive an award.
- BEST IN SHORT FILM
- BEST IN DOCUMENTARY
- BEST SCREENWRITING
- BEST MIXED MEDIA/MUSIC VIDEO/AUDIO
- BEST IN NEWS/PROMO
- BEST IN HIGH SCHOOL
Rules & Terms
SUBMISSIONS
There is no entry fee for this competition.
ENTRY REGULATIONS
All entries must be from UNT students currently or previously enrolled in the past school year.
Student Verification Required
HIGH SCHOOL REQUIREMENTS
High school submissions must be from students enrolled in a Denton High School or a student enrolled in the surrounding North Texas high schools. High school students in Denton, Aubrey, Argyle, Ponder, Krum, Lake Dallas, Lewisville, Carrollton, Dallas, Fort Worth and any other DFW high schools are all eligible to submit. All other entries will be disqualified for entry into the festival.
Any UNT student or Denton/DFW high school student is eligible to submit a project, regardless of filmmaking or production experience.
Please see the various categories for more information on submitting to each of the sections. It is important that you determine your film's category when you submit it, as that determines eligibility for awards (for any further questions about the categories, please email mediaartsfestival@unt.edu).
UNT Media Arts Festival reserves the right to not screen films that it finds overly offensive, obscene, or vulgar.
Films that have previously screened in other festivals or on UNT's campus are still eligible.
There is no limit to the number of entries.
COPYRIGHT
It is expected that filmmakers hold all of the respective rights required for their films before submitting them. This includes all music, sound effects, product placement, actor/model release forms, etc. For music, there are a number of fair-use soundtrack sites with music available online for free (we recommend reaching out to student musicians as well). Filmmakers without these rights will not be able to screen their films. UNT Media Arts Festival will contact you if we believe there is a copyright problem with your submission. Any questions on copyright can be directed to mediaartsfestival@unt.edu
FORMAT & REGULATIONS
All foreign language entries must have English subtitles. Projects must be submitted through an online screener (an online screener is the preferred method; we recommend using Vimeo or YouTube and password-locking your film).
You will receive a confirmation email upon successful submission. If you did not receive an email, please follow up at mediaartsfestival@unt.edu