The New Media Film Festival is an event held annually that celebrates the interactivity of new technologies and formats for Media and Cinema with global consciousness. A festival that Honor Stories Worth Telling that are created by people of All Ages-All Cultures-All Media. It showcases 3D and animated shorts, web series, mobile media, apps, and music videos, awarding over $45,000 in prizes and offering distribution to non-traditional and web-based filmmakers of the digital era.
The event screens more than a dozen select submissions from around the world, often featuring well-known actors and industry professionals in addition to student filmmakers. The Festival also includes world premieres and discussion panels. Films submitted to the Festival are reviewed by a panel of judges including Pixar, The Caucus, Industrial Light & Magic Lorne Lanning, Spencer Halpin, and a variety of other Oscar, Grammy, and Sundance winners and nominees.
Awards are given out in the following categories at the conclusion of the Festival:
Winners in each category are viewed by a distributor with a chance of online, TV or theatrical distribution in addition to monetary prizes. Each category’s winner is included in the “Best of LA” screening series, submitted to additional festivals worldwide.
The New Media Film Festival premiered to critical acclaim in June 2010, followed by a corollary event in San Francisco in 2010. The Festival was founded by Susan Johnston of Select Services Films, who became its director.