Short Description:
Mizna’s Twin Cities Arab Film Festival (TCAFF) is seeking films for our upcoming festival scheduled for SEPTEMBER 24-28, 2025, as well as our new ongoing quarterly film series. We accept narrative, documentary, experimental, animated films of feature and short lengths. We seek films made by SWANA, Arab or Arab American filmmakers or films relevant to these communities.
We’re planning to present our film festival in late September 2025, with an emphasis on in-person screenings and programs along with limited online offerings when possible. We also have our ongoing quarterly screening series that takes place in-person and online. For this reason, we’re accepting film submissions for both our September festival and the quarterly film series.
In addition to exhibiting films, TCAFF hosts panel discussions, dialogues, and performances, capturing and engaging with the complexity of the Arabic-speaking world and its diverse narratives. TCAFF screens classic and contemporary dramas, comedies, documentaries, science fiction films, and experimental video projects, including the work of filmmakers from countries like Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, and Morocco. TCAFF exhibits all films in their original languages with English subtitles.
Our mission: Mizna presents contemporary, critical, and experimental art, writing, and film centering the work of Arab and Southwest Asian and North African artists.
Named City Page’s Nonprofit of the Year in 2020 and a Regional Cultural Treasure in 2021, we publish Mizna, an award-winning SWANA lit and art journal; produce the Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, the largest and longest running Arab film fest in the Midwest; and offer classes, readings, performances, public art, and community events, having featured over 400 local and global writers, filmmakers, and artists.
Application Requirements:
-All non-English language films must include English subtitles. Exceptions will be made for films with very little or no spoken dialogue.
-We exhibit films in the following formats: DCP with a frame rate of 24 fps or high resolution Blu-Ray. Depending on the quality, we will also consider films available on DVD and analog film.
-Selected films must be delivered digitally, or must arrive with shipping and customs duties paid if physical delivery is needed.
-Each film requires a new submission form.
-Please include a 150-word film synopsis with your entry. If selected, we will use this synopsis in all promotional materials for the festival.
SUBMISSION DETAILS
All submissions require a completed form. Please include all necessary information with the link such as password, director’s and/or distributor’s contact information, etc. Upon selection we will need additional publicity and marketing materials for our program catalog and media releases. If you cannot access the form or upload your submission for any reason, please contact us at mizna@mizna.org.
** If you are a student, low-income, or an emerging filmmaker unable to upload your film due to submission fees, please email mizna@mizna.org for a fee waiver. **
Eligibility:
-We seek films made by SWANA, Arab or Arab American filmmakers or films relevant to these communities. Your film must fit this requirement to be considered.
Program Benefits or Awards:
Awards and prizes full details will be released at a later date closer to the festival.
Entry Fee:
- Short (doc, narrative, experimental)
- September Festival Deadline
- Standard: $15
- September Festival Late Deadline
- Standard: $15
- Narrative Feature
- September Festival DeadlineStandard: $20Septemb
- Festival Late DeadlineStandard: $20
- Documentary Feature
- September Festival Deadline
- Standard: $15
- September Festival Late Deadline
- Standard: $15
- Experimental Feature
- September Festival Deadline
- Standard: $15
- September Festival Late Deadline
- Standard: $15
** If you are a student, low-income, or an emerging filmmaker unable to upload your film due to submission fees, please email mizna@mizna.org for a fee waiver. **
Location: USA, Minnesota
Deadline: May 11, 2025
Website link: https://mizna.org/
