2027 Festival Submissions Are Open!

The RiverRun International Film Festival is set to take place April 16 – 24, 2027 across multiple venues in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

 

New film submission deadlines and guidelines have been established for the 29th Festival – Please read on for more info and check out our full rules and guidelines when submitting on FilmFreeway.

 

 

 

RiverRun International Film Festival is a filmmaker and community-first celebration of bold cinematic visions that break the status quo and work for a more equitable and just world. We screen new narrative, documentary, student and animated films of all lengths from established and emerging filmmakers from around the globe. We’re also an Academy Award qualifying festival in the Documentary Short and Animated Short categories! 

 

We enlist a dynamic range of filmmakers and leaders in the arts to evaluate the competition films and award various prizes. The juries award in the following categories:

 

• Narrative Feature Competition
• Documentary Feature Competition
• LIMITLESS: Stories Without Restraint, sponsored by Easterseals PORT Health
• Narrative Shorts Competition
• Documentary Shorts Competition
• Animated Shorts Competition

 

As we enter our 29th year, we’re taking a new approach to programming that brings more voices into the process of deciding what our festival looks like. Through our Curatorial Filmmaker Fellowship, Community Programming initiative, and Youth SELECT program, we’re connecting the people who make films, the people who build our community, and the next generation of film leaders.

The goal is to make RiverRun more representative of the incredible creative community around us, while also giving filmmakers and audiences a clearer understanding of why the films we select matter. It’s really about making RiverRun a festival that is built with our community, not simply presented to our community. 

 

Our 2027 Fellows at a glance are:

 

  • Christalyn Hampton (Documentary Shorts) – 2026 Oscar Nominee for “The Devil Is Busy”

 

  • Merawi Gerima (Narrative Features) – Winner of the John Cassavettes Award for “Residue”

 

  • Steve Way (Narrative Features and LIMITLESS) – Disability advocate and co-star of Hulu’s “Ramy”

 

  • Kristian Mercado (Narrative Shorts) – Winner of the SXSW Grand Jury prize for “Pa’lante”

 

  • Avalon Fast (Queer cinema) – Director of “Honeycomb” and “CAMP”

 

  • Liz Sargent (Narrative and festival events) – Winner of the 2026 Sundance Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for “Take Me Home”

 

For complete information on our programming initiatives check out our press release!

 

 

SCHEDULE AND PRICING

Submissions Open

Tuesday, August 11, 2026

 

Early Bird Deadline

Monday, August 31, 2026

Features, $44 / Shorts, $33

 

Regular Deadline

Monday, September 28, 2026

Features, $55 / Shorts, $40

 

Late Deadline

Monday, November 2, 2026

Features, $65 / Shorts, $50

 

Final Deadline

Monday, December 7, 2026

Features, $85 / Shorts, $70

 

Notification

Week of February 15, 2027

 

Festival Dates

April 16–24, 2027