Now in our 19th year, the Great Lakes International Film Festival is officially accepting films from around the world and across the United States. Always striving to be one of the most progressive and creative festivals in the world, GLIFF serves the interests and needs of Independent Filmmakers world-wide by connecting artists with audiences, exhibiting and promoting new films and filmmaking talent, as well as nurturing a creative community by facilitating relationships that last well beyond each year’s Festival.
As a special offer to FilmFreeway submitters only, we are currently offering a 30% discount on submission fees that are already among the lowest in the world. If you are a FilmFreeway Gold Member, you will receive a 40% savings on your submission fees if you submit before our Early Bird Deadline.
The passion and commitment that each Filmmaker and Writer puts into his or her work is both noble and unique to say the least and deserves to be acknowledged. As not only the cornerstone of our Mission, but as the foundation of our belief system and morals, we seek out, acknowledge and award the many talented independent filmmakers who may not get the recognition they richly deserve.
In addition to being one of the most dynamic festivals in the world, one of the most popular attractions that the Great Lakes International Film Festival offers to Filmmakers is our home, Erie Pennsylvania. As one of the most artistically unique communities, Erie proffers an amazing landscape that is as diverse as the people that makeup its City.
Considered among most popular film Festivals in the world, the 19th annual Great Lakes International Film Festival genre categories for feature length and short length films are Narrative, Documentary, Experimental, Religious/Spiritual, Animation, Comedy, Horror, with Horror sub-genres that include Supernatural, Thrillers, Wicken, Magical, Slasher, Science Fiction, Suspense, Horror Documentary, Horror Animation and all genres of Music Videos and GLBT films for the 2020 festival.
If there is anything as universal as the ageless storytelling of motion pictures, it’s the music that makes up life’s soundtrack.
The 2020 Great Lakes International Film Festival shall accept Music Videos from around the world of cross-continent and cross-genre productions. We shall accept Music Videos of all genres from Pop, Punk, Rock, Alt-Country, Country-Western, Folk, Reggae, Hip-Hop to Electronica, Jazz, Blues, Zydeco, Industrial, Metal, Hardcore, Gothic, Karaoke, Avant-Garde, World Music, and Experimental, and all other genres that may not be listed here.
The 2020 Great Lakes International Film Festival will accept all forms of Religious, Christian, and Spiritual films including African, African-American, Black, Hispanic, Islamic, Latino, Native/Aboriginal and student films from the United States and around the world.
In addition to awards presented to Filmmakers for Best of Genre, our Festival will present an Audience Choice Award to the Filmmaker whose film is the most popular with our attendees, and that receives the most attendee votes.
Showcasing the best films of the 2020 season, the Great Lakes International Film Festival will be held LIVE in the great city of Erie, Pennsylvania starting on September 24th, 2020, with our virtual Festival taking place September 24th thru October 10th, 2020.
The GLIFF success does not come from an overindulgence of big name celebrities crowding its red carpet, but instead from a formidable catalogue of exceptionally high caliber Independent Films and career launches, still, over the years we have had many films that have screened on the Sundance Channel, IFC, PBS and HBO along with countless filmmakers who have received distribution deals after screening in our festival, with innumerable celebrities visiting our Festival as special guests.
Since our inception, the Great Lakes International Film Festival has showcased more than 3,000 films, and has played host to countless superstars such as actor, writer, producer Bill Hinzman of Flesheaters and Night of the Living Dead; director Lloyd Kaufman of the Toxic Avenger films, Pot Zombies, and President of Troma Films; actor Gunnar Hansen of Texas Chainsaw Massacre; actor and director Mark Borchardt of American Movie and Coven; Erick Rodgers (Writer of NYPD Blue); best-selling mystery author Jamian Snow (Shrouded Insanity); John Hancock (“Hill Street Blues”, “The Twilight Zone”, & California Dreaming); actress and “Scream Queen” Debbie Rochon (Blood Relic, Vampyre Tales, & Lord of the Undead); Bobby Logan (Meatballs 4 & Repossessed), along with so many more.
The legendary Terry Moore was our special guest of honor and was presented with a lifetime Achievement Award for her amazing accomplishments in film over the past 60 years, while international recording superstar Dizzy Reed of Guns N Roses performed before a capacity crowd at our Film Festival.
From the feature narrative genre to documentary to animation; experimental, horror and Spiritual films, the Great Lakes International Film Festival celebrates the film arts in dynamic transition. As emerging technologies continue to redefine the form, filmmakers from the Great Lakes region, across America and around the world express the common and the diverse through the age-old tradition. –The art of the story.
For more information about the Great Lakes International Film Festival, please visit our website.