DC Shorts Film Festival

The DC Shorts Film Festival will take place September 7-19, 2017 at locations throughout downtown Washington, DC.

The DC Shorts Screenwriting Competition will take place September 15 at a downtown Washington, DC location.

There will be official orientation and training meetings.  You must attend a training session. At the meeting, you will meet other screeners, learn about how DC Shorts scores films, and play with our online scoring software.  (COMMITMENT: 2 to 3 hours)

FOR FILM SCREENERS
 From March through May, you will be asked to watch between 40 to 50 films. Each film must be reviewed online — so that adds another 2 hours of processing time. (COMMITMENT: 12 to 15 hours over 3 to 5 days)

FOR SCRIPT READERS 
In May, you will be asked to read between 10 and 20 scripts (each no more than 15 pages). Each script must be scored and critiqued online — so that adds another 3-5 hours of processing time. (COMMITMENT: 12 to 15 hours over 3 to 5 days)

FOR EVERYONE (in the DC area) 
During the festival weekend, you are required to volunteer at the festival, and will be assigned two shifts. This may include ushering, box office, party assistance, or collecting donations from our partners. After the festival, there will be a BIG party to thank you for all of your hard work. And we will need it! (COMMITMENT: 6 to 8 hours over 11 days.)

The Final Reviewer Training Meeting is:

March 15, 2017 /  6:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Chevy Chase Neighborhood Public Library
5625 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20015
(202) 282-0021

If you believe you can do both with verve and vigor, then sure. But remember, that is a total time commitment of more than 30 hours  — that’s like a part-time job.

We hope that by planning now, you can prepare for planned travel and other commitments through the spring and fall. While we understand that things come up, if you need to resign, we will miss you.

It is also critical that films are screened by people with a passion for film, so, you will not be turned away from becoming a screener. However, we will require you to volunteer at some time before the festival at either another event or in our offices during the weekend.

The training meeting is critical to the process — even for those who have reviewed films for us in the past. The training requires a great deal of resources from our office, and we are only able to offer it once. Therefore, if you cannot attend, you cannot serve. There are no exceptions to this policy.

No. This year everyone is reviewing films independently and online. So you can do this on your own schedule.

Yes. While we ask for people local to DC because they posses a sensibility that works well to select film for their neighbors, we can set up online trainings for out of town reviewers.

Thank you for your commitment in the past. This year, we have changed the system substantially, and require all screeners to attend a training meeting – no exceptions.

All reviewers need access to a laptop or desktop computer that has the capability to watch online films from services such as youtube.com, vimeo.com, vhx.tv and others. While optional, we also recommend using a Chromecast or AppleTV unit to “stream” the films to a larger screen. iPads and most tablets are not sufficient.

Please email the office at review@dcshorts.com. We will get back to you as soon as possible.