Festival 2025

  • Student Showcase, MoMI

    All of the films from the year’s Astoria Film Festival Workshops are premiered here, with students featured on filmmaker panels and red carpet interviews

    Students show off their certificates on the red carpet in Festival 2024

  • Youth Festival, Zukor Theater

    Features selected films from around the world, created by youth under the age of 24, with categories for group films from High Schools and Middle Schools

    Astoria Film Festival Staff at the 2024 Youth Festival

  • Main Festival, Zukor Theater & KCCNY

    Features selected short films and animations from around the world, with filmmaker panels, awards, parties, and red carpet interviews.

    Opening Night for Festival 2024 took place at ARRI RENTAL LIC

SUBMISSION DEADLINES:

February 1, 2025 - Earlybird

March 1, 2025 - Regular

April 1, 2025 - Late

May 1, 2025 - Last Minute

May 5, 2025 - Notifications

Accepting: Short live action and animated films (up to 20 mins; Documentaries up to 40 mins)

NEW AWARDS THIS YEAR:

BEST HIGH SCHOOL FILM & BEST MIDDLE SCHOOL FILM

(for GROUP films made in school as a class project)

AWARD PRIZES include gift certificates and free subscriptions from our sponsors which vary each year. This year’s sponsors include ARRI Rental LIC, Final Draft, NYWIFT, KTEK, Gotham Sound, Samansa, Marketing Macabre, MOMI, Queens Botanical Garden, Bareburger, Gamestoria, Tea & Milk, Tootles & French, Spanglish, Lockwood, as well as Astoria Film Festival swag and monetary prizes. See filmfreeway.com/astoriafilmfestival for a full list of Youth Festival and Main Festival Awards.

GUEST JURY 2025

One of our main goals as a festival is to get our filmmakers and creators work in front of industry professionals as much as possible

  • Yunah Chung

    VP, Content

    SAMANSA

  • Bryan Korn

    Emmy/BAFTA/Annie Award Winning Animation Producer

    SONY

  • Stephen Talbot

    Documentary Producer, PBS

  • Max Lopez

    Co-founder/CEO

    Apartment D Films

  • Alejandro Mejía, AMC

    Emmy-Award Winning Cinematographer

    Best Cinematography, Tribeca Film Festival 2024

  • Selita Ebanks

    Actress/Producer

  • Nick Huston

    Gotham Sound

  • Kristen Ariza

    Actress, Writer, Producer

  • Jen Beman

    Documentary Editor

  • Elise Simon

    Paramount

  • Taehyun Hwang

    Film Programming Director

    Korean Cultural Center NY

  • Ruth Morrison

    Animation Writer

    Co-Founder, NYC Animixer

  • Paddy O. Demsey

    Set Designer

  • Jordan Geary

    Executive Producer

    Sesame Street

  • Kathleen S Wilson PhD

    Professor, NYU Tisch

    Fmr Media Executive, Viacom