Nate von Zumwalt

It’s no secret that writers—and plenty of other creative disciplines—have some sort of congenital penchant for procrastination. Filing filmmakers into this same category seems apropos, which is why we at Sundance have not one, not two, but three filmmaker submission deadlines. If that makes us enablers, then so be it.

We’re approaching the final submission deadline (aptly named the Late Submission Deadline, for you reckless indie filmmakers). Those dates are as follows:

U.S. and International Short Films: 
Monday, September 21, 2015 – $80 entry fee

U.S. and International Feature Films:
Monday, September 28, 2015 – $110 entry fee 

The great news is that Withoutabox, the online festival submission website that Sundance Institute has partnered with since 2008, continues to streamline and refine its design and process for ingesting submissions. Specifically, those updates make it easier for filmmakers to upload videos, create film pages, and discover global festivals. And now, filmmakers can submit Vimeo links for consideration. That’s a far cry from bubble wrapping your VHS tape and stork-delivering it to the Sundance offices, which is pretty much what we did back in the ‘80s.

Lastly, here’s a little inspiration from artists who have endured the throes of indie filmmaking.