{"id":145492,"date":"2025-10-07T22:17:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T02:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=145492"},"modified":"2025-10-07T22:17:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T02:17:46","slug":"online-submissions-open-for-2026-southside-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=145492","title":{"rendered":"Online Submissions Open for 2026 SouthSide Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Online Submissions Open for 2026 SouthSide Film Festival <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Early-bird deadline is November 1, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Bethlehem, PA:<\/strong> Filmmakers worldwide are officially invited to submit their films for jury selection for the 22nd Annual SouthSide Film Festival (SSFF), scheduled for June 10\u201313, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>All films must be submitted online at <a href=\"https:\/\/southsidefilmfestival.com\/submityourfilm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/southsidefilmfestival.com\/submityourfilm\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Early-bird submissions are due November 1, 2025, with a reduced entry fee of $35 or $25 for students. The regular deadline is February 1, 2026, with an entry fee of $45 or $35 for students.<\/p>\n<p>Works may be submitted in the following categories: General (all genres), Student Film, Children\u2019s Film, Narrative Feature, Narrative Short, Comedy Short, Documentary Feature, Documentary Short, Animated Short, Late Night Short, and Late Night Features.<\/p>\n<p>Launched in 2004, SSFF showcases original films that tell a compelling cinematic story regardless of subject matter, length, genre, or production date. Directors whose works are selected for the festival receive two all-access SSFF passes, free housing at the \u201cFilmmaker Village\u201d during the festival, an opportunity to participate in moderated Q&amp;A and audience feedback sessions, opportunities to sell their films and merchandise at screenings, access to festival parties, and an entry-fee waiver for the 2027 festival.<\/p>\n<p>Quintin Fernandez, whose film <em>Pushing Ahead: The Next Generation <\/em>premiered at SSFF 2025, reflected on attending the event that \u201cthe Southside Film Festival were accommodating to the filmmakers every step of the way.\u201d On the festival\u2019s audience and programming, <em>The Take Away <\/em>director Susan Carol Davis noted that \u201caudience members engaged with filmmakers in meaningful conversations. . . . The 2025 film program was diversified and carefully curated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Screening venues for SSFF 2026 will be Touchstone Theater, PBS39, and the Cathedral Church of the Nativity, all located in Southside Bethlehem.<\/p>\n<p>Visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ssff.org\">http:\/\/www.ssff.org<\/a> for details on the jury selection process, festival updates, and information on volunteer and sponsorship opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>About the SouthSide Film Festival: The SouthSide Film Festival is an annual five-day event featuring international films, guest filmmakers, juried selections, locally produced films, seminars, and networking opportunities for filmmakers and fans of independent film. The SouthSide Film Festival is a program of The SouthSide Film Institute, a not-for-profit volunteer-run organization promoting the art of the independent filmmaker. <a href=\"https:\/\/southsidefilmfestival.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.ssff.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nEmily Dings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Online Submissions Open for 2026 SouthSide Film Festival Early-bird deadline is November 1, 2025 Bethlehem, PA: Filmmakers worldwide are officially invited to submit their films for jury selection for the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=145492\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Online Submissions Open for 2026 SouthSide Film Festival<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145493,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5717,69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bethlehem","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ssff26.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=145492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/145493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=145492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=145492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=145492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}