The Failed Film Festival is a yearly invitation to attempt the creation of an ambitious picture with your friends, neighbors, and even strangers (future friends).

The man doesn’t want you to know you have a quite-capable filmmaking tool in your pocket right now, and you can make anything you can dream up. No fancy camera, no microphone, no permission required.

FFF invites people to embrace the possibility of failure and celebrate what they made, regardless of how it ultimately turns out. It’s the trying that matters. Inspiring, creative, ambitious films get made every year by people just like you, which are screened everywhere from New York to Tokyo to Rio.

We celebrate trying, and we celebrate failing around these parts! We believe in aiming high and accepting low. As a recent New Yorker article highlights, we celebrate lovable "trash" over A.I. slop:

“Slop is formulaic and impersonal, the aggregate of everything that is already imitating everything else... Trash, by contrast, is jarringly personal. Its failures are human failures, its shoddiness human shoddiness. It is strikingly, often excruciatingly, singular.”

At the end of the day, the purpose of life is something like having fun, being around people, making stuff, and being nice. FFF is exactly that.

FFF is inspired by H of PHAC’s experience making bad movies with his little sister as a child, and continuing to make bad films for the love of the game as an adult with no excuse.

Anyone is welcome to participate in FFF from anywhere in the world—though most participants are right here in NYC. From professional filmmakers, to people who have never picked up a camera in their life, even kids. You can participate. You should participate.

You are welcome to participate remotely—last year we saw films produced from 10 countries, from Ghana to Hong Kong.

The Window: You must make the film within the 30-day filmmaking window starting on September 26th. Turn in what you make even if it totally sucks.

Safety First: Films must not harm any animals or persons.

Submission Discretion: All films submitted must meet our guidelines. Organizers reserve the right to decline or reject a film submission for literally any reason (including "being a bit fashy"), though we very rarely do!

Yes, it is $10 per person to participate in FFF. We will confirm registration at in-person (IRL) events and ensure the correct number of team members and actors have registered for your film to be eligible for submission at the conclusion. Please note that the $10 registration fee is not a ticket to a screening, and does not guarantee that your film will be screened.

This system ensures H does not become homeless when he gives his rent money to cinemas instead of his landlord.

FFF makes zero money every year. It’s all about the love of the game, babygirl!

Any genre / type you can imagine is accepted: horror, documentary, art films, comedies, sci-fi, you name it! Let your imagination and ambition lead you to the picture you’d like to make.

Length: There are no strict length requirements, but selected cinema screenings tend to feature pictures under 10 minutes so we can fit as many as possible. Longer films are much less likely to be screened in their entirety unless they are exceptionally outstanding.

The Golden Rule: The worst thing your film can be is uninspired, boring, or meandering. Get to the point already!

This year we are leaning heavily into community-organized public screenings all over NYC to ensure as many films are screened as possible. The voting community and our panel of facilitators will decide on which films to screen in cinemas in Brooklyn for a short run.

Important Note: Registering/submitting a film does not guarantee your film will be screened in cinemas - we simply receive too many submissions.

Want a guaranteed screening? The only way to guarantee your film is screened is to Host Your Own Screening. For a fee, we will provide access to our FFF Library and Voting Application for that purpose. You should totally host one.

Launch event is Saturday, Sept 26 at Prospect Park. Register for more details. We facilitate community between FFF filmmakers! We also shoot the first film of the festival per tradition, answer any and all questions, and facilitate team matchmaking for people looking to join or build a team. You should definitely be there if you live near NYC!

Show, Don't Tell: Film is a visual medium! If all of your film's shots look like static talking heads (👬, 😐😐), then you’ve done something wrong. Generally, things should happen in your film and we should see them happen.

Avoid Meandering: Stay inspired, run and gun, keep it engaging, and get straight to the point.

Learn from a Master: Check out this guide from the late great David Lynch on writing a film.