Considered among the top 100 most popular film festivals in the world, the 8th annual Great Lakes Independent Film Festival has officially opened its Call for Entries and will accept submissions internationally of independently produced feature length and short length films and scripts in the genres of documentary, horror, experimental, Religious/Spiritual, animation, and all genre of music videos and Gay/Lesbian for the 2009 festival, September 24th.

Thru September 27th. 2009. This year’s film festival shall reach a global echelon launching our festival interactively online allowing independent filmmakers and fans world wide to not only enjoy the films, but communicate with each other in real time as though they were together in the same room via online chat and web cams. Much like most other festivals, ours was limited by time in how many films we could screen at the fest. Simply put, if a film is good, it will be accepted and screened without time constraints. Films will not be availible for download, but shall be presented in a video on demand system that will allow users to watch the films.  The VOD system will be compatable with Windows Media Player and other video viewing software. We shall accept all ranges of music videos, along with entries of short and feature length screenplays, stage plays, and teleplays of all genres and niches. 

The 2009 Great Lakes Independent Film Festival will accept all forms of religious, Christian, and spiritual films including African, African American, Gay/Lesbian, Black, Hispanic, Islamic, Latino, Native/Aboriginal and student films from the United States and around the world. 

With the advancements in digital technology, the ordinary movie viewing experience will change, and this is why we are brought the technology to our festival. The use of the DLP technology will enhance the audience’s experience by allowing them to observe the films as they are meant to be viewed. The technology allows most independent filmmakers to keep their exhibition formats as close to the original shooting format of their project, while reducing transfer costs. 

The Great Lakes Independent Film Festival is the first film festival world wide to completely exploit the DLP projection technology by Texas Instruments.

The Great Lakes Independent Film Festival horror categories for scripts and films will include Horror, Thrillers, Science Fiction, Suspense, Grindhouse Horror, Horror Documentary, Horror Animation, and student films and scripts. 

The Great Lakes Film Festival Scriptwriting Competition has achieved such great success in past years that we now are able to offer a $5,000.00 cash award to our first place winner of the 2009 competition among other prizes. The winning script will be forwarded to agents and industry professionals for consideration.  The annual screenwriting competition is a way for new and veteran scriptwriters to possibly get the break they need. 
 
If there is anything as universal as the ageless storytelling of motion pictures, it’s the music that makes up life’s soundtrack. 

The 2009 Great Lakes Independent Film Festival shall accept music videos from around the world of cross-continent and cross-genre productions. We shall accept music videos of all ranges from pop, punk, rock, alt-country, country-western, folk, reggae, hip-hop to electronica, jazz, blues, Zydeco, industrial, gothic, karaoke, avant-garde, world music, and experimental.  

www.greatlakesfilmfest.com