Submission Form
This is the official submission form for the first annual Hot Clown Film Festival. This form must be completed and submitted by April 15th. If you intend to submit multiple films for consideration, please submit a separate form for each film you are entering. 

If you need help completing the form, sharing your film, or answering questions, please contact us at hotclowncompany@gmail.com.
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About Hot Clown Film Festival
The Hot Clown Film Festival was created by members of the Hot Clown Company for two main reasons: to build and showcase the clown community, and to explore the role of clown in film. This is the first year of the only clown-focused film festival in the Midwest, and potentially the entire United States. Through this festival, we hope to honor the rich history of clown and slapstick on the silver screen, while examining the next steps in clown film. We aim to feature the talent and wit of all the artists, filmmakers, and clowns in our community.

Hot Clown Company is a group of eight professionally trained, Chicago-based clowns who have performed locally and internationally since 2019. For the past four years, we have strived to foster an active clown community in the city of Chicago and abroad through performances, classes, newsletters and workshops.
What is Clown Film?
The definition of clown film is a lot like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's test for obscenity: we can't define it, but we know it when we see it! That being said, here are a few things we will be watchful of when reviewing submissions:
  • Failure is the soul of clown performance. How does your film address failure?
  • How is physical comedy used in your film?
  • Aesthetic. Not all clowns wear red noses or have big feet, but some do! How does the aesthetic of your film contribute to the clown genre? We will check to see what about your film looks clown.
Here are a few examples of what we think constitutes good clown film:

Micro-gag:
Lolliflop by Twin Flames Theatrical Productions

Gag:
"Firefighters" from Two Pink Doors

NOSE (Not Only Short Entries):
Safety Last! by Harold Lloyd
Selection Information
Official Selection:
Once you submit your film, our esteemed panel of clown judges will watch and review your project. The highest rated films in each category will become finalists and will join the Official Selection of films to be screened at our live event. All selected films will receive a HCFF laurel, with official award titles to be announced at the live event in August 2024.

Semifinalists:
In addition to the Official Selection, the festival will distinguish a selection of films as semi-finalists. All semi-finalist projects will be shared on our online platforms leading up to the live event and will receive a corresponding laurel. 
 
Categories:
  • Micro-Gags: 0-3 minutes
  • Gags: 3-8 minutes
  • Not Only Short Entries (NOSEs): 8-15 minutes

Selected films will be notified via email no later than June 2024. Selected films will also be announced via social media platforms. 
Film Festival Guidelines

By submitting your film you agree to the following conditions and guidelines:

Submitted films must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. CST on April 15th.

Submitted films must be no more than 15 minutes and 59 seconds (including credits) in length.

Films should be submitted via an unlisted link on Vimeo or YouTube. 

Filmmakers retain all rights to their projects. However, by submitting their project, filmmakers grant Hot Clown Film Festival the right to screen their video during the live event, as well as the right to use portions of your film (including trailer/teaser/still/poster) for promotional purposes.

You must hold the rights to your film and all elements within the film, eg. music, footage, images, etc. HCFF is not liable for any copyright infringements or unauthorized usage and any conflict should be settled by the parties involved thereof. You are responsible for any claim involving copyright, trademark, credits, and publicity.

Not all submissions will be apart of the Official Selection. Our Judges are free to make their own choices and no answers will be given about not selected films.

By submitting a film to HCFF, filmmakers agree to the above rules and understand that any film that does not meet these criteria will be automatically disqualified from consideration. Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to viewing your work.
Submission Fees
Because the goal of this festival is to foster community and explore the art of clown through film in an accessible and sustainable way, we have opted to make the submission fee for our inaugural film festival suggested donation. 

We are asking all who are able to send a suggested donation of $1-$10 to the Hot Clown Company Venmo, @hotclowncompany, at time of submission. 

All collected fees will go towards making this and future clown film festivals possible. Whether or not you are able to donate or not will have no effect on the official selections of the festival. 
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