New Orleans Film Society

The New Orleans Film Society discovers, cultivates, and amplifies diverse voices of filmmakers who tell the stories of our time. We produce the Oscar-qualifying New Orleans Film Festival annually and invest year-round in building a vibrant film culture in the South to share transformative cinematic experiences with audiences, and connect dynamic filmmakers to career-advancing resources.

New Orleans Film Festival, October 16-23, 2019, hosts 400+ filmmakers from every corner of the world, while showing 230+ films. We see our greatest impact in the exchange of ideas that occurs when an anticipated 25,000 people gather over the course of 9 days to champion film in New Orleans and engage with visionary films, directors, and other film lovers. NOFF is one of the few film festivals that is Oscar-qualifying in all three Academy-accredited categories. We honor three vital commitments to filmmakers and to audiences hungry for fresh work with perspectives less often represented on the silver screen:

- 90% of the 230+ films in the festival will come from submissions, ensuring New Orleans Film Festival is a place of discovery where all voices have an opportunity to be heard

- 50% or more of the films will be helmed by women and gender non-conforming filmmakers

- 45% or more will be helmed by filmmakers of color.

New Orleans Film Society cultivates the voices of Southern filmmakers through Emerging Voices, a nationally recognized mentorship program for filmmakers of color, and other initiatives such as Southern Producers Lab, and the annual South Pitch competition during the New Orleans Film Festival. Filmmakers from beyond our region also benefit from the Film Society’s professional development panels and roundtables and facilitated networking events, such as the Industry Exchange.