Movies have always been a big part of the Wizard World experience, from superstar celebrity appearances to film screenings to blockbuster sneak peeks at its pop culture celebrations across North America.  Now, aspiring filmmakers can tap into that rabid fan base with today’s announcement of the Wizard World Film Festival, now accepting submissions for its final three events of 2013, beginning with Wizard World Ohio Comic Con, Sept. 20-22.

The Wizard World Film Festival, which will continue at Wizard World Nashville Comic Con (Oct. 18-20) and Wizard World Austin Comic Con (Nov. 22-24), will include feature length (30 minutes or more) films, shorts, student shorts, documentaries, animation, experimental and music videos.  Screenings of the top entries in all categories will take place in programming rooms throughout each of the shows, during and after the regular show hours, free to all Wizard World Comic Con attendees.  Awards will be presented at the conclusion of each convention.

Independent filmmakers wishing to submit their work should visit http://wizardworldfilmfestival.com. Submissions will be accepted exclusively via WithoutaBox, widely recognized as the online standard for film festival entries.  For Wizard World Ohio Comic Con entries, there will be an early deadline (August 16) and Regular deadline (August 30); for Nashville and Austin there will be four deadlines (early, regular, late, and “Withoutabox” late), with fees for entry ranging from $40-100 (features), $30-75 (shorts) and $20-60 (music videos), based on submission date.  Winning films will also be advertised on WizardWorld.com, which receives over 800,000 views monthly, as well as other promotion on Wizard World’s popular social media channels.

The Wizard World Film Festival is also seeking primary screeners to help decide which films will be programmed in each city. Screeners will be assigned to any number of genres and are expected to judge all the films from those genres. Films will be screened through online streaming services, which include but are not limited to Withoutabox, Vimeo and Youtube.

Wizard World will notify filmmakers whose films are chosen of their screening dates and times about 10 days prior to the event.  Over $3,000 in prizes will be awarded for the top films on each stop of the tour.

Screeners must be at least 19 years of age, and must be either a professional working in or retired from the film industry, film critic or film student. Screeners should be prepared to watch 20-30 hours of film over the course of a month, and are required to indicate in the application if they intend to submit an entry to the Wizard World Film Festival. Interested candidates should apply at http://vip.me/wwffscreener.