The Film Festival at UC Davis is seeking submissions for its 26th two-night screenings of student created film. Submission deadline is May 4.

Films must be directed by current UC Davis students or recent alumni (‘24 or ‘25) and/or by current students of universities and colleges within a 100-mile radius of UC Davis.

Films should be no longer than 8 minutes, 59 seconds including credits. Entries that exceed this runtime will not be considered. 

For submission information and details about Film Festival at UC Davis 2026, visit filmfreeway.com/FilmFestUCDavis. For festival information visit the Instagram account instagram.com/filmfestatucd.

The Festival will be May 28 and 29 in Cruess Hall. 

For over two decades, the Film Festival at UC Davis has showcase films that are eight minutes or less and have been created by undergraduate or graduate students and recent graduates in a variety of genres and styles, from narrative to documentary to experimental, with a different program each evening. In addition, the festival honors short original screenplays.

Established in 2000 in the UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance, the festival was founded by students involved in filmmaking (with other departments joining later). Alumni filmmakers have gone on to submit works to numerous regional film festivals. 

The festival is co-produced by the UC Davis departments of Art and Art History, Cinema and Digital Media, Design, Music, and Theatre and Dance, which are part of the College of Letters and Science.