TRAILER WARS 2024
PRESENTED BY:
Trailer Wars is a battle-of-the-bands style competition to determine the best trailers of the art house and film festival world. Only one theater or film festival will survive to call themselves “Champion.” This will be a "single elimination" tournament, so each head-to-head battle is "win or go home." Each round will be judged by the audience to determine a winner who moves on to the next round with a new trailer until an overall winner is crowned.
Application deadline is May 15. Trailer submission deadline is June 7.
Description of Rules and Strategy
Each participating theater or film festival must submit three trailers. These trailers can be a mix of styles and genres ranging from PSAs to event announcements, to self-produced and shot custom trailers. Trailers can be no longer than 3 mins. Trailers must have been made within the past 3 years and no trailers that have played in prior Trailer Wars competitions will be accepted.
Strategy: Each trailer can be used only once. It will be up to the presenting theater or film festival to decide which trailer they would like to use for which round. Do you use your best trailer in the first round to make the cut? Or save it, with hopes of making it to the final round? It’s up to you!
Interviews: In between each round, we will have the opportunity to meet the theater or film festival creators of the trailers, and hear a little about them and their process.
submission guidelines
A representative from your theater or film festival must be registered to attend the 2024 IND/EX Conference by the time of submission. Once accepted, you will be asked to submit the three trailers through our online system (details will be emailed to you upon acceptance). Trailers must be received by June 7th.
To have the widest representation possible the IND/EX Conference team will curate a mixture of both cinema and film festivals with a diverse group of both big and small from across the country.